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I wrote this lament, which mentions our beloved Beth Israel, nearly a month ago in the days following the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre in Australia. It originally appeared in the Baptist News Global before the attack on the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in Jackson. As a former Jacksonian, and a friend of Beth Israel, I offer it today, acknowledging the fact that it is timebound to December of 2025 and grieving the fact that it remains, tragically, relevant to January of 2026.

Many mornings, I go on a long, slow, sunrise prayer walk – what the mystics call “goal-less walking” or “life lived at three miles an hour.”

These days, in the neighborhood where I walk, there are a number of delightful inflatable front-yard Christmas decorations: Santas, Rudolphs and Frostys, joined a few days ago by a new, minority inflatable among the many Yuletide blow-ups– a massive, 8-foot-tall Hanukkah bear, complete with a dreidel, a star of David and, of course, a menorah with nine inflated flames, one each for the eight days of Hanukkah, with the taller Shamash candle in the center, from which each of the eight others receive their light.

In other years, I might have walked past the whimsical, inflatable Hanukkah bear with little more than a passing glance. But, needless to say, not this year.

In the aftermath of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre of five days ago, every time I have passed the huge happy bear holding her HAPPY HANUKKAH sign beneath her brightly burning blow-up candles, I have stood still in the dawn and offered to God a prayer of solidarity with the two Beth Israel synagogues in my life – one in Macon, Georgia, the other in Jackson, Mississippi – and with all Jews in all congregations throughout the world; a sidewalk prayer of solidarity and lament.

Solidarity, lament and repentance.

Whenever there is another act of antisemitic violence, I always think, with deep sadness and quiet repentance, of all the ways the church has sown the bitter seed of bigotry against the Jews.

Hitler did not create the ghetto; we did. It was the church which, as early as the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, called for Jews to be segregated into confined quarters, the forerunner of the much later Nazi ghettos.

This, of course, came after the forced baptisms, synagogue burnings and massacres of Jews by Christians in the seventh through 11th centuries, and before Martin Luther’s dreadful sermon of 1543 in which he declared that, “Next to the devil, Christians have no enemy more cruel and venomous than a true Jew,” and Pope Paul IV’s declaration in 1555 that, “God has condemned the Jews to eternal slavery”.

All of that antisemitic history was rooted in what I call “Christian onlyism,” the institutionalized arrogance of Christianity’s misguided assumption that we “replaced” Judaism, and that we – conveniently enough for us – are the only religion God recognizes, which has allowed us, at our worst, to dehumanize persons of all other faith traditions, including, especially, the Jews; all of which is all the more inexplicable when we remember that Jesus was, himself, a Jew, not only at his birth but also at his death.

Every Christmas, Jesus is born again in a barn, again, with parents who are Jews, again; parents who will take him to the temple to be dedicated, and, when he is 12, back to the temple for Passover; the same Passover meal he will eat the night before he dies.

And yet, somehow, with a Jesus who never abandoned his lifelong Judaism (and who, as far as we know, never mentioned starting a new world religion called “Christianity”), Christianity helped create the antisemitism which has borne the bitter fruit of anti-Jewish bigotry and persecution, all of which came back to me while watching a row of inflatable pretend Hanukkah lights standing in the heartbreaking Hanukkah shadows of the devastating Hanukkah massacre of last Sunday in Australia; antisemitic violence, not from Christians on Bondi Beach, but, sadly, on so many other times.

So, before the waiting wicks of Hanukkah and Advent wear their last lights for another year, let us say, one more time, for the globe-circling, centuries-spanning church, to the globe-circling, centuries-spanning synagogue, “We are sorry.”

Amen.

Chuck Poole, former senior minister at Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, retired in 2022 from 45 years of pastoral life during which he also served churches in Georgia, North Carolina and Washington D.C. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Poole has served as a “minister on the street” in Jackson, as an advocate for interfaith conversation, and as an ally to immigrant neighbors. Poole and his wife Marcia now live in Birmingham, Alabama, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.

Tomekia Luckett’s journey to becoming a mental health nurse practitioner — pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degree while raising triplets — was made possible by federal student loans and scholarships. But she fears proposed new caps on those loans could make the path she took more treacherous for the next generation of nurses.

Beginning in July, graduate students across all disciplines will face stricter limits on federal loans under a provision in last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

The law directed the U.S. Department of Education to identify “professional degree” programs, which will be eligible for higher loan caps. A draft rule released by the agency excludes graduate nursing programs from the designation, a decision that could subject such students to tighter borrowing limits. These programs train nurse practitioners and certified nurse anesthetists, professionals who help fill critical gaps in Mississippi’s physician workforce.

“I am very concerned as a person who was a first-generation college student,” said Luckett, who treats patients across rural southwest Mississippi and has taught nursing for more than a decade. “If those caps had been in place, there would very likely not be a Dr. Luckett today.” 

Luckett, who spoke to Mississippi Today in a personal capacity, serves as the associate dean for nursing continuing professional development at Walden University and as director of the Mississippi Nurses’ Association’s Council on Nursing Education. 

The federal Department of Education plans to finalize the rule classifying professional degree programs “early this year,” according to its website. But experts and advocates warn that the draft rules — which halve the amount of federal student loans nursing students can receive compared to doctors, dentists and lawyers — could create barriers for nurses seeking advanced education and threaten the stability of the nursing workforce nationwide.

“By limiting the loans, that will make it more difficult for people who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to be able to afford going to nursing school and a career in nursing,” said Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, a nurse practitioner and executive director of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing Institute for Policy Solutions. 

Under the draft rules, “professional degree” programs will be capped at a $200,000 borrowing limit. Nursing graduate students would be capped at half that amount — a maximum of $100,000, or $20,500 a year. Current borrowers will be permitted to continue receiving loans under existing rules for three years or the length of their program. 

The Trump administration said not classifying graduate nursing as a  “professional degree” — a decision that has caused outrage among some nurses — is a technical and regulatory decision, not a “value judgement about the importance of programs,” according to a post on the U.S. Department of Education website.

