Suit was filed this week in a Tennessee federal district court by Michael Stone, a prominent Southern Baptist pastor of a congregation in Georgia, against Russell Moore, former head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention. The complaint (full text) in Stone v. Moore, (MD TN, filed 10/18/2021), alleges that soon after Stone, as Chairman of the Executive Committee, began to serve on a task force created to assess whether the actions of ERLC and Moore were negatively affecting the Southern Baptist Convention's fiscal well-being, Moore defamed him in two letters leaked to the news media. According to the complaint:
The First Letter ... contained numerous false allegations against Plaintiff, who was then a prominent candidate for the presidency of the SBC.... [It] indirectly identifies Plaintiff by alleging that “the current chairman of the Executive Committee” and the “Executive Committee... ‘exonerated’ churches, in a spur-of-the-moment meeting, from serious charges of sexual abuse cover-up.”...
[A]dditional statements made by Defendant in the First Letter, including a statement declaring the existence of an SBC “culture where countless children have been torn to shreds, where women have been raped” are demonstrably false.
Stone seeks damages of $750,000 for libel, false light invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Religion News Service has more background on the case.
