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SBC on fire

Me Too Consequences: Southern Baptist Convention Faces Liquidity Crisis

Earlier this week, Evangelical Dark Web reported on how Hannah-Kate Williams was used to usher in costly blunders for the Southern Baptist Convention which included funding an investigation and waiving attorney-client privilege. The outcome for the backers of Hannah Kate William’s backers is reportedly six figures of bad debts. However, the Southern Baptist Convention is not much better off. The amount of lawsuits spent as a result of publishing a defamatory report has led to a liquidity crisis in the SBC.

Clint Pressley announced that there was no settlement of the Johnny Hunt lawsuit which had a mediation session this week. The Southern Baptist Convention has reportedly spent $3 million on a defamation lawsuit filed by Hunt. In March, Hunt’s lawsuit defeated the motion to dismiss and appears headed for trial. The trial is scheduled to begin in Nashville on November 12.

But in worse news, the Southern Baptist Convention has announced intentions to sell its Nashville headquarters. According to the Tennessean

In a bold move to stabilize the Southern Baptist Convention’s finances, Southern Baptist administrative leaders announced Tuesday the denomination’s building in downtown Nashville will go on the market.

Though an idea long proposed, the timing of the official decision at an SBC Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday was surprising to some.

The executive committee, comprised of 20 staff and an 86-member board of elected representatives, gathered at the BNA Hilton at the Nashville International Airport for a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday and Tuesday. After the final plenary session of the meeting, which was a closed-door executive session, executive committee chairman Philip Robertson announced the members “authorized the president to execute a loan secured by the building and place the SBC building on the market.”

This is a tragic disaster for Southern Baptist to have to liquidate prestigious assets to fund completely preventable lawsuits. It denotes a broader liquidity crisis, as he SBC Executive committee is low on cash that they are not only selling but planning to spend the proceeds before the sale is finalized.

The legacy of JD Greear, Ed Litton, Bart Barber, and now Clint Pressley might be one that the SBC may never financially or reputationally recover.

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