Johnny Hunt isn’t done with the Southern Baptist Convention.
The former convention president, megachurch pastor and denominational executive is appealing recent court decisions that found his defamation claims lacking.
Hunt filed suit in March 2023, alleging former SBC President Bart Barber and the denomination defamed him and invaded his privacy by making public the story of his “brief, inappropriate, extramarital encounter with a married woman” in 2010.
Hunt sought about $100 million in damages based on what he reported as lost employment and lost speaking engagements and lost product sales, in addition to mental anguish.
Last April, Judge William Campbell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee tore apart Hunt’s claims in a scathing opinion that left only one part of the suit intact. He released the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee and Guideposts from the case but left open one small window — the claim against Barber, who tweeted about Hunt while Barber was serving as SBC president.
Then on Aug. 12, Judge Campbell dismissed the last piece of the case because, he determined, Hunt was a public figure, which requires proving actual malice in a defamation case. Campbell said any reasonable jury would find Hunt to be a public figure, therefore requiring the higher standard.
On Aug. 18, Hunt filed his notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The notice does not lay out the grounds for the appeal. It simply informs the court Hunt is appealing.
In Campbell’s first ruling, he blistered Hunt’s lack of evidence in the case. “Hunt does not identify a single piece of evidence that Guidepost deliberately ignored that would have undermined the statement that Hunt sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife,” he wrote.
As BNG previously reported, Hunt and his family have benefited financially from their extensive ties into the SBC through an array of businesses. His original lawsuit sought an amount of compensation equal to half the SBC’s annual Cooperative Program budget.
Related:
Judge tosses Johnny Hunt’s case against SBC
‘Pastor Johnny’ sues the SBC and Guidepost
Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC
Panel of four male pastors clears Johnny Hunt to return to ministry
‘Pastor Johnny’ is the head of a family empire that feeds off the SBC