Johnny Hunt Gets Summer Trial Date In $100M Lawsuit Against SBC, Says His NAMB Compensation Was $610K/year
Disgraced pastor and former SBC president Johnny Hunt has received a new trial date in his ongoing legal battle against the SBC. Though initially slated to begin last November in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, it was delayed by settlement skirmishes and legal wrangling. It will now commence on June 17, which is a week after the 2025 SBC annual meeting.
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.”
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 this shows is churches need to use biblical language when speaking of sexual sin. Phrases like “inappropriate relationship with a woman” and “sexual abuse” imply either more or less than what actually happened, and thus using them gets these churches potentially liable to defamation lawsuits and losing said lawsuits. Just speak the truth and use biblical language; call adultery “adultery.” Fire your HR LADIES and hire some men of God!
“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.”
In this case instead of calling him a sexual abuser, they could have said “he did the thing talked about in Ezekiel 23:3.”