After some debate, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee declined to accept a suggestion to go on the legal offensive against Johnny Hunt.
Hunt, a former SBC president, filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the SBC for defamation after he was named in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report on mishandled knowledge of sexual abuse. Hunt was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a pastor’s wife at a beachside condo in Florida just weeks after he concluded his term as SBC president. He later acknowledged the incident but said it was not abusive.
Johnny Hunt/
That revelation and the publicity that followed it, Hunt claims, ruined his career as a pastor and deprived him of millions of dollars in income. As a result of the report, he lost his job as executive vice president of the SBC North American Mission Board.
The question before the Executive Committee Sept. 23 was how to respond to a motion made at the SBC annual meeting in Dallas in June. That motion by Benjamin Cole — cohost of BNG’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast — asked messengers to instruct SBC legal counsel to file countersuits at the earliest possible time against Hunt “to incur legal fees against his multimillion-dollar frivolous claim.”
Messengers approved a recommendation of the chair to refer Cole’s motion to the Executive Committee. That set up this week’s discussion in committee Monday and then in the plenary session Tuesday morning.
The officers of the board recommended the Executive Committee take no action on Cole’s motion — meaning it would die.
First to speak to the motion was Dani Bryson, an Executive Committee member who also serves as assistant district attorney in Dickson, Tenn.
“I have some pause that you would pass this through with no discussion,” she said.
“There is a moral cost-benefit in standing up for what is right.”
Admitting she could see both sides of the issue, she explained there could be wisdom in acting to prevent future claims — an offensive move rather than the current defensive posture. “There is a moral cost-benefit in standing up for what is right, and I think that has merit here beyond financial benefit.”
Next to speak was former Executive Committee Chairman David Sons, a South Carolina pastor. He questioned the timing of the proposed rejection of Cole’s motion.
“I believe there’s still one issue pending in the Hunt lawsuit. … Is it prudent for us to perhaps wait until the judge issues a final ruling in that case to make a decision on this issue? … It seems to me it may benefit us to keep all our legal options and perhaps recourse open at this time until the judge makes a ruling.”
The Executive Committee will meet again in February and in June before the next SBC annual meeting.
Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg addressed Sons’ question: “You’ll not be delayed until February. You may be delayed for two to three years. We have no idea how long this matter will take to be resolved.”
“What’s in the motion could not be done.”
SBC legal counsel Robert Pautienus spoke next, explaining Cole’s motion could not be accomplished according to Tennessee law.
“It’s not a countersuit, it’s a new lawsuit,” he said. “You cannot file the lawsuit until all the legal matters are done. So the lawsuit has to be totally over. There is no countersuit. What’s in the motion could not be done.”
Such a new suit would be filed as a “malicious prosecution claim, which generally are not very easy to maintain because you have to show there was zero merit. In other words, a judge has to believe there was zero basis to file anything. Those are hard to maintain, and they would be paid by the hour. The SBC would be paying by the hour in order to prosecute that claim.”
Iorg returned to the microphone to declare: “I’m not a lawyer but I can read the Bible, and I have profound reservations about violating 1Corinthians 6 and suing (another Christian) in a civil matter.”
Harold Phillips, a Maryland pastor, drew a parallel to another legal case that has been in the news for years. He spoke of the lawsuit filed by Will McRaney, former executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware, against the SBC North American Mission Board for defamation.
McRaney’s lawsuit was not wise, he said, and the SBC should not follow his example.
“We have yet to pick up a hammer and go after somebody,” Phillips said. “If we let the Lord handle it, he’ll fight for us. And I think we’ve done well thus far. … I can’t encourage any of us to go against Scripture.”
The motion to reject Cole’s motion passed on a voice vote with little opposition.