New Orleans Baptist Church Rocked by Abuse Arrest

By Bob Allen
Baptist News
March 5, 2015

http://baptistnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/29875-new-orleans-baptist-church-rocked-by-abuse-arrest

A Southern Baptist youth minister fired by his church after he was seen on surveillance video sneaking into a closet with a 14-year-old girl faces up to 10 years in prison on a charge of sexual battery.

Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey, 33, minister of youth at First Baptist Church in New Orleans for about two years, was originally arrested Feb. 23 on a lesser charge of indecent behavior with a juvenile and released on $35,000 bond.

Police re-booked him March 4 on the more serious charge, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, after the alleged victim gave details in a second interview she hadn’t previously shared with her parents or police.

The new warrant indicates that since the first arrest a second church contacted police reporting it fired Bailey as youth minister about 10 years ago, because of similar allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a juvenile congregant. The warrant did not name the church or say where it is located.

According to a cached copy of the church staff page before his firing Feb. 9, Bailey is a 2004 graduate of Louisiana College who went on to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. While there he met his future wife, Tiffany Atkins. The two were married in January 2008 and have a young daughter.

Both Jonathan and Tiffany Bailey graduated from seminary in 2010 — he with a master of arts degree in Christian education and she with the master of divinity degree specializing in Christian education. They then served on staff together at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.

She was college ministry associate, while he served as associate sports and recreation minister at the South Georgia megachurch best known for Sherwood Pictures, its film-production company that has produced popular faith-based films including Facing the Giants, Fireproof and Courageous.

They returned to New Orleans in November 2012, where Tiffany Bailey now works as associate metro Baptist collegiate ministry director at Tulane and Loyola universities in New Orleans for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

Once led by legendary Pastor J.D. Grey, a major figure in the Southern Baptist Convention who served as SBC president in 1952 and 1953, today First Baptist New Orleans is best known for Crossroads NOLA, formerly Baptist Crossroads, a faith-based nonprofit founded in 2006 to rebuild homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Over six years the ministry built 80 homes in partnership with Habitat for Humanity before branching out with programs related to foster care.

Current Senior Pastor David Crosby, who came to First Baptist in 1996, told local media the church does criminal background checks on all staff and volunteers working with youth and there were no red flags about Bailey prior to the incident that led to his arrest.

A newspaper description of the police report said a church administrator watched a building surveillance video recording of Bailey and the girl entering a church closet together, turning off the lights and closing the door. Later the video showed them leaving the closet separately as other students walked the hallway looking for the girl, who was supposed to be attending a church activity.

After viewing the video the morning of Feb. 9, church officials terminated Bailey’s employment, contacted the girl's parents and then joined the family two days later in a meeting with detectives from the New Orleans Police Department.

A note in the March 1 newsletter described a congregation “devastated by the events that have led to the arrest of one of our former ministers.”

“The safety of the children in our care is our highest priority,” the statement said. “We do everything in our power to make certain that all persons who work with them are properly screened and interviewed. We are now reviewing all of our policies and procedures with paid staff and volunteers and will bring forward any recommendations that might strengthen our security.”

A special “family meeting” of the church was held March 1 to “address some errors in the media reports and provide further information that you may want to know as a member of our family of faith,” the newsletter said.

The Southern Baptist Convention offers resources for prevention of sexual abuse for churches on its website but, unlike many other denominations, does not have a formal system for tracking and reporting alleged sexual abuse by clergy beyond the criminal justice system.

Years ago the SBC Executive Committee studied formation of an independent review board to receive and evaluate reports of alleged sexual abuse for a database of Southern Baptist ministers who have been “credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse.” In the end SBC officials determined the idea unfeasible, citing autonomy of the local church.