NASHVILLE (BP)—Days after a U.S. District Court ordered the final claim dropped in a case against the Southern Baptist Convention, its Executive Committee, and Guidepost Solutions, former SBC President Johnny Hunt filed an appeal not only of that decision, but several others in favor of the defendants going back to March 2024.
Those decisions include the one delivered on March 31, 2025, that brought a summary judgment for the defendants in all aspects of the case except for a November 2022 tweet made by then-SBC President Bart Barber that mentioned Hunt.
That document was amended on Aug. 12 in Chief U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell Jr.’s final verdict to reflect the court’s reconsideration of the tweet.
Hunt’s attorneys filed his notice of appeal on Aug. 18.
“We will review the appeal and respond appropriately as we work toward resolving this matter,” said Jeff Iorg, SBC Executive Committee president.
Hunt filed his original lawsuit in March 2023, centered on his being named in the 2022 Guidepost Solutions report, which looked into allegations of the Executive Committee’s mishandling claims of sexual abuse.
Hunt, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga., was elected SBC president in 2008 for a one-year term before being re-elected in 2009.
A little over a week before the release of the Guidepost report, Hunt resigned as vice president of evangelism and leadership at the North American Mission Board.
Note: An earlier version of this article stated that Hunt was serving in his role with NAMB at the time he was named in the Guidepost report.
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