Southern Baptist leaders and organizations should have known former youth minister Keenan Hord posed a danger to minors at First Baptist Church in Bentonville, Ark., according to a lawsuit filed by the parent of a sexual abuse victim.
The action names First Baptist, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the Northwest Arkansas Baptist Association, the Southern Baptist Convention and more than 20 other “John Doe” church leaders and insurers, Fayetteville’s KNWA-TV reported. Hord, 35, also is named in the lawsuit.
Former SBC President Steve Gaines was not named as a defendant but is singled out “as one specific person who should have flagged ‘disqualifying risk factors’ before Hord hurt anyone,” according to The Roys Report.
Keenan Hord
Hord pleaded guilty to more than a dozen counts of sexual assault in 2023 and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He previously served as youth minister at First Baptist, where he sexually assaulted at least five minors from 2020 to 2022.
The new litigation says Hord was wrongfully “placed in a position of authority as a youth pastor, which the lawsuit says gave him ‘unfettered access’ to minors involved in the church’s youth program.”
Prior to being hired at First Baptist, Hord was youth pastor at a satellite campus of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., from 2011 to 2016, Baptist News Global reported at the time of his 2022 arrest in Bentonville.
Gaines, then senior pastor at Bellevue, and the congregation were mentioned in the 300-page Guidepost report that found SBC leaders knowingly allowed predators to move from church to church.
The report said Gaines “admitted that, as senior pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church, he had delayed reporting a staff minister’s prior sexual abuse of a child (out) of ‘heartfelt concern and compassion for the minister,’ while acknowledging that he should have ‘brought it to the attention of our church leadership immediately.’”
It was unclear in the report if the reference was to Hord or another employee at Bellevue. Gaines served as SBC president from 2016 to 2018.
While the new lawsuit does not accuse Hord of sexual abuse in Tennessee or during previous ministry in Texas, it does suggest “the way Hord related to children in his care should have been enough to raise concerns” and says Gaines failed to “‘supervise, restrict, report or remove’ Hord from ministry.”
The leadership at Bellevue responded to Hord’s 2022 arrest with an appeal to church members: “If you have any information regarding any criminal activity, please report it to the local police department. If you or your child were affected by this, we want to help you navigate this difficult situation with access to professional counselors at no expense to you.”
The new action filed by a male victim’s father explains Hord initially met the boy at a skating rink and urged him and his family to attend First Baptist. It said Hord groomed and abused the youth from January 2021 to July 2022.
KNWA also reported First Baptist contacted a child-abuse hotline when it learned of the allegations against Hord.
The church also released a statement after his arrest: “We have been devastated to learn that a former employee of our church has been credibly accused of abusing adolescents during his tenure at our church. While these accusations did not come to light until after his employment ended, when we learned of them, we immediately contacted our local authorities, made a report to the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline and continue to fully support the ongoing law enforcement investigation. We are ministering to the survivors and their families who demonstrated incredible courage in coming forward. We are praying for God’s perfect peace for those who have been harmed and God’s justice for the abuse of His people.”
Two of Hord’s other Bentonville victims filed a similar lawsuit in 2024. It was settled out of court.