The department said the new caps on loans won’t have a widespread impact, noting that 95% of nursing students borrow below the annual loan limit, according to the agency’s data, and that 80% of the nursing workforce does not have a graduate degree. 

Since 2007, graduate and professional students have been allowed to borrow up to the full cost of attendance through the federal Graduate PLUS program. These changes have allowed schools to inflate their tuition and saddle students with debts, the Trump administration said.

The changes could make the nursing workforce less representative of the people they serve, and contribute to existing health care workforce shortages, Guilamo-Ramos said. Studies show that a representative and diverse health care system improves health outcomes and access to care for patients. Researchers have shown that patients are more likely to receive preventive care they need and agree to recommended care when their doctors have a similar racial or cultural background to them.

Antonia M. Villarruel, the dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, said in a statement to Mississippi Today she expects the new loan caps to have “devastating effects” on the preparation of graduate-level nurses and nursing educators, and that these limits will contribute to increased shortages of primary care providers, especially in rural areas.

“This impacts both access to care for all Americans and the ability of schools and universities to continue to educate this group of professionals that will result in faculty shortages,” Villarruel said. 

Crystal Joslin, a registered nurse from Corinth who works at a rural hospital and a nursing home, said she aims to advance her career by becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Working shifts at the hospital’s medical-surgical unit and emergency room, she often sees patients with serious mental health needs, and she hopes to further her education to assist her community. 

News of the proposed federal loan caps made her second guess her plan to attend a master’s program at the University of North Alabama later this year. She considered delaying her career plans to save up. But she said she has decided to persist — and will pay the portion of her tuition that is not covered by loans out-of-pocket — in order to help her community and advance her career. 

“I didn’t really want to wait the extra couple of years,” she said. “Of course, my work as an RN, I can definitely be doing that. But I feel like there’s nurses to educate out there, and there’s patients to help. …There’s more things that I could be doing with my education and my knowledge that I wouldn’t be getting to do.”

Critics of the caps argue that while the changes may limit students’ debt, they will also limit students’ access to education.

“It would be nice if I could have less debt, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have the education I have,” Luckett said. 

Guilamo-Ramos said he does not expect universities to lower their tuition as a result of the changes. Nursing education must comply with strict requirements that make programs more costly to run, like student-to-faculty ratios. 

“I think what will happen is that over time just people who can afford to attend will attend,” Guilamo-Ramos said. “And that’s bad for all of us.”

The draft loan caps have generated bipartisan dissent. In a Dec. 12 letter to U.S. Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent, a bipartisan group of nearly 150 congressional lawmakers expressed support for including nursing degrees in the department’s definition of “professional degree.” The effort was spearheaded by several lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, co-chair of the Senate nursing caucus. 

“At a time when our nation is facing a health care shortage, especially in primary care, now is not the time to cut off the student pipeline to these programs,” wrote the group of U.S. senators and representatives. 

Mississippi has one of the lowest rates of physicians per capita in the nation, and the gap is expected to grow over time. In rural areas, nurse practitioners often fill gaps left when there is not a physician.

National research shows that the share of Medicare visits delivered by physician assistants and nurse practitioners nearly doubled between 2013 and 2019. Rural family physicians are more likely to partner with these clinicians to meet patient care needs.

Certified nurse anesthetists also help address critical care shortages, performing about 70% to 90% of procedures compared to their physician counterparts in Mississippi, according to Public Health and Human Services Chairman Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, speaking during a House floor session last year. 

Mississippi is currently facing a shortage of nurse anesthetists, and that gap is expected to grow over the next decade, according to data from Health Resources and Service Administration. Today, Mississippi is lacking about 90 needed nurse anesthetists, but by 2035, that figure is expected to grow to 140 — meaning only 76% of needed positions will be filled.

Guilamo-Ramos said he hopes that the new student loan provisions will spur nursing schools to consider ways to make tuition costs affordable for more students apart from loans. 

“Schools of nursing need to take a hard look at the cost of tuition and make it more affordable,” he said. “And we need to improve our scholarships, and we need to improve other kinds of aid besides loans.”

Graduate nursing programs in Mississippi range in cost. The Mississippi University for Women offers one graduate nursing program, for family nurse practitioners. The program costs about $4,300 per semester and takes about three semesters to complete, according to the school’s website. Because the cost of the program is below the cap, the draft rule would not impact students attending this program. 

Brandy Larmon, the dean of the College of Nursing, said the school is assessing the potential risks of the loan caps, but is not currently concerned due to the short length of the program and low cost of attendance. 

Other graduate nursing student programs, and especially nurse anesthesia programs, can be more costly and take more time to complete. The University of Southern Mississippi’s graduate nurse anesthesia program costs about $30,000 annually, according to a spokesperson, and takes three years to complete.

If enacted, Guilamo-Ramos said he expects the proposed caps on student loans to affect advanced practice nurse staffing levels and exacerbate faculty shortages as soon as within the next one to two years. 

He added that the impact could be especially significant in Mississippi and across the South, where workforce shortages are already severe and health outcomes lag behind other regions.

“It worries me deeply that we would be losing nursing workforce in the very places that we need to have more people,” Guilamo-Ramos said. 

Education reporter Candice Wilder contributed to this report. 

This coverage is supported by a grant from Press Forward Mississippi, part of a nationwide philanthropic effort to strengthen local news so communities stay informed, connected and engaged.

At the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the 34 men on death row who have shown good behavior can leave their cells to play cards and games with each other in a common area and have had access to an outside space for recreation, a garden and activities such as a book club.  

At the women’s unit at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Lisa Jo Chamberlin’s clean prison record hasn’t earned her similar privileges. 

She lives in total isolation and, since Dec. 30, more restrictions. Chamberlin is the only woman on Mississippi’s death row, where she’s been the past decade. 

