Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt has suffered a major legal defeat, effectively bringing his years-long, multimillion-dollar defamation battle against the SBC and others to an end at the federal district-court level.
Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr. ruled August 12 in favor of the SBC and its Executive Committee on the last remaining claim in Hunt's lawsuit-a case in which the once-powerful pastor sought more than $90 million in damages following the explosive 2022 Guidepost Solutions report on the denomination's handling of sexual abuse allegations.
The ruling means that every claim Hunt brought in the case has now been resolved in favor of the defendants at the district-court level.
And one prominent abuse survivor and advocate isn't mourning the outcome.
Tiffany Thigpen says the millions spent fighting the case could have gone toward protecting survivors and advancing abuse reforms within the SBC.
From SBC Powerhouse to a $90 Million Lawsuit
Hunt was hardly an obscure Baptist pastor.
He led First Baptist Church Woodstock in Georgia for more than three decades, served as SBC president from 2008 to 2010 and later became an executive vice president at the North American Mission Board.
Then came the Guidepost report.
The independent investigation included allegations from a pastor's wife who accused Hunt of sexually assaulting her during a 2010 encounter.
Hunt has consistently denied that characterization. While acknowledging what he called a "brief, but improper" encounter, Hunt maintained that it was consensual.
"I have never abused anybody," Hunt said following publication of the report. "It was not abuse nor was it assault."
Hunt subsequently sued Guidepost Solutions, the SBC and the SBC Executive Committee in 2023, arguing in part that the encounter was a private matter that should never have appeared in the report.
The damages he sought reportedly exceeded a staggering $90 million for alleged lost income, reputational damage and emotional distress.
But Hunt's case steadily unraveled.
In March 2025, the court dismissed his claims against Guidepost and all but one of his claims against the SBC defendants.
Only one piece remained: a defamation claim involving a December 2022 social-media post by then-SBC President Bart Barber.
Now that claim is gone too.
The Bart Barber Post at the Center of the Final Fight
Barber's post said Hunt had been the subject of a third-party investigation following allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman half his age in ways Barber believed would constitute a felony.
Whether Hunt could take his defamation claim over that statement to trial depended significantly on one question: Was Johnny Hunt a private citizen-or a public figure?
The court had little trouble answering.
Campbell pointed to Hunt's decades at the highest levels of Southern Baptist life, including his books, sermons, conferences, speaking engagements and extensive public profile.
Perhaps most damaging to Hunt's argument were descriptions Hunt himself had reportedly used regarding his prominence.
According to the ruling, Hunt had characterized himself as the "pinnacle" and "face of the Convention," while describing himself as someone "everyone in the convention knew" and a "sought-after speaker and author."
Those claims came back to matter.
"Based on the foregoing, the Court concludes that Hunt was a public figure during the relevant time," Campbell ruled.
That designation meant Hunt faced the demanding "actual malice" standard in his defamation claim. The court had already determined that Hunt lacked evidence demonstrating that Barber made the statement with actual malice.
Game over.
The judge granted summary judgment to the SBC defendants.
SBC Says the Case Is Over
SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg welcomed the decision.
"We are grateful for the Court's decision, which resolves all claims in this case in favor of the SBC and the other defendants and brings the district-court proceedings to an end," Iorg told Baptist Press.
For the SBC, the decision closes a costly and highly publicized chapter at the trial-court level.
For abuse advocate Tiffany Thigpen, however, the money spent fighting that chapter raises another uncomfortable question: What else could those resources have accomplished?
Tiffany Thigpen: Think What Those Millions Could Have Funded
Thigpen, a sexual abuse survivor and longtime advocate for reform within the SBC, responded sharply to the ruling.
She argued that the millions poured into Hunt's lawsuit and the defense against it could have helped fund the abuse database previously approved by SBC messengers, as well as survivor care and broader reform efforts.
"I think of, the millions spent both to sue and then to defend just this one case could have funded the database we asked for, messengers voted for, and supplied the office and further work for reform, protections, restitution and care for the many harmed," Thigpen said.
She also accused Hunt of lowering the standard of accountability within Southern Baptist life.
"To great shame, Hunt further lowered the bar, far below reproach, for himself and the SBC," she said.
Thigpen summarized what she believes went wrong in stark terms: "Defense instead of protections. Restoration aims instead of restitution."
"Once again, defending the harm caused, instead of accountability," she concluded. "Another precedent set."
The Lawsuit Is Dead, but Johnny Hunt Is Still Preaching
Perhaps the biggest twist in the entire saga is that while Hunt has now lost his remaining defamation claim, his preaching ministry hasn't disappeared.
Far from it.
Despite the controversy that has surrounded him since 2022, Hunt continues to receive invitations to preach and train church leaders.
In June, Hunt announced that he would be a featured speaker at the Unite Robco Revival in North Carolina and preach at Sandhill Baptist Church. He also advertised leadership training for pastors.
And his calendar apparently stretches well into the future.
Hunt has announced that he is scheduled to speak at the North Central Arkansas Pastors Conference at Franklin Baptist Church in Arkansas on April 24, 2027, where he is expected to participate in leadership training for pastors.
That reality is likely to keep the larger controversy alive even though his federal district-court lawsuit has reached its end.
Hunt's attempted return to ministry has been controversial from the beginning. In late 2022, four pastors announced that Hunt had undergone a restoration process and was ready to return to ministry-a move that drew criticism from survivors, advocates and SBC leaders.
Hunt subsequently returned to preaching.
A Stunning Fall From the SBC's Inner Circle
The contrast is difficult to miss.
Hunt once occupied some of the most influential positions in America's largest Protestant denomination. He pastored a flagship megachurch, served as SBC president and held a senior position with NAMB.
Then the Guidepost report made the allegations against him national news.
Hunt fought back, denying sexual assault, insisting the encounter was consensual and eventually seeking more than $90 million in damages through the courts.
Three years after filing his lawsuit, the last surviving defamation claim has now fallen.
Yet Hunt himself hasn't vanished from Southern Baptist pulpits.
So while the courtroom battle may be over at the district-court level, the argument surrounding Johnny Hunt-his conduct, his restoration and whether he should continue preaching-is clearly not.
