Revelations from the Johnny Hunt Lawsuit: "What a Racket"

A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Johnny Hunt, is seeking to recover $75 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit.

Hunt sued after he was named in the Guidepost investigatory report as being credibly accused of having sexually assaulted another pastor’s wife. For whatever it’s worth (and in my view not much given that Hunt gave conflicting statements), Hunt now acknowledges that the “encounter” happened but says it was consensual and not abusive. [Here’s where you can read more about the Hunt-related findings of that investigatory report.]

So, let’s just be clear about what’s happening here. Johnny Hunt is seeking millions of dollars because he was exposed for having had a credible and corroborated report of sexual assault on a woman—what he calls “only kissing and some awkward fondling.” Hunt contends that he sought counseling and forgiveness, and that the matter should have been kept private.

Johnny Hunt was previously memorialized in stained glass in the chapel of a Southern Baptist seminary.

Hunt—who refers to himself in his defamation lawsuit as “Pastor Johnny”—asserts that, after the May 2022 publication of the Guidepost report, he lost income to the tune of $1.4 million a year.

Wow. What a lucrative gig “Pastor Johnny” had.

Karen Swallow Prior said it best: “What a racket.”

What’s included in Hunt’s damage claims

Since the Southern Baptist Convention is notoriously secretive about salaries, this financial info from Johnny Hunt’s lawsuit was pretty interesting. According to court documents, Hunt is claiming he previously made $1.4 million a year in salary, benefits, book sales, speaking fees, and other income.

Breaking that amount down, he claims to have been earning:

$610,000 in annual income and benefits

$360,000 per year in book sales

$350,000 per year in speaking fees

$80,000 per year in other lost income

At the time the Guidepost report was released, Hunt was working for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, which is funded with the tithe dollars that thousands of Southern Baptist church members across the country give for “missions” work.

So, some are now asking, “Was Hunt being paid $610,000 a year by the North American Mission Board?” NAMB needs to answer that.

Next up with the numbers from his lawsuit, Hunt claims that he had intended to work eleven more years—or until he was 80—and so he multiplies the $1.4 million times 11 for a total alleged loss of $15.4 million.

In addition, he claims at least $30 million in reputational harm and another $30 million in emotional distress. And on top of all that, he’s asking for punitive damages in an undetermined amount to be decided by the jury.

Perhaps my empathetic energy has been too depleted by the many clergy sex abuse survivors that Hunt ignored during his tenure as SBC president—most of whom have never seen one dime of any care from the SBC—but the simple truth is that I just can’t muster up any sorrow for Hunt’s purported “losses.” (Besides, “the sin of empathy” is what many evangelicals have been warning against lately. And oh gee whiz… I wouldn’t want to fall into sin with too much empathy.)

So… cry me a river.

The “legitimizer”

Hunt has not been totally without income. Thanks to a restoration process headed up by four other Southern Baptist pastors, and endorsements from allies, Hunt has continued to be platformed for dozens of speaking engagements at evangelical churches and conferences.

[Given his claims of making $1.4 million a year, it’s no wonder he wanted to be so quickly “restored,” eh?]

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

City of Refuge provided a residential program of counseling to “restore” pastors who had resigned or been removed from the pulpit. Pastors who completed the program would then be endorsed as fit to return to ministry.

“We were kind of like a legitimizer,” said Hunt in a deposition for the lawsuit.

Along with others, I’ve previously called for an independent investigation of the City of Refuge because, within the SBC, the term “moral failure” has so often been used as code for “sexual abuse” or to gloss over conduct that could be classified as criminal.

Now, thanks to on-the-record revelations in Hunt’s lawsuit, we learn that there is indeed concrete evidence to support that concern. Roy Blankenship, the counseling pastor who helped run the City of Refuge program, testified that he recalled at least five cases in which program participants had been accused of sexual abuse.

Five cases that he recalled off the top of his head. Maybe there were other cases that he just didn’t recall. Or maybe there were cases that he mentally classified only as “sexual misconduct” when other experts might classify them as “sexual abuse.” Blankenship did acknowledge that half of the program’s participants were there for “sexual impropriety.”

And the City of Refuge may have gained information about clergy sex abusers not only from participants but also from applicants. For a time, the program was receiving 200 applications a year even though the program had only ten openings a year.   

But even if we simply take Blankenship’s testimony at face value, this means he knew about at least five pastors who had committed sexual abuse, and he allowed the City of Refuge program to “legitimize” them.

A complete investigation of the whole City of Refuge program is needed so as to disclose the names of any pastors whose “moral failings” involved the sexual abuse of children or congregants. The need for such an investigation is obvious; the only question is why it hasn’t been done already.

The investigation should also include full disclosure of the financial records for all the money spent by the SBC’s North American Mission Board on support for the City of Refuge program… or any other pastor restoration programs.

City of Refuge was not the only pastor restoration program within the Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist General Convention of Texas used to have a restoration program that provided two years’ worth of counseling for pastors who had been involved in “sexual misconduct.” The pastors could be restored to ministry after six months in the program but would continue with counseling “as needed” for two years.

All SBC-connected pastor restoration programs, past and present, should be investigated. No telling how many pastors have been “legitimized” right back into Southern Baptist pulpits.

My book, Baptistland, is now available.