“This is the worst treatment I have seen by far,” said the Rev. Jeff Hood, who communicates with death row prisoners around the country and has witnessed nearly a dozen executions. 

More restrictive conditions have nearly been deadly. Chamberlin was on suicide watch at least twice in 2025 as her mental health declined. At one point, she said she considered whether to sign papers to let her execution proceed, but then ultimately decided not to.

Chamberlin said she enjoys peace, quiet and time to herself and has turned to activities like writing, reading the Bible, sharing her story and passing the time as she continues to appeal her case and await a possible execution. 

She said doesn’t mind being on her own, but Chamberlin doesn’t want to be isolated. 

“I have to do everything by myself because I’m the only woman on death row,” Chamberlin said in a phone interview with Mississippi Today. 

She has spent all  of her prison sentence at the women’s prison in Pearl. 

Last May, Chamberlin saw a change in her custody level and was able to gain some privileges, including a tablet to make calls and send messages. Chamberlin said those greatly improved her quality of life. She said the tablet was a gamechanger. 

At the end of the year, she noticed more restrictions to her time out of her cell and access to areas where she previously was able to go. She said she has been confined to her cell for 48-hour periods before being let out to shower and use the community microwave. 

She is no longer able to walk laps around the unit and access video calls because with her new housing and custody status, Chamberlin can’t go to certain areas. 

Prison records list her location as Unit 720 Max, which is closed custody that requires close supervision and security control. Those in close custody anywhere in the prison system are confined to a cell or dormitory unit with similar level custody prisoners, according to MDOC’s inmate handbook. 

Chamberlin said the women’s prison superintendent told her the reason for the change in privileges and restrictions: You are on death row, so you will be treated like the men on death row. 

Kate Head, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Chamberlin was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2004 murder of two people in Hattiesburg. 

She and co-defendant and former partner Roger Gillett were arrested in Kansas on a tip that they stole a car and were manufacturing drugs at his family’s farm. As authorities searched the farm, they found a freezer taped shut containing the dismembered bodies of the victims: Vernon Hulett, who was Gillett’s cousin, and Linda Heintzelman, who was Hulett’s girlfriend. Chamblerlin and Gillett had lived with the victims in Hattiesburg. 

Separately, Chamberlin and Gillett were convicted and sentenced to death in 2006. Years later, the Mississippi Supreme Court vacated his death sentence because due process rights were violated when the jury considered an invalid aggravating factor. He was resentenced in 2018 to life without parole. 

Chamberlin has pursued her own appeals, including a third petition for post-conviction relief in August, which the state opposes and has asked to be dismissed. As of January, the case has been submitted without argument. 

Death row inmates of any gender are housed in a facility or unit deemed appropriate by the MDOC commissioner, and the status requires the highest level of supervision available, according to the MDOC inmate handbook. 

Advocates helped get Chamberlin into a less restrictive situation, only to have it taken away, Hood said. 

He and other advocates said they want similar privileges and housing situations for Chamberlin as the death row men have, but that is not happening. Instead, they see unfairness in Chamberlin’s imprisonment compared to the experience of the men on death row in Mississippi and women on death row in other states. 

For years, death row prisoners at Parchman have been housed in Unit 29, but last year they were moved to Unit 17, which is fenced in and recently remodeled, said prison reform advocate Mitzi Magleby.  

The unit is also where the gas chamber, electric chair and the gurney used for lethal injection are located. 

An MDOC spokesperson did not respond to questions about how men are housed on death row and why they were moved. Prison records for each man on death row list their location as Unit 17. 

Nationwide, as of October, 47 women were on death row, with the majority in California, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Mississippi is among seven states with just one woman with a death sentence, and it’s not the only state with apparent disparate treatment of women facing execution.

Antoinette Frank, the only woman on Louisiana’s death row, has been held in conditions resembling solitary confinement since her 1995 triple homicide conviction, The Guardian reported. She is separated from the general prison population, has experienced extended lockdowns and doesn’t have access to in-person classes. 

She was part of a group of death row prisoners who sought clemency in 2023. The Louisiana state Board of Pardons denied all of them. 

After a 15-year hiatus, Louisiana has resumed executions. The state’s attorney general has filed requests to set execution dates for five on death row, including Frank. 

Hood, the death row spiritual adviser, is also in contact with Tennessee’s Christa Pike who spent years in restrictive housing until 2024. Since her 1996 murder conviction, Pike was essentially in solitary confinement before she sued the prison system in 2022. 

As part of the lawsuit settlement, she has been allowed to work, have more interaction with women in general population and have the ability to earn opportunities that the death row men already have access to, according to the Death Penalty Information Center and local reporting. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court has scheduled her execution for Sept. 30, which would make her the first woman to be executed in the state in more than 200 years. 

Chamberlin said she is exploring legal action around the conditions of her confinement. 

Advocating for herself is something Chamberlin said she has done during her nearly 20 years in prison. She said it’s tiring, but she considers herself a survivor. 

“I’m going to make a way out of no way,” she said. 

Days before the Mississippi Department of Human Services director was ousted from his job in 2019, he was testifying to Congress about one of the very initiatives that landed him with a felony conviction in a now-infamous welfare theft scandal.

As director of the agency tasked with helping some of the neediest people in one of the poorest states in the country, John Davis had secured contracts for his new friend, former WWE wrestler Ted “Teddy” DiBiase, in 2018 to deliver leadership development workshops to state employees. 

And the reaction to their efforts was swell.

While testifying Tuesday in the criminal trial against DiBiase, Davis said he met with a top official at the attorney general’s office at the time, and they discussed including the attorney’s staff on DiBiase’s circuit. 

Davis said a director at the federal office that oversees the national Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, which funded the DiBiase training, recommended that Davis expand the program.

Even a representative in Congress remarked during Davis’ testimony, “It’s interesting how well your program is working.”

DiBiase is facing 13 counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, theft and money laundering. But his defense lawyer’s cross-examination of Davis, which began Tuesday, revealed how much of the alleged scheme was carried out in broad daylight.

