Judge Dismisses Johnny Hunt’s Final Defamation Claim

Court rules Hunt failed to prove actual malice in Bart Barber's tweet.

(RNS) — A federal judge dismissed the final claims of a defamation lawsuit filed by former Southern Baptist President Johnny Hunt, who claimed his career was ruined after his sexual misconduct became public in 2022.

Johnny Hunt in 2021 at Fairview Knox Church in Corryton, Tennessee. (Video screen grab)

Hunt, who had been a megachurch pastor in Georgia and a vice president with the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board — as well as a popular author and speaker — was named in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report on how Southern Baptist leaders had dealt with issues of abuse.

According to that report, Hunt allegedly assaulted another pastor’s wife, then hid his misconduct from church members and his employer for years. Hunt said he had sinned but denied it was abuse.

He sued Guidepost and the Southern Baptist Convention in 2023, arguing his misconduct was a private matter and disclosing it cost him millions. He sought tens of millions in damages.

Most of the suit was dismissed last year. But one count remained, as Hunt’s lawyers alleged Bart Barber, another former SBC president, had defamed him in a post on what was then known as Twitter.

The trial on the last claim was set for next month in Nashville.

But in a ruling Wednesday (Aug. 12), Chief U.S. District Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee William L. Campbell Jr. dismissed that final claim, saying Hunt had failed to prove his claim.

At issue was whether or not Hunt was a public figure at the time of the tweet. If he had that status, then he would have to prove actual malice to win a defamation claim.

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“As the Court previously explained, Hunt does not have evidence that the Tweet (or any of the publications) was made with actual malice,” Campbell wrote.

Campbell also rejected claims by Hunt’s attorney that he was a private figure and that publishing the allegations against him invaded his privacy. The judge pointed out that Hunt was a well-known speaker in the SBC and signed book contracts with major Christian publishers.

In a deposition, Hunt had also claimed he got the six-figure job at NAMB because of his name recognition.

“And I will just be real clear,” he said in the deposition. “They wanted my name. They wanted Johnny Hunt there because they were struggling a lot.”

Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC’s Executive Committee, told Baptist Press, a denominational publication, that the committee was grateful for the judge’s ruling.

Since the Guidepost Report was published, the Executive Committee has spent millions defending itself against Hunt and former seminary professor David Sills, both of whom were named in the report. Those legal fees emptied the committee’s reserves and led to a backlash against the Guidepost Report and against claims the SBC had an abuse crisis.

The Sills lawsuit is still pending.

Judge Campbell also unsealed a set of texts between Hunt and the Rev. Steven Kyle, pastor of Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Florida, in which they discussed Hunt’s return to ministry after his misconduct became public. In the fall of 2022, Kyle and several other pastors released a video claiming Hunt was restored to ministry.

In the text, Hunt suggested asking the Rev. Johnnie Moore, a former Trump faith adviser who later ran the ill-fated Gaza Humanitarian Foundation during Israel’s war on Gaza, to review the video announcing Hunt’s restoration and to write a “recommending script.”

“I’m willing to pay,” Hunt says in the text.

It’s unclear what role, if any, Moore played in the script. The text chain did not include messages from Moore.

The unsealed document also shows the script for the video as well as Hunt and his colleagues discussing a publicity plan and how to respond to journalists.

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