Today on The Lovelight Stories Podcast, I’m welcoming Garland Hunt. Having witnessed the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Garland became a black activist at a young age, who later realized his racial perspective wasn’t aligned with a biblical worldview. This realization sent him on a transformational life journey of promoting racial healing and reconciliation, as well as seeking criminal justice reform.
LISTEN TO EPISODE #25 NOW:
Listen + Follow on your favorite platform:
Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | Pandora | iHeartRadio
Garland Hunt is the senior pastor of The Father's House in the Metro Atlanta area and co-founder of the OneRace Movement. A member of the Georgia Bar Association, Hunt is active in the political arena and is a long-time advocate of religious liberties. He has held multiple governor-appointed positions within the Georgia state government, including Chairman of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles and Commissioner of Juvenile Justice. Hunt also served as President of Chuck Colson-founded Prison Fellowship. Hunt's passion and part of God's call on his life is to bring racial reconciliation to the body of Christ and to help Christians in their journey toward spiritual maturity.
From time to time, I like to bring guests on the show in a thought-leader capacity to help us think about issues of humanity in a new way. This is one of those episodes where Garland shares what he’s learned through his numerous experiences in the spaces of faith, justice, race, and reconciliation. In this episode, we discuss multiple topics therein and how we ourselves can seek racial reconciliation and justice through a faith-based perspective!
Topics covered in this episode:
- Hear Garland Hunt’s transformational experience of watching the aftermath of Dr. King’s death, ultimately leading him to becoming a young black activist with interest in criminal justice.
- Come to learn how he later realized his racial perspective wasn’t aligned with a biblical worldview and how he began to transform his activism into promoting racial healing instead. Hear all the creative and powerful ways he’s done so too!
- Hear about his experience as the Chairman of the Pardon and Paroles Board of GA and what he witnessed about young people and the lack of fathers in the home.
- Hear his perspective on respect for life, no-matter your race.
- Learn the imbalances he’s seen in the criminal justice system and how we can seek reform through a faith-based perspective!
It’s an honor to learn from Garland Hunt’s extensive experience in racial healing and reconciliation work. To dive further into this topic, be sure to grab Garland’s book, Crisis in America: A Christian Response.
Links mentioned:
- Learn more and purchase Garland Hunt’s book: Crisis in America: A Christian Response
- Connect with The Father’s House via their website or Facebook.
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Garland's Bio:
Garland R. Hunt is a proven strategic leader with a dynamic ministry background and extensive experience in criminal justice, religious liberty and race relations. He recently authored "Crisis in America: A Christian Response" (2021).
Hunt's executive leadership spans some 30 years, with the Fellowship of International Churches, Wellington Boone Ministries and New Generation Campus Ministries, which prepared him for an appointment as President of Prison
Fellowship in July of 2011 until September of 2013, an organization that partners with some 7,700 churches and 14,000 volunteers.
He has extensive work as an advocate for religious liberty and criminal justice reform. He is co-Founder of the OneRace Racial Healing Movement. He also serves as a consultant with Alliance Defending Freedom and co-founder of the Coalition of Religious Liberty in Georgia. Hunt serves on the Board of Directors and as the Vice Chairman of Crossroads Prison Ministries and has served as Vice President of the Association of Paroling Authorities International.
In 2023, Hunt was appointed as a board member to the Department of Juvenile Justice by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. In early 2021, Hunt was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp (GA) to the State Housing Trust Fund for the Homeless Commission.
In March 2015, Hunt was installed as Senior Pastor of the Father’s House in Norcross Georgia. Each week, Bishop Hunt demonstrates his pastor’s heart through his passionate preaching and vibrant leadership.
In 2010, he was commissioner of the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, overseeing a staff of 4,500 employees, and managed the care of 52,000 youth who were under the supervision and detention of the juvenile justice department.
In 2004, Hunt was appointed to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, by Governor Sonny Perdue as a member of an executive board authorized to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, remissions, commutations and the restoration of civil and political rights for Georgia’s inmates. Hunt became chairman of the board in 2006.
In 1993, he founded the Raleigh International Church; an influential ministry with the mission of racial reconciliation.
After completing a B.A. from Howard University and JD from Howard University School of Law, Hunt served as a judicial law clerk and staff attorney with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Garland and his lovely wife Eileen have been married for 38 years. They have three grown children, Garland Jr., Christa, Jeremy, daughter in laws Melissa and Ky, son in law Brian and seven grandchildren.
Watch on YouTube!
Send us your Heartmail!
Have a relatable experience to share, encouraging words for our guest, or just want to share a comment?
If there’s a large response to today's episode, we might just bring our guest back on the show to dive into your comments, or even have them join us as a guest in The Lovelight Stories FB Community!
1.) Leave a quick voice message
Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe for our guest and you'll have a chance to have your note featured on an upcoming episode! Leave your voice message here!
2.) Submit your written questions
Submit your written questions or encouraging comments for today's guest here instead. Submit questions and comments here!
Submit your guest idea
Have someone you know who'd be a great guest on the show? Have a topic idea? Submit your ideas here!
Be the first to comment