A longtime youth pastor in Macon, Georgia was arrested this week after he allegedly fabricated a story about being kidnapped — to cover up an attempted meeting with a male prostitute.
Christopher Keys recently served as the student pastor at a local Baptist church, and taught at a private Christian school. Keys was robbed at gunpoint by two masked men at the Regency Inn & Suites in Macon on Tuesday, according to reports.
After arranging to meet a male prostitute on Craigslist, Keys drove to the hotel, which he reportedly has been frequenting since January. He answered a knock at the door and let one of the masked men into his room. The suspect told Keys to get on the bed before putting a gun to his head.
Key subsequently told an acquaintance that he had been kidnapped in his truck at a nearby CVS, forced to drive to the motel, and robbed. After a woman posted Keys' story about the kidnapping and robbery on Facebook (above), it was shared hundreds of times, prompting WMAZ-TV to look into the rumor.
As it turns out, Keys met with police at the hotel after the robbery, telling a sheriff's deputy that “he liked to play around and was married to a woman,” the station reports. In an interview with the deputy, Keys even revealed his plan to tell his family that he was kidnapped at the CVS. Two days later, he was arrested and charged with solicitation of sodomy, a misdemeanor. (Although the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sodomy laws in 2003, Georgia's solicitation of sodomy statute has been upheld.)
Keys recently worked as a teacher at Tattnall Square Academy, where he taught upper-school Bible, worked with the chapel band, and served as coordinator for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, according to his now-deleted bio (above).
“I am a people person and love to teach young people the truths of the Bible,” he wrote in the bio.
“I have been married for 20 years to my wife Jennie. I am a graduate of FPD and Mercer University and Southwestern Seminary. I am currently the student pastor at Wesleyan Drive Baptist Church in Macon and I've been in student ministry for 28 years.”
A spokesperson for Tattnall Square Academy told WXGA-TV that Keys is a former employee and that the school “was only recently made aware of the charges.”
“We have no comment or information regarding the matter about which he is accused,” the spokesperson said.
As of Friday, Keys was not listed as an employee on the website of Wesleyan Drive Baptist Church.
Keys also once worked as a bailiff for the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, which arrested him. Sheriff's investigators are still searching for the robbery suspects, who made off with Keys' wallet, cell phone, and keys — although his phone reportedly was recovered in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart.
Watch WMAZ's report below.
