Johnny Hunt: The Judge Kneecapped Him

... and vindicated the Guidepost investigation

The culture of clergy impunity is deeply entrenched within the Southern Baptist Convention. Former SBC president Johnny Hunt was apparently so accustomed to the assumption that sexual abuse would be kept quiet that he thought he had a right to it.

A federal judge told him otherwise.

Remember Johnny? After the Guidepost investigatory report named him as being credibly accused of sexual abuse, Johnny Hunt sued for defamation, seeking up to $100 million in alleged damages. He claimed it all should have been a private matter.

Johnny Hunt (Baptist News Global photo)

Meanwhile, despite the report’s findings, other Southern Baptist pastors “restored” Hunt to ministry – yeah, it’s about as flaky as it sounds – and Hunt has continued with speaking engagements at evangelical churches and conferences.

That’s how it is in Baptistland. Even when a credibly-accused clergy sex abuser is exposed, the institutional culture of clergy impunity still props him up.

But not in federal court.

On all but one count, the judge ruled that Hunt’s claims were so baseless that there was no reason to even present them to a jury.

And in a 74-page opinion, the judge went further so as to broadly vindicate the Guidepost investigation.

As Tennessean reporter Liam Adams wrote:

“The opinion not only kneecaps Hunt’s main arguments, but it strikes at the broader efforts by some Southern Baptists to minimize Guidepost’s diagnosis of the abuse crisis within the denomination.”

And as Baptist News Global publisher Mark Wingfield explained:

The judge “not only found Hunt’s claims unsuitable for trial but also blessed the investigation produced by Guidepost.”

Clergy sex abuse allegations are a matter of public import

As partial explanation for his ruling, the judge pointed out that the Guidepost report related to “issues of interest to society at large, rather than to matters of purely private concern.” (p. 49)

“Allegations of sexual abuse involving clergy members and how allegations of such abuse were handled are matters of public import.”

As support for this proposition, the judge cited to a 2011 opinion written by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. So, he was applying well-established law – hardly anything new.

This proposition – that allegations of sexual abuse involving clergy are matters of public import – is also why the Southern Baptist Convention has been so unconscionably remiss in refusing to develop a system for record-keeping and information-sharing on clergy sex abuse allegations.

These are matters of public import because they are important to the safety of kids and congregants.

What about the rest of the Guidepost report?

The Guidepost report dealt with way more than just Johnny Hunt. Only 12 of the report’s 288 pages were about Hunt. Much of the rest of the report documented egregious conduct by the SBC Executive Committee in its mishandling of abuse allegations and its mistreatment of abuse survivors and advocates.

For example, my name appears in the report dozens of times, precisely because the Executive Committee treated me so terribly.

Yet, even though the Guidepost report documented the SBC Executive Committee’s terrible treatment of survivors, and even though the Guidepost report was published three years ago, and even though the report has now been “blessed” by a federal judge, the Executive Committee makes no amends for its conduct.

So, no one should imagine that the federal court’s take-down of Johnny Hunt amounts to some vindication for the SBC Executive Committee. It doesn’t.

To the contrary, with no amends and no consequences for its own documented and dreadful conduct, the SBC Executive Committee sets an example of unaccountability and impunity for the rest of the Southern Baptist Convention. Why would anyone expect Southern Baptist churches to impose accountability on abusive pastors when, at the highest level, the SBC Executive Committee doesn’t impose accountability on itself?

Hunt isn’t the only pastor who’s been “restored”

The restoration process that Johnny Hunt went through was apparently similar to what Hunt himself used to do with his City of Refuge program for “fallen” pastors and those with “moral failures.”

In a sworn deposition in Hunt’s lawsuit, a former City of Refuge administrator revealed that about half of the pastors who participated in the City of Refuge pastor-restoration program were men who had faced discipline for “sexual impropriety,” and at least five had faced accusations of sexual abuse.

That’s just the ones he recalled off the top of his head. And that’s just among the pastor-participants. Each year, the City of Refuge program received about 200 applications but only had 10 openings for participants.

It seems a lot of pastors have reason to want a “seal of approval” from a “restoration” program (though, even without it, most could probably still find a Baptist pulpit to stand in).

Many of us have long observed that, in Southern Baptist life, when pastors are described as having “fallen” or as having “moral failures,” it’s often code for sexual misconduct and abuse.

The City of Refuge pastor restoration program was in operation for more than 20 years, from the late 1990s through 2018, and it was supported by the SBC’s North American Mission Board.

If Southern Baptists were actually serious about weeding out pastors who have committed sexual abuse, you might think they would engage an independent investigation of the City of Refuge – and of all other SBC-connected pastor-restoration programs, past and present. You might think they would have already done so.

No telling how many pastors with substantiated and credible allegations of sexual abuse – pastors like Johnny Hunt – have been “restored” right back into Southern Baptist pulpits.

Of course, such an investigation isn’t likely to happen – at least not anytime soon. The Southern Baptist culture of clergy impunity still prevails.

In fact, despite everything, I’m betting we’ll still see Johnny Hunt himself standing in pulpits and speaking at conferences, and lots of Southern Baptists will say “Amen.”

[Meanwhile, if you want a bit more on Johnny Hunt, read this prior post: Hunt seems to think that, so long as there’s no sexual intercourse, there can’t be any sexual abuse, or even any adultery. Really. I kid you not.]

Survivor’s statement

I want to give the last word to Alisa Womack, the woman who told the Guidepost investigators about Johnny Hunt’s abuse. Until yesterday, she had used a “Jane Doe” pseudonym, but after the judge’s ruling, she decided to publicly identify herself and made this statement:

“Justice peeked out from behind the dark clouds, shining light on my path and propelling me forward into freedom.”

Bravo to Alisa! And may justice “peek out” for more survivors more often.

Thanks for reading! For more on the ruses and maneuvers of the Southern Baptist Convention, check out my book, Baptistland: A Memoir of Abuse, Betrayal, and Transformation.