“Would you agree that if you were trying to hide something, you were going about it in a terrible way?” defense attorney Scott Gilbert asked Davis.

Davis said he thought everybody was aware of what he was doing, but that he “evidently” didn’t go about it the right way.

It was after delivering this answer, on his third day on the stand, that Davis displayed the largest emotion so far, his face puckering and voice cracking. The defense briefly halted its questioning for him to compose himself.

“Hindsight is 20/20 and until someone told me what conspiracy was, I would have told you I did exactly right,” Davis said earlier in the day. “When someone told me what conspiracy was, I admitted I did what I was told I did, so I have to accept responsibility. But my intention would have been as legal as possible.”

Davis pleaded guilty to state and federal charges in 2022 and he is cooperating with the prosecution as he awaits sentencing. DiBiase’s defense counsel is expected to resume cross-examination of Davis Wednesday.

MORE TRIAL COVERAGE:

DAY 5: Welfare director texted wrestler who was his high-paid aide about ‘money bags,’ testimony shows

DAY 4: Feds ask disgraced former welfare director ‘million-dollar question’: Why? Loneliness and love

DAY 3: Wrestler’s multimillion dollar ‘self-help curriculum’ helped crack open a wider welfare scandal

DAY 2: Opening statements in welfare scandal trial paint former director as villain who doled out millions over infatuation

DAY 1: 83 witnesses could enter the ring in Mississippi welfare scandal trial

TRIAL PREVIEW: Ex-WWE wrestler faces feds in first – and potentially only – criminal trial in Mississippi welfare scandal

Much of the defense’s questioning of Davis Tuesday touched on the difficulties he faced at the Byzantine welfare agency, with its outdated technology and constant political pressure.

One might think an agency with billion-dollar federal spending power would have automated spreadsheets in its accounting division, Davis said, but instead, employees used pencils on paper ledgers. 

“Sometimes the pencil stroke would be so light or wrong,” Davis said, that he personally witnessed a scenario in which a $2 million deficit was mistaken as a $200 million shortfall.

In an agency with a budget made up primarily of federal funding, subject to a maze of everchanging federal regulations, Davis relied on his executive staff, roughly 70 staff attorneys and several assistant attorneys general who were assigned to his agency to keep him on track.

Davis testified he was steered wrong on several occasions, leading to an inappropriate course of action. “You always lived on the edge, scared to death,” Davis said.

He was also appointed by the governor and had no civil service protection.

“I was at the whim and pleasure. I said ‘whim and pleasure,’ and that’s what it was,” Davis said.

This made him more susceptible to politics. Davis said he would travel to Washington to meet with Mississippi’s delegation and would visit state lawmakers at the Capitol in Jackson several times a week. When Gilbert suggested powerful people must have constantly been asking Davis to do things for them, Davis said he received 1,000 emails a day.

“Everything I did was influenced by a political process,” Davis said. 

His direct supervisor was then-Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican who served from 2012 to 2020. Davis said he interacted with Bryant every day or most days.

“I learned that as an eligibility worker,” Davis said. “The only way things worked is to please your boss.”

It wasn’t about pleasing the people in need, the clients of the agency, Davis added.

“I know I’m saying something controversial,” he said.

When asked if he was able to carry out these directives, even the unpleasant ones, Davis responded, “No compunction about that. That was my job.”

Davis testified he was working under Bryant’s orders to outsource and consolidate functions of the agency when Davis authorized granting tens of millions of TANF dollars to just two nonprofits, one being Mississippi Community Education Center founded by Nancy New. 

New has also pleaded guilty in the scheme and is also awaiting sentencing.

Davis said Bryant and his wife had known New for years and would at times call New “rather than go through me.”

The subgrants with the two nonprofits, together dubbed Families First for Mississippi, presented the vehicle for officials to allegedly steer TANF money to their friends, family and celebrities without the kind of restrictions and oversight that would exist if the money came directly from the state agency.

This structure was underway by the time Davis met DiBiase, the defense pointed out Tuesday.  

Gilbert also strove to show that it would not be unusual for Families First to seek out celebrities like DiBiase to spread their message. Gilbert asked Davis to talk about the array of stars that Families First sought for endorsements, such as Oprah Winfrey or Morgan Freeman. Davis said he thought New had actually spoken with Winfrey “or her people.” 

Gilbert displayed reports of social media analytics showing that of MDHS-related posts, DiBiase’s tweet about his leadership development program received the most page views.

DiBiase called his training program, which he delivered to hundreds of employees until the Davis’ scheme collapsed under an auditor’s investigation, “Law of 16.”

“He had a fascination with the number 16,” Davis said.

The Law of 16 curriculum contains four types of self-help actions – love, yearn, fight, empower (LYFE) – among four areas of life – self, family, business, community – to create 16 different commands for living, according to an information packet.

Law 1, for example, is SELF+LOVE. 

Standing before a gospel choir in a banquet room at the Westin hotel in downtown Jackson during what the agency called the “Law of 16 celebration,”  Davis declared to the large crowd, “If we don’t know who we are, if we haven’t mastered self, we will never, ever master the master’s plan,” according to a video the welfare agency produced.

When Gilbert asked Davis if he ever offered, or if DiBiase ever requested, a “no work” contract, Davis said it was quite the opposite. If anything, he said, he probably invested too much of himself ensuring that DiBiase succeeded. 

Davis said he knew the situation was dysfunctional. Especially now, being on the other side of it, Davis said, “complicated, convoluted and crazy are terms that don’t even begin to describe it.”

Faced with internecine Republican opposition to “school-choice,” or spending tax dollars earmarked for public education on private schools, House Speaker Jason White broke out the biggest gun in Mississippi GOP politics: He invoked President Donald J. Trump.

