A Revelation from the Deposition of Johnny Hunt

But no surprise: He never cared about sexual abuse

As I perused the deposition of former Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny Hunt last week, I first got caught up in his bizarre definitions of sexual abuse and adultery. What a wild read that was!

In case you missed it, Hunt seems to think that sexual abuse requires sexual intercourse. Ditto with adultery: Without intercourse, he says, it’s just unfaithfulness.

I wrote about it here, but don’t try too hard to make it make sense… because it doesn’t.

Johnny Hunt (Wikipedia)

But after I laughed out loud at Hunt’s pretzel-twisting evasiveness on abuse and adultery, this caught my eye as well: Hunt claims to have no memory of any issues related to sexual abuse coming up during his two terms as SBC president.

Consider these two exchanges on page 39 of the deposition:

Q:  So were any sexual abuse topics—were you aware of any issues related to sexual abuse within the convention during your presidency?

A: I remember none.

…and

Q: Do you recall any survivors of sexual abuse reaching out to you during your presidency?

A: I don’t.

Hunt’s memory is, of course, faulty. In November 2008, when Johnny Hunt was SBC president, David Clohessy and I sent him a certified letter about clergy sex abuse and coverups within the Southern Baptist Convention.

“You now have the opportunity to show genuine leadership on the issue of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups,” we wrote. “This may be one of the greatest leadership challenges in the history of Southern Baptists.”

We explained:

“We have heard the oft-repeated explanation that denominational leaders are powerless because Baptist churches are autonomous. However, if indeed denominational leaders lack the power to actually remove credibly accused clergy child molesters from ministry (as other faith groups do), then this would be all the more reason why denominational leaders must at least provide information to those who do carry the power. Denominational leaders must assure that Southern Baptist congregants are provided with objective, professional, trustworthy information so that they can make responsible decisions about their ministers.

As a July 10 Tennessean editorial stated: ‘The very fact that Baptist churches are autonomous signals that they need the information that the convention could provide.’"

And we specifically pointed out what was needed:

“This denomination needs to provide (1) a safe and welcoming place for victims to report clergy sex abuse, (2) an objective, professionally-trained panel for responsibly assessing victims' abuse reports, and (3) an efficient means of assuring that the assessment information reaches people in the pews—i.e., a database.”

 We urged Hunt to make addressing clergy sex abuse his top priority.

Then we waited.

Nearly three months later, Hunt wrote back. (His administrative assistant apologized for the “oversight” of the delay in Hunt’s reply. Even in the mere mailing of a reply, the abuse issue apparently fell between the cracks.)

The gist of Hunt’s reply was a vague “we are looking into that.” But he also said this:

“You can rest assured I am concerned about this… In fact, during out Executive Committee meeting in September there was much discussion on this issue and what we as a denomination should do to help the problem cease…. You will hear more about it in the days ahead.”

Of course, we didn’t hear anything more at all from Hunt. As I expected, his “we are looking into that” was nothing more than a Baptistland way of saying “don’t bother us.”

But now, in light of Hunt’s recent deposition, it appears all the more obvious why Hunt didn’t respond further. He cared so very little about the sexual abuse issue that it didn’t even form a memory in his consciousness.

And despite having claimed at the time that “there was much discussion,” in his current sworn deposition, Hunt doesn’t now recall having even been aware of any issues related to sexual abuse during his presidency. Nor does he recall any survivors reaching out to him.

That’s how little Hunt cared. It’s also indicative of how little the whole of the SBC has cared.

My new memoir, Baptistland, is now available!