If the story is to be believed, Johnny Hunt, the fabled Pastor Emeritus of FBC Woodstock and former President of the Southern Baptist Convention did something unthinkable. In a grotesque act of sexual debauchery, he managed to weasel himself into a situation where he would be alone with another pastor’s wife that had joined them on vacation.
There, without provocation or any indication that he was capable of doing it, he sexually assaulted her. He yanked down her pants and looked upon her naked flesh which caused her to tense up and not be able to move. He then pinned her down on a couch, climbed on top of her, and proceeded to kiss and fondle her breasts. She tried to resist but was frozen, and he came at her again and tried to pull down her shirt, where he groped her and violently kissed her for a while longer. He finally stopped and left. (Hunt says the whole encounter was consensual and disputes many of these details)
This alleged violent sexual assault and (and some might argue attempted rape) was then reported to at least 5 different SBC pastors: the woman’s husband, the church counselor, and according to Guidepost, three other witnesses
Of those SBC pastors, Witness 1 was in ministry for over 40 years. The husband told him shortly after it happened. The second witness is a senior pastor in an SBC church that worked with the husband for 6 years in the same church. The third witness is “a bi-vocational pastor in Southern Baptist churches and worked in local and state conventions. He is currently a minister in residence in a Southern Baptist organization.” According to the Guidepost report:
“Guidepost investigators found all three witnesses to be very credible with clear recollections of Pastor’s statements to them. The witnesses are all still very much involved and committed to Southern Baptist life and the Convention.”
This should not be. All these men should be disqualified from the ministry because not one person reported it.
First of all what kind of husband hears from his wife that she was molested, groped, and sexually assaulted, and does nothing about it? Assuming her side of the story is completely true as reported, another man sexually assaults his wife, climbs on top of her, tries to pull off her clothes, and the husband lets it slide?
What a dereliction of duties and failure to be a man. What a failure to be a husband. The fact that he did not go straight to the police and then tell it to the whole church is to his great shame and sin.
Furthermore, who’s to say that his wife was the first person this monster sexually assaulted? The wife testified that it was completely non-consensual. Unless the husband had reason to believe that it perhaps was consensual, as Hunt has claimed, then he let a sexual pervert not only go unpunished but free to continue sexually assaulting other potential victims for the next decade.
With the husband’s silence, he let a molester (as far as he knew) free within the church and who knows how many other women this predator was going to get alone and try to pull down their pants and stick his fingers and hands God knows where. This covering up of sexual abuse, so that the perpetrator can go on abusing others, is disqualifying behavior.
Furthermore, the same goes for those pastors. Guidepost has framed the whole narrative as if Hunt is guilty. It would have been nice if the Guidepost investigators asked these three witnesses how is it that they heard the testimony of a sexual predator within the SBC, and did nothing about it. Why aren’t they named in the report? Instead, we have a bunch of senior pastors and a pastor who is working at a Southern Baptist organization who heard the testimony of a sexual assault and didn’t tell anyone. They should all be fired.
In fact, Southern Baptists have a right to know the name of the SBC organization that is currently employing a man who has covered up this sexual abuse and served as a predator-enabler, having heard that Hunt groped and assaulted another man’s wife, but did nothing other than help keep it covered up. We have the right to know his name, as he works for us, so that we can contact the organization and insist that he be removed from the payroll.
For this reason, we have reported him to the newly formed Guidestone sexual abuse hotline and will let you all know what if anything they say, and how seriously they actually do take sexual abuse.
