Baptist Church Defends Johnny Hunt, Attacks SBC’s MeToo Agenda

Earlier this month, Todd Benkert reported two churches to the Credentials Committee for hosting or intending to host Johnny Hunt, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. The two churches are Hiland Park Baptist Church in Panama City, Fla., and New Season Church in Hiram, Ga. Todd Benkert, a liberal blogging pastor was appointed to the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, by Bart Barber. Benkert leaked this story to a secular media outlet.

Hiland Park Baptist Church did not take kindly to their cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention being questioned by the Credentials Committee and responded publicly to the allegations made against them.

Credentials Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention
cc: Dr. Tommy Green, Executive Director of the Florida Baptist Convention
Troy Varnum, Associational Missionary of the Northwest Coast Baptist Association
February 15, 2023
Dear SBC Credentials Committee,

We write today in response to your letter dated February 1, 2022. We can only assume 2022 was in error since we received the letter by email on February 1, 2023.

First, thank you for your service to Southern Baptists, specifically in the matter of addressing sexual abuse. Hiland Park Baptist Church joins you in abhorrence of the evil of sexual abuse. Our church policies and procedures reflect our commitment to provide a safe environment for children and vulnerable populations.

We have enjoyed an 80-year history of fellowship and cooperation with our local association, the Florida Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention. After you sent a letter of inquiry to Hiland Park Baptist Church, we were notified that your Credentials Committee also sent copies to the Florida Baptist Convention and our local association, the Northwest Coast Baptist Association. In light of your letter, we checked with both the Florida Baptist Convention and the Northwest Coast Baptist Association and each confirmed that Hiland Park Baptist Church remains a church in good standing and fellowship.

While we do not agree with the overreaching implications of your recent letter, it is in the spirit of cooperation and our commitment to global missions that we offer this brief response.

In your letter you reference both the 2021 SBC Resolution regarding Sexual Abuse and an SBC By-Law pertaining to churches and sexual abuse. You stated that the resolution contends that a person who has committed “sexual abuse” should be permanently disqualified from ministry.

Without debating the merits of that resolution, it is worth reminding the committee that resolutions, by their form, are not governing documents. By their very content, resolutions do not speak for the Southern Baptist Convention on the whole. As the precise phrase your committee cited states, this was merely the sentiment of a majority of “the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, June 15-16, 2021.”

Thus, using a resolution as an enforcement mechanism on a local church violates every historic norm of our understanding of SBC resolutions and local church autonomy. We reject an insinuation that we are bound by a resolution passed by a body of messengers gathering at a given meeting. While this renders the entire reference to the resolution a moot issue, we nevertheless have additional concerns about the overreach of this resolution and the committee’s use of it in initiating this inquiry.

On the basis of Baptist polity Hiland Park begins forming its viscous response to the inquiry. As a resolution is unbinding Todd Benkert and the Credentials Committee had a bold strategy to go after churches for hosting Johnny Hunt. And now that the strategy has been called out, it will be interesting to see a response on this issue.

Moreover, there is no proof whatsoever that our recent guest speaker has “committed sexual abuse.” The Bible states in Proverbs 18:17, “The first to plead his case seems right until his neighbor comes to question him.” We are not aware of any evidence, any proof, or any legal charges against our guest speaker. This remains an anonymous allegation regardless of the conclusion of one investigatory body. It falls far short of a legal accusation.

Johnny Hunt was not actually accused of sexual abuse in the Sex Abuse Task Form Report. He was actually accused of sexual assault in the report, a distinction that is necessary as the issue of sexual abuse generally refers to children. Moreover, the Guidepost Solutions findings against Johnny Hunt would not stand in a court of law, criminal or civil. The evidence simply wasn’t provided.

Furthermore, we as a church believe the credibility of Guidepost, as an investigatory body to render moral verdicts that are consistent with biblical categories and definitions regarding sexual behavior, to be highly questionable. Guidepost, as an organization, advocates for and celebrates sexual sin directly in violation of the biblical ethic our church firmly holds to.

