{"id":28328,"date":"2025-07-21T16:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T20:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28328"},"modified":"2025-07-21T16:02:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T20:02:33","slug":"former-pastor-leaves-child-alone-in-car-for-hours-while-drinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/former-pastor-leaves-child-alone-in-car-for-hours-while-drinking","title":{"rendered":"Former Pastor Leaves Child Alone in Car For Hours While Drinking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: First Baptist Church of Dothan\/ Facebook | Right: Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An associate pastor at an Alabama church is out of a job after leaving his child in the car alone for hours while he went out to get drunk and eat. John Gibson, also known as \u201cTrey,\u201d was the associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Dothan when he went out late on Saturday night with his child, who is under the age of five, in his SUV. Gibson then left the child unattended in the vehicle while he got drunk in a bar. Afterward, he drove the car across a parking lot to a 24-hour restaurant, where he left the child unattended again while he went inside to eat.<\/p>\n

A concerned patron alerted police to the unattended child. The temperature outside was around the low 80\u2019s according to reports. \u201cWhen officers arrived, people directed them to a parking lot where they found the vehicle with the child inside unattended and ID’d Gibson as the owner of vehicle and the child’s family member,\u201d Dothan Police Department Lt. Scott Owens told USA Today<\/em><\/a>. Owens stated the Gibson \u201cwas pretty highly intoxicated.\u201d Owens noted the danger of leaving the child unattended. \u201c”Regardless of the temperature, someone could have come and kidnapped the child or the child could have had a medical emergency. It’s just an overall unsafe issue to leave a child in the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gibson was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor. The Alabama Department of Human Resources took custody of the child until family members could be reached to care for him. Gibson reportedly had a wife and daughter who were out of state at the time of the incident. The child was examined by paramedics and was determined to be unharmed. Gibson was later released on $500 bond.<\/p>\n

A statement from First Baptist acknowledged the incident, stating, \u201cThis incident occurred on the staff member\u2019s personal time and in no way involved any of the students or children who participate in our student ministry.\u201d It also noted that the church had \u201cparted ways\u201d with Gibson, stating the church \u201ctakes very seriously\u201d its \u201cresponsibility as followers of Christ to obey the law and promote the safety and well-being.\u201d There are reports that members of the church intend to walk with Gibson as he seeks help.<\/p>\n

Charlamagne Tha God gave Gibson the odious distinction of being the \u201cDonkey of the Day\u201d on his show<\/a>. \u201cIt takes an extreme level of faith and extreme trust in the Higher Power to just leave a five-year-old in the car while you in a bar having a drink and then going over to a 24-hour restaurant to get a bite to eat, and knowing everything gonna be all right. Okay, not to mention it was a Saturday night going intoa Sunday morning,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly, it wasn\u2019t his Sunday to preach. . . . (H)e must have thought to himself, \u2018I\u2019ll go sin on this Saturday night and ask forgiveness, ask for forgiveness in church on Sunday morning.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An associate pastor at an Alabama church is out of a job after leaving his child in the car alone for hours while he went out to get drunk and eat. John Gibson, also known as \u201cTrey,\u201d was the associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Dothan when he went out late on Saturday night…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Pastor Leaves Child Alone in Car For Hours While Drinking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An Alabama pastor was fired after leaving his young child alone in a car for hours while he drank and ate\u2014now faces charges and backlash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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