“The @WhiteHouse is watching Mississippi and Education Freedom is gaining momentum!” White posted Monday on the social media site X. “HB 2 promotes the Make America Great Again Platform and @POTUS’s Executive Order to return power over education to families, instead of bureaucracies …”

White had retweeted a post from Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon, endorsing the House’s proposed HB 2 as “ambitious school choice expansion” and adding, “Well done, @JasonWhiteMS.”

A key question that remains unanswered, though, is how far the Trump White House is willing to go to see a robust school-choice policy become reality in the Magnolia State, which remains a holdout in the Deep South.

A White House official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation told Mississippi Today that the Trump administration is “very closely monitoring” the school choice debate in the Legislature and wants strong school choice legislation to pass.

U.S. Department of Education officials traveled to Mississippi last year to visit with White’s staff and Gov. Tate Reeves’ office to discuss policy specifics.

Now, many took White’s trumpeting Trump’s support for his plan as a shot over the bow of his Republican Senate leadership colleagues, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. Senate leaders have vowed they will not consider any House proposal that includes vouchers or accounts for parents to spend public money on private schooling.

White and other proponents of expanded school choice and spending public money on private schooling appear to be trying to cast the issue as a referendum on Trump. And among the MSGOP, when Trump says jump, the answer appears to be, “How high?”

But with a House committee vote on White’s school-choice proposal happening as early as Wednesday, it would appear that his invocation of Trump was as much an effort to whip votes from his own still-reluctant or opposed House members as it was to try to sway the Senate. Some heavy-duty House whipping of Republican votes on school choice has been going on even before the Legislature gaveled in for the new session last week. Reluctance and opposition remain among some House Republicans.

Senate leaders, including Hosemann, appeared nonplussed by White’s warning that Trump is watching or by McMahon’s endorsement. When asked about McMahon’s backing of House Bill 2 on Supertalk radio this week, Hosemann replied that he’s surprised she’s read it all, a dig at the 553-page omnibus House education proposal that includes school choice vouchers.

Trump has endorsed school choice and included federal tax credits for donations to fund private school scholarships in his so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.” He’s called school choice “the civil rights issue of our time.”

But how involved would Trump and his administration get in Mississippi’s legislative wrangling over school choice? Might he come down for a visit to whip up votes? Might he or Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller start calling Mississippi GOP lawmakers and threaten to primary them next year, as the Capitol rumor mill was suggesting this week?

Trump appears to have many bigger fish to fry at the moment. He famously doesn’t like to lose battles, especially when he parachutes in on the state or local levels. Senate leaders have deemed spending tax dollars on private schools a non-starter. Local governments, including in some red areas, have adopted resolutions against school choice expansion, and local superintendents across the state are lobbying their lawmakers against it.

As politically stout as Trump is in the Magnolia State, some Republican lawmakers would likely still be hesitant to follow him against the wishes of their school leaders back home.

Several lawmakers who are, at best, hesitant to vote for a school choice bill told Mississippi Today they have not been on the receiving end of any lobbying efforts by the White House.

Stephen Spencer Pittman, the 19-year-old suspected of setting fire to Mississippi’s largest synagogue, uses his social media accounts to post about baseball, his friends, his commitment to physical fitness and his devotion to Christianity. 

That was until 12:52 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10, when he posted an antisemitic video on Instagram.

“A Jew in my backyard, I can’t believe my Jew crow didn’t work,” an animated Disney-Princess-esque character says to a short yellow figure with a long nose. “You’re getting baptized right now.”

About two hours later, Pittman is alleged to have driven to a synagogue, the Beth Israel Congregation in northeast Jackson, where federal authorities say he used an ax to break through one of the windows. Once inside, Pittman is alleged to have doused the lobby with gasoline and set it on fire with a torch. 

The flames reduced the historic synagogue’s library and administrative offices to charred ruins — and burned his hands in the process. 

Federal authorities say Pittman laughed when he told his father what he did, boasting about finally getting “them.” 

Pittman is facing state and federal arson charges, including elevated hate crime charges at the state level. The federal criminal complaint says he admitted to law enforcement that he targeted the synagogue for its “Jewish ties.” 

Previous local news reports show Pittman, who goes by his middle name, was a multi-year honor roll student and varsity baseball player at St. Joseph Catholic School in Madison. After graduating in 2024, Pittman attended Coahoma Community College in the Mississippi Delta, where he played on the baseball team. 

The federal criminal complaint detailing Pittman’s alleged crime stands in stark contrast to the aspirational and seemingly comfortable life documented on social media by the suburban student-athlete from one of Mississippi’s wealthiest cities.  

Pittman has posted regularly on his X account, often about baseball and Christianity. Many posts pair videos of him practicing his swing in a batting cage with a captioned Bible verse. 

His most recent post, on Jan. 6, links to a website called One Purpose, which describes itself as a faith-based community for men focused on “​​Scripture-backed fitness. Brotherhood accountability. Life-expectancy maxxing.”

“Maxxing” refers to a trend, popularized on sites like TikTok and Youtube, where people talk about maximizing certain aspects of their lives — most often physical appearance, health or wealth. 

Mississippi Today reviewed the site’s domain, which showed that the website was created on Dec. 5 and registered to a Stephen Pittman in Madison. 

A number listed under the domain name has been disconnected, and efforts to reach Pittman’s family and his court-appointed attorney on Tuesday were unsuccessful. His court-appointed federal public defenders did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

The site Pittman promoted days before he allegedly committed a shocking act of antisemitic violence offers a window into his beliefs. Court records, a review of Pittman’s online activity, and an interview with a longtime friend also paint a portrait of how he spent his time and his worldview, one that appears to have been informed by internet subcultures weaving between fitness, finance and Christian Identity. 

With reports showing an increase in antisemitic content and encounters on social media, researchers argue that a review of a suspect’s digital footprint can provide insight into their motive.

Sheep or Shepherd? 

The One Purpose website, which culminates with an offer of a $99 per month membership subscription, is a mishmash of pop self-improvement fads alongside religious references. 

