Disgraced pastor and former Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) denominational leader Johnny Hunt recently sat for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions. During the deposition, Hunt told his side of the story, also offering his own definitions of “sexual abuse” and “adultery.”
The deposition was recorded on April 18 but was recently made public.
Hunt filed the lawsuit after the 2022 release of a Guidepost Solutions report that implicated him as credibly accused of sexual assault during his tenure as SBC president in 2010.
The Executive Committee contracted Guidepost Solutions to conduct a third-party investigation into whether the committee had mishandled allegation of sexual abuse across a period of two decades. Since the SBC president is an ex officio member of the Executive Committee, the allegations against Hunt were included in the report.
As a result of the report, Hunt resigned his position as Senior Vice President of Evangelism and Leadership at the SBC’s North American Mission Board (NAMB). He was also terminated from his role as pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Georgia, a church where he served as lead pastor for three decades.
Hunt had vehemently denied the allegations against him. Now, he is seeking damages from the SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions.
Throughout the deposition, Hunt was questioned by Scarlett Nokes, a lawyer representing the Executive Committee.
At one point, Nokes sought to gain clarity on what Hunt saw as the difference between being “unfaithful” to one’s spouse and committing “adultery.”
Nokes asked, “What do you consider being unfaithful to one’s spouse?”
“To be unfaithful, to me, in my heart, would have been to have gone to another lady’s room,” Hunt replied. “But that is not adultery.” To Hunt, an act is considered adultery only when “you have sex with her.”
Hunt also indicated his belief that “the Bible would counsel that.”
“The Bible speaks of adultery in the sense of David,” Hunt said. “And David had a relationship with Bathsheba and she bore a son. But if she hadn’t borne a son, she still had had sex and he had committed adultery.”
When asked his view on emotional affairs, Hunt said, “It would just be that a person had deep feelings for someone other than their spouse…It would be unfaithful but not adultery.”
Hunt seemed to indicate a similar belief when it came to sexual abuse.
“To use sexual abuse would be in the context of intercourse, at least, and I know in the state of Florida, and I think in Georgia and Tennessee,” Hunt said when asked to define sexual abuse. “So I see it in that context, but definitely not consensual.”
Nokes asked, “So I want to be clear, you think in order for there to be sexual abuse, there has to be intercourse? Under a legal definition?”
“That would be part of it,” Hunt replied.
When asked how many Southern Baptist pastors he knew who had been unfaithful to their spouses, Hunt said, “I would be guessing. I have been a pastor for 46 years. I would have to go back and think.”
 denominational leader Johnny Hunt recently sat for a deposition in his defamation lawsuit against the SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions.){kind=link}