Johnny Hunt, SBC lawsuit parties to meet next year to discuss trial
Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt and the SBC are scheduled to meet next year as part of his lawsuit against the denomination over allegations of defamation and invasion of privacy.
United States District Judge William Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, released an order last week explaining that “the parties shall meet and confer about trial dates after the beginning of May 2025.”
The lead counsel for Hunt and the SBC Executive Committee will also “have a face-to-face meeting to see if they can reach an agreement about reopening discovery for the limited purpose of deposing Kevin Ezell, Jeremy Morton, and Ed Litton.”
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“Any future discovery disputes must involve lead counsel meeting in person, face-to-face before bringing the dispute to the Court. If any such disputes are brought to the Court, the parties must certify that lead counsel met in person and made a good faith effort to resolve the dispute,” explained the order.
In May 2022, the independent investigation by Guidepost Solutions released a report that detailed extensive allegations that SBC leaders had intimidated whistleblowers and exonerated churches facing credible claims of abuse.
Hunt, a 72-year-old longtime pastor who formerly served as president of the SBC, was named in the report, with a woman who was the wife of a young pastor accusing him of having assaulted her in 2010.
In response to the report, First Baptist Church Woodstock in Georgia suspended Hunt in June 2022 from his role as pastor emeritus. He would later return to the pulpit in January 2023 at Hiland Park Baptist Church of Panama City, Florida.
In March 2023, Hunt filed a complaint against the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee, and Guideposts, accusing them of wrongfully defaming his character and violating his privacy.
According to the lawsuit, the 2010 incident was a "brief, inappropriate, extramarital encounter with a married woman" that “should not have been published at all.”
"At most, the encounter lasted only a few minutes, and it involved only kissing and some awkward fondling," the complaint stated. "This was a private failing by Pastor Johnny and the woman involved, and the story should have ended there. But it didn't."
"By focusing on the allegation against Pastor Johnny — an allegation by an adult woman that involved noncriminal conduct — and by then taking aggressive action against Pastor Johnny, the Defendants sought to create the appearance that the SBC has learned from its previous mistakes and is now working to protect victims of sex crimes.”
In September, SBC President Clint Pressley announced that, despite some reports indicating such, no settlement had been reached between the two parties over the litigation.
Griffin Gulledge, the pastor of Madison Baptist Church in Madison, Georgia, argued in support of not settling Hunt's lawsuit in a series of tweets at the time as part of “our ongoing commitment to stand up to abuse.”
"Settling is easy. Winning is harder and more expensive. Not as expensive as the damage we do to our own integrity if we start paying off compromised or abusive pastors just because they're litigious and hate accountability," he added.
"These are hard questions and I'm praying for all those involved. But I am reminded that we repeatedly said years ago that this could be part of the cost of reform. The messengers said that was a cost they were willing to bear. Integrity and justice are worth it."