A bar at the top of the site shows a number shifting back and forth between 240 and 245 “brothers building their temples right now,” a reference to the supposed number of paying subscribers.

The top of the site advertises 96 scripture lessons for free next to a beaming yellow button that asks users to begin their “transformation.” A click of that button opens a prompt that asks the user to select whether they are a Shepherd or a Sheep, a biblical metaphor that contrasts those who lead through divine guidance and those who are easily lost and dependent on others. 

“This is a pivotal moment,” the site says. “Will you follow the crowd or lead with purpose?”

The Shepherd button directs the user to answer questions about what ails them, such as a lack of confidence, discipline or energy. The user then selects from a list what “wordly methods” they’ve used to change, such as diets or workout routines. The user is prompted to imagine a transformed version of himself. Eventually, the prompt asks for the user’s information to create a personalized “temple plan.”

The user is directed to a “biblical nutrition” plan touting the “Seven Species of Israel,” including wheat, pomegranate and honey. 

Pittman’s emphasis on a puritanical diet extends to his broader online footprint, one that shows he was not simply a passive consumer of content but also encouraged others to engage with his corner of the internet. 

Stacks of cash, diet fads and ‘how to destroy a society’

Pittman appeared to have multiple social media pages, including duplicate accounts on various platforms.

Mississippi Today reviewed Pittman’s social media activity and interviewed one of Pittman’s longtime school friends. The person was granted anonymity to share details from Pittman’s social media activity and their personal interactions. To verify the person’s connection to Pittman, Mississippi Today cross-referenced screenshots of messages Pittman sent the person with other screenshots of Pittman’s Snapchat username. 

Of all his accounts, Pittman seemed to be most prolific on Snapchat. So much so, he even posted a photo of himself in the hospital with burnt hands, allegedly after setting fire to the synagogue.  

According to the friend, Pittman has “changed a lot” in recent years, living an extremely online existence. The friend said Pittman posts 10-15 Snapchats a day, often documenting his interest in diet trends, fitness, expensive cars and thousands of dollars in cash he claimed to have made through an artificial intelligence platform.

“He posts about either him eating the kind of food that’ll make him really ripped, or his money stuff, or him driving his Porsche or his dad’s Porsche,” the friend said. 

Pittman also frequently posted his fitness regimen, the friend said. He would post about “testosterone optimization” and videos of himself cracking raw eggs into his mouth. His physical regimen also included injecting himself with steroids, the person said.

“He was probably like, ‘OK, I’m gonna get jacked’ or whatever,” the friend said. “And he definitely did steroids, because he posts him putting needles into himself.” 

Themes such as diet, masculinity and fitness frequently co-occur in online spaces associated with the “manosphere” and Christian nationalist-adjacent subcultures, where physical strength, dietary “purity” and hormonal optimization are framed as markers of masculinity and discipline.

The friend said Pittman never talked much about politics, and that is supported by his Instagram page, which shows little engagement with notable political figures.

On Instagram, Pittman described himself as an entrepreneur, a follower of Christ and a “lawyer” of God. His bio includes an Italian flag and dove emojis.

He follows hundreds of accounts, suggesting he was an avid user, including baseball accounts, well-known rappers like Drake and Playboi Carti, President Donald Trump, an account devoted to “Catholic hopecore content,” several motivational accounts and pages about conspiracy theories. 

Pittman also posted photos on his Instagram account showing a Porsche, jewelry, stacks of dollar bills and a reference to an AI venture.

“Link in bio, start making passive income with less than 10 minutes a day, Crazy ROI, 300k views and you’ve already been repaid for the ai. Stop being lazy get started today,” Pittman wrote, linking to a now broken webpage. 

The content on Pittman’s Instagram shifted in the fall of 2025. Prior to that, Pittman would often go months between posting, and all of his photos were about baseball or his friends, such as pictures of him at bat or in the outfield.

“We have brotherly bonds that couldn’t be broken,” he wrote in May 2022 about his high school baseball team. 

But on Dec. 13, Pittman posted a slideshow of photos, the first one seemingly of him holding his middle finger up to multiple stacks of $100 bills. “Money is the root of all evil,” he wrote in the caption. “Hate hates growth.” 

More bizarre posts followed. A video of him driving with the hashtags “bullish,” “ecom,” “clipping,” and “dropshipping.” On Dec. 23, he posted a video of himself stuffing multiple $20 bills into a Salvation Army donation box. 

The next day, he uploaded a video of his hand on the steering wheel of a car, listening to a Chief Keef song, a post he captioned “How to destroy a society: Make discipline cringe. Make truth offensive. Make masculinity shameful. Make femininity weak. Make families unstable. Make loyalty rare. Make education manipulation.” 

Earlier this month, four days before he posted the antisemitic video, Pittman posted a bullet point list of recommendations for a “Christian Diet,” including raw milk, raw eggs, raw honey, raw oysters, raw nuts and “Only God-made fats,” such as olive oil, butter, lard and ghee. 

Influencers in online spaces popular with young men interested in masculinity, diet fads and faith can sometimes blend self-improvement content with ideological messaging, portraying modern society as decadent or feminized, some analysts have noted.  

Pittman also created a second Instagram account, with the first post in July 2025, to promote free fitness routines that he would create for clients if they DMed him the word “SHRED.” His videos included photos of him flexing in front of mirrors and frying red meat and eggs. 

But in between all of the newfangled fads Pittman seemed to embrace, a professed devotion to God seemed to remain at the center of his pursuits. 

‘Synagogue of Satan’ and Christian Identity 

After Pittman was arrested at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he had sought treatment for burns, investigators said he admitted to starting the fire at Beth Israel, which he called the “synagogue of Satan.”

It was not the first time the Jackson congregation had been targeted, and it was not the first time that phrase was directed at a Jewish house of worship in Mississippi. Jewish people make up a small percentage of Mississippi residents. Although Beth Israel is the state’s largest Jewish congregation, it has only about 150 families as members.

