Hunt expands concerns about Logan resignation

SBC president says ‘greater clarity’ needed

Jul 24, 2009
JAMES A. SMITH SR.
Executive Editor

PANAMA CITY BEACH (FBW) – SBC President Johnny Hunt believes Executive Committee trustees need to give “greater clarity” about the controversial resignation of Clark Logan when the body meets in September.

Photo by Joni B. Hannigan

JOHNNY HUNT

In an exclusive interview with Florida Baptist Witness July 20, Hunt expanded on concerns he first raised in a July 8 Witness interview and said he may offer a motion on the matter at the next EC meeting.

Five days after Logan abruptly resigned July 1 as vice president for business and finance of the Executive Committee, he told the Witness EC President Morris Chapman requested the resignation.

Chapman confirmed to the Witness in a July 7 statement Logan’s assertion that he was not accused of and did not commit any unethical or immoral behavior. Unwilling to confirm that he requested Logan’s resignation, Chapman said the EC “follows established policy” for personnel matters, which must remain “private.”

Chapman also affirmed Logan as “a fine young man, and I am grateful for the contributions he made to the work of the Executive Committee.”

Randall James, EC trustee chairman and assistant pastor of First Baptist Church in Orlando, told the Witness July 16 EC officers authorized Chapman’s requested action on Logan in a five-minute June 30 conference call.

James said Chapman “had been praying for six months about the matter” because “he was experiencing ‘chemistry’ – my word – problems with Clark” although the officers and Chapman “did not discuss the specifics” of the problem with Logan.

A former mayoral chief of staff for the City of Orlando, James compared the Logan resignation to the need of presidents and other government executives to make cabinet changes when necessary.

“I was briefed prior to one of the mayors I served as chief of staff … if I came in the office one morning and [the mayor] did not like the smell of my aftershave, I would have no avenue of appeal if [the mayor] wanted someone else,” James explained.

During a July 20 interview in Panama City Beach where he is vacationing, Hunt said he is “bothered” by the “bluntness” of Logan’s resignation and believes “greater clarity” is needed from Chapman and the Executive Committee to answer concerns expressed by grassroots Southern Baptists.

Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Ga., in metropolitan Atlanta, was re-elected without opposition to a second, one-year term as SBC president last month in Louisville.

Logan’s resignation has resulted in hundreds of comments on social networking Web sites Facebook and Twitter, as well as blogs that have questioned Chapman’s action in the Logan matter.

Although he would prefer another trustee act, Hunt said he may be willing to request the EC to look into the Logan resignation during its Sept. 21-22 meeting. As SBC president, Hunt serves as an EC trustee.

“What I would probably prefer is to see the real, elected trustees do that. I’m not going to say I’m beyond that. But I would like to think that in that room with that many – I think we’ve got 80 [trustees] – I would like to think that someone else other than myself is concerned,” Hunt said.

“If [Logan] did nothing unethical, nothing immoral, what were the issues? Is it something they can share?” Hunt said of Chapman and the EC officers.

Concerning the officers’ five minute conference call with Chapman about Logan, Hunt said, “For a person that’s at a VP level, that seems mighty brief. Can you even ask questions in five minutes? I really don’t have the answers since I wasn’t part of it, but it sure raises more questions.”

Hunt expressed concern about a claim he read in an unidentified blog that Logan was “ushered from the property” the day he resigned.

“I thought, if that’s true, again, I don’t have the answers, but it leads to greater questions. What in the world did he do to be treated like that? … I have 160 employees and I’ve had men caught in adultery that were not treated like that,” Hunt said.

Florida Baptist Witness contacted Chapman via e-mail on July 24 seeking to confirm the claim about Logan being escorted from EC offices. No response was received by deadline.

Hunt praised Logan for creating a good setting for the meeting hall for the SBC annual meeting in Louisville. In his role as EC vice president, Logan was also convention manager for the annual meeting.

“I give the credit for the way it felt and the way it looked to the man that’s been dismissed. … I hate that he’s gone. He was doing so good serving us,” Hunt said.

“I’ve lost a great supporter. A great helper. … He was very creative, much younger than the group he worked with,” Hunt said of Logan, 42.

Hunt wondered if Logan’s creativity could have been part of his problem.

“I loved it. I miss him,” he said.

Logan joined the Executive Committee staff Oct. 15, 2007, after serving various positions at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., including vice president for administration.

According to Southern Baptist TEXAN, Logan previously was a computer analyst with State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Ill., and later served churches in Owenton and Louisville, Ky. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in business administration as well as a master of divinity from Southern Seminary.

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