An 81-year-old man, who is a longtime minister and most recently the senior pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Gallatin, Tennessee, has been indicted for stealing more than $250,000 from the Sumner County Food Bank which he founded and served as the director of and for paying a volunteer for sex acts.

James Gill has been indicted by a Sumner County Grand Jury last Thursday, on one count of theft of property over $250,000, one count of money laundering, and one count of patronizing prostitution. He was arrested and booked into the Sumner County Jail on a $75,000 bond Friday evening, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, The Christian Post reports.

Gill founded the food bank that serves up to 1,000 families each week. He has since passed the operation on to First Baptist Hendersonville in March 2022 due to health problems. He told one news station at the time that he was awaiting heart and cancer surgery and said his doctor warned him he would die if he didn’t manage his stress.

But in May 2022, however, the TBI said 18th Judicial District Attorney General Ray Whitley requested the agents investigate allegations of theft involving Gill. According to the Liberty Baptist Church website, Gill has served as the church’s senior pastor for 11 years and has more than 40 years of ministry experience.

“During the investigation, authorities determined that James Gill (DOB: 6/1/42), who was employed as the director of the Sumner County Food Bank, used the organization’s money to make personal purchases, the release stated. “He also wrote checks to himself and others from the food bank’s account and transferred the mone to other accounts under a different non-profit name. Further investigation revealed that Gill paid a food bank volunteer for sex acts.”

NOTE TO REPUBLICANS: Rather than persecuting LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and women, you should be looking into incidents like this. But I know I’m being overly idealistic. That’s not gonna happen.

Plus, many Republicans have one heck of a lot to answer for, since they are so worried about who’s having sex with who. Yes, I’m going to go there. This list, from Daily Kos, is quite extensive.

It’s been reported that the Sumner County Food Bank had over 300 volunteers, mostly retirees and young adults seeking community service hours, at any given time, the Christian Post reports.

After retiring from the food bank last year, Gill said his only worry in passing on the work was for the people who depend on the food bank to be fed.

“My only concern is that people continue to be fed, and they are fully equipped to do that,” Gill said of the Hendersonville Church, which now houses the food bank in a larger space. “We grew from a 10-foot classroom to 12,000 square feet. This will be much larger, and I just pray it still has a family atmosphere.”

I wonder if it had a family atmosphere when he was allegedly seeking gratification or allegedly pilfering from the food bank he founded.

Just curious is all.