“Synagogue of Satan” is a phrase used by followers of Christian Identity, a white supremacist interpretation of Christianity, to refer to Jews. In Mississippi in the 1960s, it was also adopted by the Ku Klux Klan, which in 1967 bombed Beth Israel Synagogue over its rabbi’s support for civil rights.

Christian Identity is a white supremacist interpretation of Christianity that teaches that Adam and Eve were white, that non-whites were created on the Sixth Day with the animals and have no souls, and that Jews are the offspring of Satan. Christian Identity teaches that white people are the true Israelites and that Jews are impostors.

More recently, the phrase has been adopted by figures such as Candace Owens, the right-wing commentator who has used the phrase and suggested there are people “who are pretending to be Jews, but are in fact people that worship Satan.”

Pittman, who is scheduled to return to federal court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 20, first appeared on Monday afternoon via video conference from a hospital, accompanied by a public defender. 

Aside from answering the judge’s questions, the young man did not speak. At times during the proceedings, he appeared to be leaning back in his chair, gazing away from the camera. Both his hands were heavily bandaged. 

When the judge asked him if he understood his rights to an attorney, Pittman responded, “Yes sir, Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Reporters Katherine Lin and Jerry Mitchell contributed to this report.

Joe Max Higgins, a famed Mississippi economic development specialist who was abruptly fired from his Golden Triangle post last summer for “workplace behavior and speech,” is consulting for the Tate County Economic Development Foundation.

Higgins is the former CEO of the Golden Triangle LINK, the economic development agency for Clay, Lowndes, and Oktibbeha counties. Higgins had been featured in national news, including a big “60 Minutes” report and in The Atlantic for bringing in almost $10 billion in investments to the area over his over 20 year tenure. 

According to the announcement from the Tate County Board of Supervisors and the Tate County Economic Development Foundation, they hired Higgins through a contract with his consulting firm, 2EQLAST. They did not mention Higgins’ departure from the Golden Triangle organization in the announcement.

In court filings related to Higgins’ time as CEO of the Golden Triangle organization, an employee reported discrimination, retaliation and harassment from Higgins.

Higgins said in Tate County, he will evaluate the foundation’s organizational health and potential industrial sites to create a six-month plan to help the county grow. He believes there’s a lot of opportunity in the region, especially with the Legislature last year passing a bill creating a Northwest Regional Alliance across Tate, Panola, Lafayette and Yalobusha counties.

“I’m excited about it,” Higgins said.

In the announcement, the board and foundation credited Rep. Trey Lamar, a Republican from Senatobia, for introducing Higgins. Lamar said that he looks forward to bringing “world class jobs” to Tate County. When asked about Higgins’ departure from the Golden Triangle, Lamar said the board and foundation fully vetted Higgins before hiring his firm.

A Hinds County grand jury has indicted the Madison man accused of setting fire to Mississippi’s largest synagogue on a charge of first-degree arson against a place of worship, an offense the state accuses him of committing because of its “actual or perceived religion.” 

Stephen Spencer Pittman,19, who usually goes by his middle name, is charged with burning the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in northeast Jackson. He is alleged to have broken into the building before dawn Saturday and to have doused a lobby in gasoline before setting it on fire. The blaze charred parts of the building and left smoke damage throughout.

The Hinds County Circuit Court indictment was announced Tuesday, a day after Pittman’s federal arson charges were filed. While the federal government has not so far filed hate-crime charges against Pittman, the Hinds County indictment recommends that if he is convicted, his sentence be enhanced under a Mississippi law punishing “offenses committed for discriminatory reasons.” 

The state charges for arson of a place of worship carry a prison sentence of five to 30 years, as well as restitution for damages caused by the arson.

A Hinds County press release announcing the indictment says that because it “alleges the offence was motivated by hate,” Mississippi law allows enhanced punishment, including up to 60 years in prison, double the term otherwise permitted by law.

In an unusual move for local law enforcement, Pittman did not make an initial appearance in Jackson municipal court before his case was taken to a grand jury Monday.

The Hinds County indictment did not include a photograph of Pittman. Federal authorities also have not released a photo of him.

Pittman remained hospitalized Monday and his first appearance in federal court was done by video conference. He was accompanied by a federal public defender and at times appeared to be leaning back in a chair, gazing away from the camera. Both his hands were heavily bandaged. 

The prosecutor, Matt Allen, moved to have Pittman detained as he awaits trial. Pittman is scheduled to be released from the hospital Wednesday and to return to federal court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 20. 

If convicted on the federal charges, Pittman faces five to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. 

The predawn fire Saturday was set in the same part of the one-story brick building that Ku Klux Klan members bombed in 1967 because the congregation’s rabbi supported civil rights. 

Federal investigators alleged in an affidavit that Pittman sent text messages to his father in the course of setting the fire on Saturday. The father pleaded for his son to return home, the affidavit says, but Pittman “replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research.’” 

His father later contacted the FBI and provided GPS data showing Pittman was at the synagogue early Saturday morning. 

The son “laughed as he told his father what he did and said he finally got them,” says the affidavit from Nicholas Amiano, an FBI agent in Jackson. 

State leaders have condemned the attack, and the news also reverberated internationally. Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, wrote on X that she was “personally involved and my team is in touch with the US Attorney’s office locally.”

Other officials who publicly condemned the attack include the Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi called on the FBI to investigate the incident as a federal hate crime.

In a news release Monday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the attack a “disgusting act of anti-Semitic violence,” but did not say whether federal prosecutors would seek to charge Pittman with a hate crime. 

“I have directed my prosecutors to seek severe penalties for this heinous act and remain deeply committed to protecting Jewish Americans from hatred,” Bondi said. 

Editor’s note: Federal and state authorities had not released a booking photograph of Stephen Spencer Pittman before publication of this article.

