Johnny Hunt Seeks Up to $100M in Damages From SBC for Economic, Reputational and Emotional Harm
Disgraced pastor and former SBC president Johnny Hunt is seeking at least 75 million dollars in damages (and up to $100M) from the SBC, alleging “economic harms of $15.4M, harm to reputation of $30M – $45M, and emotional harm of $30M – $45M,” according to newly released documents from @SBClitigation.
A decade ago, Hunt engaged in what he describes as a “brief, consensual extramarital encounter,” and what the woman involved maintains was non-consensual sexual assault. His church was never told about the incident and he went through a secret restoration. It remained a secret for a decade until it was outed in the recent Guidepost investigation.
These allegations of sexual assault and revelation of (at the minimum) a “brief, consensual extramarital encounter” caused Hunt’s life and ministry to implode. He lost his job as VP at NAMB, was formally suspended from his position as Pastor Emeritus at First Baptist Church of Woodstock congregation, and was subject to great personal embarrassment.
Hunt later sued the SBC and Guidepost for labeling him as an abuser and making this public, saying that his sexual encounters were no one’s business but his own. In newly released court transcripts, Hunt insisted that while he may have been ‘unfaithful’ to his wife by kissing another woman’s breasts and pulling down her underwear, he did not commit adultery, as no penetration took place.
Now, he’s seeking on account of suffering economic, reputation, and emotional harm, asking up to $100M. Of special note is that Hunt says he has lost $610,000 a year in lost wages, along with $3,969,00 a year in book sales and another $350,000 a year in speaking engagements.
So far the SBC has spent more than $3 million on legal fees for Hunt’s case alone, and it is believed that there will be no settlement. Hunt reported nearly a million dollars in income in 2019 and over a million in income in 2020, and it is unclear how much of that salary was coming from his job at NAMB, making the need for financial transparency from the SBC all the more dire.
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What it should take is one person, a Bible in hand, and the five minutes it takes to show the judge the scripture justifying his firing, without any need to consider whether or not it was consensual or abusive, because by scripture he was rightfully fired whether it was consensual or not, abusive or not. No need to appeal to secular law at all.
The cost would be the gas it takes to drive to the courtroom and back …
Instead, the SBC is going to take it another route, double-down yet again, hire a big gaggle of high-paid lawyers to argue secular law, and essentially beg the government to dictate to the church in all matters of hiring and firing. Apparently, in SBC land, the First Amendment is only good for things like funding the building of mosques.
This reminds me of the parable of the mustard ‘tree’ and he’s one of the fowls that is in the branches.
There is NO scriptures that support entities like the SBC. The church was, and should always remain autonomous.
Good luck getting those demons out of the branch’s, they’re everywhere.