NEWS ANALYSIS
Ross D. Johnson
News story headlines covering the alleged behavior of Bertheophilus Maurice ‘Judge’ Bailey, former senior pastor of St. Andrew Christian Church, Tulsa, Okla. Photo, The Oklahoma Eagle
The case of Bertheophilus Maurice ‘Judge’ Bailey
This is part two of The Oklahoma Eagle’s “The Children of Oklahoma” four-part series, following “Their,” an in-depth analysis of the state’s commitment-in-action for the safety and care of Oklahoma’s children. In “Their,” The Oklahoma Eagle explored the perceived culture of hate experienced by 2SLGBTQ+ children, fostered by state officials and public figures. The third part of our series, “Owasso’s Children,” will explore the U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Office’s investigation of Owasso Public Schools failures to ensure Title IX protections. The final part of our “The Children of Oklahoma” series will explore how the state, school districts and churches plan to enact measures of accountability and resolution.
“A total catastrophe to the whole kingdom of God”
The St. Andrew Christian Church pastor’s words, voiced from the pulpit, weren’t a threat against his congregation, the faithful, members of the house of worship, but an admonition for his daughter, then 21 years-old.
The decade prior to the pastor’s warning, captured during a recorded phone conversation with his daughter, Harmony Bailey Oates, according to an Oklahoma District Court affidavit, were marked by an escalation of sexual abuse that she alleges would begin with a prayer by her father, Bertheophilus Maurice ‘Judge’ Bailey, Sr., 45, pastoral leader of St. Andrew Christian Church in North Tulsa.
A sixth-grade student at the time that her decade-plus torment is alleged to have begun, Oates, then about 11 years old, was fondled by her father, soon forced to perform sexual acts as a middle school student and ultimately raped by the self-described “community servant” before completing high school.
Bailey, a once revered pastor, is now held in Tulsa County Jail on a $500,000 bond since his arrest on Wednesday afternoon, Sep. 25.
Oates’ life of alleged sexual assault, emotional and physical abuse and violence, has transitioned to one of testimony, forced to recount, with vivid detail, trauma that has defined the life of the now married 22-year-old.
Oates’ ordeal reflects Oklahoma’s position as the state with the second highest rate of child abuse cases, per 100,000 people under 18, in the southern region of the country, and seventh in the nation, according to NY Requirements.
In determining where in the U.S. are children suffering the most abuse, NY Requirements sourced data from the Child Maltreatment 2020 report, compiled by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
At 1,540.1 cases per 100,000 people under 18, Oklahoma’s children are statistically more vulnerable to the violent sexual behavior of predators than neighboring Texas and Arkansas. Peaking at a rate of 16.6 per 1,000 children in 2020, the state has seen a marginal decline to 14.6 in 2022.
Child abuse, according to Oklahoma statue, and reported by Oklahoma Policy Institute, includes sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or non-accidental physical or mental injury. Abuse can also include harm resulting from failing to protect or abandoning a child. Sexual Abuse includes rape, incest and lewd or indecent acts or proposals by a person responsible for the child’s welfare.
Oates’ alleged trauma was not merely a breach of the safety a child associates with home but would often extend beyond the family’s North Tulsa home into the St. Andrew pulpit, where her father would stand before the church’s congregation, delivering sermons about the virtue of Christianity.
“The thing is whenever I was a kid I separated my dad from who he was. I had to that’s the only way I survived,” said Oates during an interview with 2 News Oklahoma. “I would call him my best friend only to hide the reality of what I was living.”
St. Andrew elevated Bailey, a second-generation pastor, to lead the congregation in 2018, although the son of Bertrand Sr. had been charged with felony criminal violations of Lewd Molestation, Sep. 2006, and Child Abuse by Injury, in Feb. 2010 and Apr. 2013.
The state’s witness in the Lewd Molestation case “failed to appear” for the Dec. 2006 hearing and the case was dismissed, according to state reporting.
The felony criminal complaints for Child Abuse by Injury were adjudicated by Tulsa District Court judges Hon. Carlos Chappelle (Jul. 2010) and Stephen Clark (May 2013), both resulting in Bailey’s plea of guilt and conviction.
Bailey received a five-year deferred sentence for the 2010 Child Abuse by Injury conviction, requiring supervision by the Department of Corrections Probation and Parole; 80 work hours under the supervision of Tulsa County Wellness Partnership; and completing parenting and nurturing classes according to Oklahoma Department of Human Services policy.
The 2010 deferred sentence was ordered to remain effective until July 2015.
Bailey’s 2013 conviction and sentencing for Child Abuse by Injury, following his plea of guilt, yielded far fewer punitive outcomes. The court-ordered one year custody remand in Tulsa County Jail was suspended and the required work service was limited to only 23 hours.
Bailey, twice convicted by Tulsa County District Courts of Child Abuse by Injury, and the prior subject of a Lewd Molestation filing, would nonetheless lead “St. Andrew according to the blueprint of Holy Scripture” throughout a period when Oates alleges rape, oral sodomy, and stalking.