Editor’s note: This essay, which is republished with permission from Rooted magazine, is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Fire is an important and sacred part of Judaism. We light candles at the beginning and the end of the sabbath and one for each night of Hanukkah. We burn Yartzheit candles to remember loved ones on the anniversary of their deaths. We hold our fingertips up to the light of the braided Havdalah candle as we recite the blessing over the flame. Just last month, at our temple’s Hanukkah celebration, I looked around the darkened social hall at no less than a dozen lit menorahs and felt chills go down my spine. It was a beautiful sight. When the email went out Saturday morning that there had been a fire at the synagogue, and that our religious school would need to be held off-site the next day, I truly wondered if someone had left a candle burning overnight.

That evening, I learned that the fire was not started by a candle or a random electrical fire; it was arson. A man we now know to be the pimply and hateful nineteen-year-old Madison resident Stephen Spencer Pittman broke into my synagogue with an ax and set it on fire. There’s a video of him online now, his face covered with a mask, dousing the Beth Israel lobby with gasoline. I’m not sure how Pittman came to believe our small congregation of 150 families was the “synagogue of Satan” or how he reconciled his actions with his Christian faith. From what I’ve read, he is a shallow, unserious and sloppy young man whose interests included weightlifting and hating Jews. But none of that matters. What matters is that he chose gasoline and a fire torch. The flame followed the path of the accelerant. Nobody blames the fire for what happened next. The fire did what fires do: it burned.

Flames devoured the lobby, where our religious school kids grab their slices of challah and cups of apple juice from a rolling cart. The air inside the lobby was so hot that it busted out the glass of the lobby’s circular skylight. Among the photos of the wreckage, this image of the skylight was almost beautiful in its contrast and composition: the bright circle of daylight against the charred background of the ceiling.

The flames burned the administrative offices where sometimes I’d find a student sneaking a piece of hard candy off Ms. Sheila’s desk. It couldn’t have taken much encouragement for the flames to make their way to the adjacent library, whose walls were lined with wood and books, aka fire starter. The books and two Torahs in the room would have have incinerated within seconds.

Just the week before, our rabbi-in-training Ben Russell had taught the Sunday school kids how to kiss a prayer book that falls to the ground. Accidents and drops happen, Ben explained, but any text that contains G-d’s name must be treated with tenderness. We hadn’t discussed what happens when a sacred book, let alone a Torah, burns. That violence would be unthinkable.

Even now, it’s clear how all this could have been so much worse. The fire department and law enforcement responses were swift and effective. Beth Israel’s leaders were on site within hours. And the sanctuary – though covered in a thick layer of black soot – was not burned down. After the flames were extinguished, a congregant was able to find his way the ark, through halls darkened with ash and without power, to wrap the smoke-damaged Torahs in plastic trash bags before transporting them home. The Torah that survived the Holocaust and was behind glass remained miraculously unscathed. The classrooms, the synagogue archives (which coincidentally I had just spent time with in October), and the Institute of Southern Jewish Life offices are smoky and sooty but mostly untouched by fire. A layer of black grime coated my students’ Hebrew workbooks, but was easily scrubbed away with damp paper towels. From the outset, the emphasis of our congregation has been on rebuilding, bolstered by support from the wider Jackson community and from Jewish congregations around the country.

What Spencer Pittman will never understand is how much harder, and how much more satisfying, it is to build than to destroy.

At Sunday school, we always start the morning with Havdalah. Typically practiced after nightfall on Saturday, Havdalah a ritual of separation, meant to mark the end of Shabbat and the beginning of the new week. This Sunday, instead of in our sanctuary, we were in the bright, sunlit room of a local museum, chairs facing one another in a circle. With Ben out of state at rabbinical school, there was some bickering among the children over who got to hold and light the Havdalah candle, but it was quickly decided that it would be Eli, who, after all, had been the one to run and cut a sprig of rosemary in place of the temple’s now soot-covered spice box. We sang the blessing over the fruit of the vine, we smelled the rosemary, we praised G-d for creating the lights of the fire. Then came everyone’s favorite part: the satisfying sizzle as Eli extinguished the candle’s flame in grape juice in the kiddush cup. After the proper amount of sizzle appreciation, we sang the last part of the Havdalah blessing, hamavdil bein kodesh l’chol, marking the separation of the sacred from the mundane, the light from the darkness.

For Jews, only the sabbath – starting Friday evening and ending Saturday evening – is considered sacred as far as days of the week go. But this Sunday felt anything but “mundane.” Our temple had burned and with it our naiveté that hatred couldn’t destroy the same building twice. But we were together, and it was a sacred togetherness.

After Havdalah, Rachel, our religious school leader and temple board member, showed us the photos she had taken from the wreckage. Some of the children were silent. Many clamored with questions. It looks like a haunted house, Emry said, referring to a photo of a charred hallway. Everyone agreed. Eli pointed, See this is where the couch was, and there was the Tree of Life on the wall. And that’s the skylight in the lobby, Evie added. Rachel asked the kids what they wanted in a newly rebuilt library. Comfier chairs! Pink and purple books! A cotton candy machine! She showed us pictures of the aftermath of the bombings of the temple and of Rabbi Perry Nussbaum’s house by the KKK in 1967. The part of the synagogue that the bigots destroyed then is the same part that we’ll be rebuilding again.

What should we do now? Rachel asked the kids. Be Jewish! Addie shouted. Be more Jewish than ever!

We all agreed that was a good plan.

—

Author’s postscript: Just want to add a final note of gratitude to all the friends and family (and friends of friends and friends of family!) who have checked in and showed support in small and large ways. The Jackson community has showed up strong, too. So grateful to live in this city. If you want to support, you can donate to the Beth Israel Re-Building Fund. More information is on the Beth Israel Congregation and the Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s websites.

Bio: Originally from Denver, Lauren Rhoades has served with AmeriCorps, started Mississippi’s first fermentation company and helmed the Eudora Welty House & Garden. In 2022, she founded Rooted Magazine, an online publication dedicated to telling unfiltered stories about what it means to call Mississippi home. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the Mississippi University for Women. Her debut memoir, Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces was published in June 2025.