Pastors guilty of sexual abuse never should be restored to ministry, Baylor University professor and author Beth Allison Barr wrote for a news service in the United Kingdom Dec. 9. The opinion piece published by Premier Christianity addresses the case…
SBC president blasts idea of Johnny Hunt’s ‘restoration’ to ministry
In a highly unusual move, the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention has denounced the “restoration” of a former SBC president to ministry six months after public allegations of sexual abuse. “The idea that a council of pastors, assembled…
Panel of four male pastors clears Johnny Hunt to return to ministry
Six months after publicly admitting sexual misconduct, Southern Baptist pastor and denominational leader Johnny Hunt has been cleared to return to ministry by a group of four male pastors who have been counseling him. Of the 70-year-old Hunt, one of…
FBC Woodstock says it is ‘incorrect’ that Johnny Hunt will lead a men’s conference there next February
After resigning from a Southern Baptist Convention leadership position in June due to previous sexual impropriety, Johnny Hunt planned to return to his former church to lead a conference on biblical living for men. Whether First Baptist Church of Woodstock,…
After the Guidepost report, we need to know more about FBC Woodstock’s City of Refuge and NAMB’s support for it: Was ‘moral failures’ code for sexual abuse?
This May, the Southern Baptist Convention felt shockwaves when a nearly 300-page report was published by a third-party investigative firm documenting systematic coverups of sexual abuse within the denomination. In the report, former SBC President Johnny Hunt was accused of…
My husband and I created a database of clergy sex abusers; why couldn’t the SBC?
Many of us are struggling to come to terms with the news that the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has covered up abuse, maligned survivors, and even kept a secret list of 700-plus sex offenders for years. In…
Former SBC President Johnny Hunt admits improper conduct but denies abuse claims
Note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault. In an open letter to his former church, Southern Baptist Convention leader Johnny Hunt admitted to inappropriate behavior with a woman in 2010 but denied he sexually assaulted her as alleged…
SBC establishes hotline to receive reports of sexual abuse in churches
The Southern Baptist Convention has established a confidential hotline for survivors of sexual abuse in churches to make reports, an unprecedented step for the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination. After decades of denying the problem exists and even shaming those who…
Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC
A few key leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee repeatedly worked to stall, deny and control information about sexual abuse within the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination, according to an independent investigation released Sunday, May 22. And almost coincidentally…