Sermons of prophesy and obedience, prayers for a strengthened faith, Bailey “breaking the code” of Revelations and apocryphal warnings filled the mid twentieth-century constructed sanctuary on Sundays.
The alleged hypocritical dual personas of Bailey were stark in contrast, delivering “the word” to congregants in public, and allegedly preying upon his daughter within their Tulsa home.
The pastoral leader would eventually admit to watching videos of fathers and daughters having sex, that “seeds of sin grow”, that he masturbated to the videos and felt justified in “acting out” what he watched because “it was what people do”, according to the Tulsa District Court affidavit.
Text messages shared between Bailey and his now former wife and church first lady, Arrica Bailey, reveal the extent to which the pastor understood the nature of his actions, the violations of his oaths to family and congregation and legal ramifications.
His messages included the following:
“I’m an adulter [sic]”
“I’m an [sic] child molester”
“I am a rapist”
“I am a bold abuser”
“I should be locked away for the rest of my life”
In 2021, Oates, then 19, moved out of the Bailey home. She later married Malachi Oates. They share a daughter.
Undeterred by the distance from his daughter, her commitment to her husband and to his own greater angels of faith, Bailey is alleged to have eventually traveled to the couple’s home unannounced, pushed his daughter to the floor and “forcibly orally sodomize her.”
St. Andrew Christian Church would not rescue Oates from the alleged abuse.
Pastoral staff, ministry leaders and adherents learned about Bailey’s alleged “sins” via social media posts and local news reports on Wednesday, Sep. 25.
“It feels like I’m not in the shadows anymore,” Oates shared.
The courage to make public an alleged chronology of sexual violence, living in fear, hiding, was fueled by support from her family. Initially confiding in her husband and older brother, she would later share a far more difficult discussion with her mother, who has been consistently supportive of her daughter.
Bailey’s family shared their support of Oates in a statement released after his arrest. “You are a strong, intelligent, and talented young woman. No one should ever have their trust and safety violated in such a horrific way. We are all so deeply sorry this happened to you.”
Oates release from a father whom she once called her “best friend,” and the repeated abuses she alleges, has finally ended.
But her testimony reveals a long-standing trauma and has forced a community to ask “How… how could this happen?”
The Knowing
The allegations against Bailey are a haunting reminder for some of the child sexual assault and lewd/indecent acts by former Victory Christian Center staff in 2012. Chris Denman, a former janitor at the South Tulsa megachurch was sentenced to 55 years in prison after pleading guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in the church’s stairwell. Israel Castillo, a second church employee, pleaded guilty in 2013 to soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl via the Internet and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Transparency has become an evolving focus for churches throughout the country.
Background checks, criminal and employment history are the most common markers for assessing, vetting, potential church hires.
Congregations seek to establish the ideal balance between applying an often-perceived aggressive vetting of leadership and staff before hire, and assessments that provide enough information to best ensure the safety of its members.
A casual search online returns pages of third-party (independent) services to help ease the burden on church staff and establish the objectivity required to make the most informed decision.
How congregations consider the information provided, what internal policies direct their hiring decisions, and which statutory requirements apply to them are moving targets for many faith homes.
It is not known if St. Andrew, throughout Bailey’s tenure, employed periodic reviews of his criminal record, critically reevaluated his felony convictions of child abuse, or restricted his engagement with children.
The state of Oklahoma does not explicitly require that churches employ background checks for employees and staff, instead, such requirements are guided by a church’s adoption of child and youth programming. Exemptions from Oklahoma Title 10 OK Stat § 403, a provision of the Oklahoma Child Care Facilities Licensing Act are permissible, should a church within the state host “programs in which children attend on a drop-in basis and parents are on the premises and readily accessible,” or the proper accreditation has been earned.
In 2023, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Overtures Committee, rejected a South Texas Presbytery’s proposal that outlined when mandatory background checks would be required, administered by the state. The Overture, never making it out of committee, was referred back to the South Texas Presbytery, noting concerns of “liberty” restrictions of members, the scope of mandated background checks, confidentiality, the perceived alignment with the state and the consequences for refusing to submit to a background check.
The PCA Overtures Committee would instead propose an amendment that replaced a Book of Church Order (BCO) requirement for mandatory background checks with a “a non-binding encouragement” of background checks.
After decades of sexual abuse and cover up allegations by children and staff, detailed by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News in a 2019 report, Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated congregations, which represent approximately half of the Baptist-affiliated churches in Oklahoma, have begun to accept a greater commitment to ensuring the safety of their faith-communities.
In the wake of 700 reported victims who alleged rape, sexual misconduct and moving the accused and/or convicted senior church officials to other congregations around the country, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution condemning sex abuse and establishing a special committee to investigate sex abuse. The approved resolution, according to then SBC president, Rev. J.D. Greear, was regarded as a “defining moment”, aimed at “Protecting God’s children.”
St. Andrew, under Bailey’s leadership, and according to the church’s website, “released…” their “…affiliation to the Baptist denominated.”
