Faced with millions of dollars in unbudgeted legal expenses related to sexual abuse investigations, defenses and settlements, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee will sell its downtown Nashville office building, which is valued at more than $30 million.
While that news was reported publicly at the Sept. 17 meeting in Nashville, other major issues related to pending litigation reportedly were discussed in private session. According to multiple sources, one agenda item involved approving a framework for possible settlement with former SBC President Johnny Hunt, who was named as an abuser in the SBC’s Guidepost Solutions report two years ago.
Johnny Hunt
Last year, Hunt filed a defamation suit against the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions for defamation and invasion of privacy for making public the story of his “brief, inappropriate, extramarital encounter with a married woman” in 2010.
As part of its original contract with Guidepost, the SBC agreed to indemnify Guidepost for any litigation arising from the report. That indemnification already has cost $3.1 million, trustees were told, in addition to another $3.1 million spent on conducting the investigation and reporting on it, plus expenses of an Executive Committee task force interfacing with Guidepost.
According to court records dated one week before the Executive Committee meeting, a mediation meeting on a possible joint settlement has been scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 19, and the parties are scheduled to report to the court on that meeting the following week, Sept. 26.
SBC insiders are speculating that the Executive Committee may be prepared to make the Hunt case go away with a cash settlement of some sort. Both the Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions have denied wrongdoing in reporting on credible allegations against Hunt. More recently, Guidepost’s lawyers have declined to provide all the information Hunt’s lawyers want through the deposition process, according to another court document filed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
David Sills
The SBC and the Executive Committee are named defendants in another defamation case brought against them and several other SBC entities and individuals by David and Mary Sills. David Sills is a former professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., who has admitted to having an extramarital affair with a female student. He says the affair was consensual; she says it was abusive and nonconsensual.
According to court records, this case is bogged down in a massive effort to collect documents and prepare for depositions. No mediation or settlement meetings are shown as scheduled.
The Executive Committee already has paid out an undisclosed sum to the woman in this case, Jennifer Lyell, for misrepresenting her in a story published by Baptist Press.
Trustees of the Executive Committee learned the Executive Committee has spent $12.1 million since 2021 investigating, reporting and defending against sexual abuse allegations, with the Guidepost investigation being the heart of that. No budget funds were allocated for such expenses, and most of the cost has come from the entity’s reserves.
A detailed report on these expenses came after messengers to the SBC annual meeting in June passed a motion demanding more accountability.
Executive Committee trustees also approved a plan to create a new department within its staff structure that will implement sexual abuse prevention and response across the denomination. The most recent task force working on implementation of sexual abuse prevention and response had suggested creating an autonomous entity. It is not yet clear whether the new Executive Committee department will replace that independent group or not.
Jeff Iorg
“We have had two task forces that have done difficult and hard work. But it’s time to stop talking about what we’re going to do and take an initial, strategic step of action that puts into place an administrative response to this issue,” said Jeff Iorg, new Executive Committee president.
The new department will be funded initially with $1.8 million in remaining funds provided by Send Relief — the joint disaster relief and response ministry of the two SBC mission boards — in 2022. That initial gift was $3 million.
Sale of the 40-year-old downtown Nashville building has been discussed for several years. The seven-story building houses not only the Executive Committee but also the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, SBC Seminary Extension, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives and the Southern Baptist Foundation.
Not only did trustees authorize the possible sale of the property, they authorized taking out a loan secured by the building in order to pump more money into the cash-strapped organization.
The Executive Committee is the central organizing entity of the denomination, receiving and disbursing offering money that originates in local churches and also planning and producing the annual meeting. The Executive Committee also oversees Baptist Press, the in-house news service.
The building to be sold was erected in 1984 and 1985 and sits adjacent to what used to be the multi-block campus of Lifeway Christian Resources, the denomination’s publishing house. Lifeway sold its property for $125 million in 2015 and has since downsized two times.
The Executive Committee building is located near Nashville Yards, a downtown growth spot just a few blocks from the historic Ryman Auditorium and Music Row.
Related articles:
‘Pastor Johnny’ sues the SBC and Guidepost
Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC
‘Pastor Johnny’ is the head of a family empire that feeds off the SBC
SBC Executive Committee eliminates 20% of staff due to budget crisis