Hiland Park then attacks the credibility of Guidepost Solutions, correctly pointing out that a corporation that promotes homosexuality has no credibility on the issue of sex abuse.

We believe the standard of “credible accusation” to be troublingly ambiguous, far below biblical standards of considering evidence against a spiritual leader, and exceedingly dangerous.

A credible accusation largely depends on who the alleged perpetrator is. These are the rules in the MeToo movement that have been weaponized by Rachael DenHollander and her allies in the Southern Baptist Convention.

While we disagree with most of your conclusions, we do agree with you that your committee has no ecclesiastical authority over our autonomous congregation.

Further, we agree with SBC Bylaw 8C(5), part of the bylaw that created your committee, as it explicitly states that your committee “shall never attempt to exercise any authority over a church through an investigation or other process that would violate Article IV of the Constitution.” You also mentioned the SBC bylaws regarding a church acting consistent with the convention’s beliefs regarding sexual abuse, however since, a) no duly authorized body recognized by our church has proved Pastor Johnny Hunt as guilty of having “committed sexual abuse,” and b) your committee, by bylaw, has no authority to conduct an investigation and draw any such conclusion in itself, and c) no governing document of the SBC states that having a guest speaker who has been “credibly accused by an independent third-party investigation” is grounds to be deemed out of cooperation, we find the essence of your letter problematic.

Hiland Park essentially states that the Credentials Committee doesn’t have a case and doesn’t have the authority to build a case against them.

Your letter asks us to provide information to prove how our church’s recent decision to have Pastor Hunt speak “can be considered to be consistent with the Convention’s beliefs regarding sexual abuse?” While this letter does that clearly, we reject wholesale the unbiblical standard suggested here, that we are being asked to give evidence of our innocence of violating the parameters of cooperation with the SBC.

“Guilty until proven innocent” is an ungodly and unbiblical standard. This flawed standard has been rejected by our Lord, should be rejected by Biblically-minded Southern Baptists, and is firmly rejected by Hiland Park Baptist Church.

Hiland Park reiterates having biblical standards of due process, something the Southern Baptist Convention has had major issues with, issues that have landed them in a defamation suit for labeling someone a sex abuser falsely.

We also feel compelled to share our concerns about one very troubling part of this inquiry process. It does not seem logical to us that Southern Baptists, when they approved a revised Bylaw 8 at the 2019 annual meeting, envisioned or would have knowingly approved a process whereby one activist individual, who was also appointed by the current President of the SBC to the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, could submit a church for inquiry, leak that submission to the secular press, and thereby place that church in secular and denominational headlines before the church can be informed.

Finally, as we continue to discuss this matter with our own counsel in pursuance of all of our legal recourses, it would be helpful to all potential parties involved if you would provide clarity, in writing, of the following question: Is the Credentials Committee, which is a duly elected committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is a Georgia corporation, formally and officially claiming, in writing, to an entire SBC-affiliated congregation that when we hosted Pastor Johnny Hunt we hosted a speaker who has “committed sexual abuse?”

Thank you for your anticipated reply.

The Pastoral Team and Leadership Hiland Park Baptist Church Panama City, FL

Hiland Park closes their letter by baiting the Credentials Committee to commit libel. This is a classic de-escalation by escalation tactic. Either the Credentials Committee has to libel Hiland Park and Johnny Hunt by labeling him a sex abuser and therefore Hiland Park enablers, or they’ll have to shut up and drop the inquiry.

Conclusion

Hiland Park showed more balls than any of the thought leaders in fighting on the conservative side in the Southern Baptist Convention. The Conservative Baptist Network refused to pick this fight ahead of the 2022 convention, waiting until Megan Basham of the Daily Wire did.

Johnny Hunt may not be one of the “good guys” in this fight but he has become a surprising battleground to attack the MeToo Moment in the Southern Baptist Convention.