Any potential precautionary measures to protect the St. Andrew congregation, as directed by the Southern Baptist Convention’s “defining moment,” no longer fell within the purview of the SBC.
Lifeway Christian Resources, in cooperation with Baptist state conventions, compiles the Annual Church Profile (ACP), a data gathering tool employed to assess the health of congregations. In 2023 several state conventions used the ACP to gather insight into how Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated institutions have addressed the issue of background checks, however, the Oklahoma convention was not listed as a participant.
More than half of responding Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated congregations said that “they require background checks for all staff and those who work with children and students.” Although encouraging, far less reported that staff and those working with younger churchgoers were adequately trained in reporting sexual abuse cases (38%) or providing the appropriate care for survivors of sexual abuse (16%).
Of the South-Central region state convention churches, only one of four included participated in the ACP assessment. Texas, the lone standout, highlighted that 85% of responding churches require background checks.
The Called
“The predators that are statistically likely to be in the pews, volunteering, and even behind the pulpit aren’t just grooming their victims, they are grooming their community to view them as trustworthy and even as spiritual leaders.”
Kimi Harris, Writer, Christianity Today
The absence of a broader mandate of background checks, across the full spectrum of faith and worship, reflects a sentiment shared by child predators in Anna Salter’s book Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders. A psychologist who has spent over 20 years working with and studying victims and sexual offenders, Salter drew from the stories of abusers, exploring what motivates sexual abusers and why so few are caught.
A convicted child molester whom Salter interviewed candidly framed a perspective about Christians who prioritize embracing a positive view of others, without just caution, above formal scrutiny… “I considered church people easy to fool … they have a trust that comes from being Christians. … They tend to be better folks all around. And they seem to want to believe in the good that exists in all people.”
It is this culture, a blind acceptance of those who profess a shared faith and commitment to ministry, that enables abuse of youth and children within some churches.
Rachael Denhollander, an attorney and former gymnast, who first publicly accused Lawrence Gerard Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, of sexual assault, challenged the perceived dismissive response from, and culture of apathy within, her family church weeks before Nassar’s trial began.
Denhollander previously stated that “My advocacy for sexual assault victims … cost me my church,” without identifying the specific church in her statement. The former gymnast had expressed concerns regarding her church’s relationship with Sovereign Grace Ministries, whom Denhollander believed was engaged in a coverup of a 2012 sexual abuse case, which was dismissed as a court ruled that the lawsuit exceeded the statute of limitations.
Immanuel Baptist Church (Louisville, KY) would later reveal that they were the church that Denhollander was referencing, further noting that “we were sinfully unloving” regarding Denhollander’s concerns about their relationship with Sovereign Grace Ministries. Further, Immanuel noted that “We have since thoroughly repented to the Denhollanders and to the church we serve, seeking to confess every known sin. In return, the Denhollanders and our church family have been very gracious and forgiving.”
Mark Prater, executive director of what is now Sovereign Grace Churches, credited Denhollander for coming forward with her testimony against Nassar, however, he noted her allegations against Sovereign Grace as false.
Nassar was later convicted and sentenced to 60 years in federal prison, Dec. 2017, after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and tampering with evidence. In Jan. 2018, Nassar was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan State Prison, after pleading guilty in Ingham County to seven counts of sexual assault.
Michael Veitz, a former Tennessee police officer and writer for Christianity Today, advocated an approach he regards as “informed trust,” whereas churches are not merely blindly receptive of faith-inspired staff and leadership, but that they also employ proactive measures to ensure the safety of their faith communities.
Veitz suggests that faith communities should trust their members but must also commit to validating their trust.
Referencing his personal faith, as a “Presbyterians committed to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms,” Veitz reflects upon a belief that all are “born in sin,” and that discernment, a practice of examining all who profess a call to lead and serve is warranted. He [Veitz] also addresses a common argument against the “rigorous vetting” of those called, that the practice engenders a perceived barrier between the congregation and those with whom we seek a “deep-seated trust in communal bond.”
The desired “communal bond”, observed Veitz, should be the shared goal of the congregation and the called, accomplished after earning an “informed trust.”
The Unanswered Question
Whether St. Andrew employed criminal background checks or precautionary measures prior to voting on Bailey’s ascension as pastoral leader, or if the church simply relied upon his familial relationship without scrutiny, may certainly be introduced as an aspect of his case.
What is certain is that the North Tulsa congregation returned to a faith home, on Sunday, shaken by the allegations and the absence of their pastor.
As Oklahomans evolve their understanding of what allegedly occurred in the homes of Bailey, his daughter Oates and St. Andrew, more questions will arise.
For Oates, thankfully, the alleged violence has ended… And now, the memory of what has been alleged may be known and come to light [Luke 8:16].
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributor and do not reflect the opinions of The Eagle Publishing Co. (referred to as The Oklahoma Eagle) or its Editors.
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The Oklahoma Eagle believes that all alleged acts may only be adjudicated in related courts. and that all parties are assumed innocent until proven guilty.
