Lord Have Mercy: White pastor Louie Giglio thinks ‘white privilege’ should be called ‘white blessings’

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Written By Empowering Everyday Women

Article By Asia Hardrict // EEW Magazine Online // Race + Faith

Editor’s Note: Louie Giglio posted a video apology subsequent to the publishing of this article. The footage is included at the bottom of this post.

An Atlanta megachurch pastor is being lambasted on social media for referring to the benefits white folks received from slavery on the backs of the black enslaved as "white blessings" instead of "white privilege."

In a televised conversation with Reach Records rapper, Lecrae Moore, and Chick-fil-A CEO, Dan Cathy, Pastor Louie Giglio said America needs to "get over" using the phraseology "white privilege,” leading to widespread condemnation.

Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where residents are currently protesting the police murder of another black man, Rayshard Brooks, branded the sit-down chat as "an open and honest conversation around how racism has plagued our city for generations, and the steps we can all take to confront it head-on in our church, our neighborhoods, and our hearts."

Using Jesus’ crucifixion as the backdrop of his assertion about slavery, Giglio said, “We love the blessing of the cross, but we don't love to sit in it and realize this is what God’s asking me to do, to die to myself, and live for him, whatever context that's going to look like for me.

"But I want to flip that upside down because I think the other side of it is true with our nation's history. We understand the curse that was slavery. White people do, and we say 'that was bad,' but we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in."

Giglio then proceeded to make the point that white people are uncomfortable with the concept of white privilege. So he proposed, instead, that a new phrase be adopted. “A lot of people call this 'white privilege' and when you say those two words, it's like a fuse goes off for a lot of white people, because they don't want somebody telling them to check their privilege."

Directly addressing Moore, the lone black man on the stage, Giglio said, “I know that you and I both have struggled in these days with ‘Hey, if the phrase is the trip up, let's get over the phrase, and let's get down to the heart, let's get down to what then do you want to call it,' and I think maybe a great thing for me is to call it 'white blessing’—that I'm living in the blessing of the curse that happened generationally that allowed me to grow up in Atlanta."

Many, among those who are outraged, believe Giglio’s effort to make white people more comfortable by doing away with the term “white privilege” is a full-on display of white privilege. Lisa Stenhouse, an African American mother and Georgia resident told EEW Magazine Online, “I find it hilarious that this pastor’s priority was softening the blow for white people and making the conversation easier for them—as if white folks don’t have it easy enough already.”

EEW has received multiple similar messages.

In response to the blowback, Giglio apologized and attempted to explain his comments on Twitter but failed to tamp down the public’s strong negative reaction. The pastor said, he was "not seeking to refer to slavery as blessing—but that we are privileged because of the curse of slavery.”

He admitted that his word choice “wasn’t great,” but he was “trying to help us see society is built on the dehumanization of others. My apology, I failed."

At least we can agree on that: It was a spectacular failure.

Empowering Everyday Women https://www.empoweringeverydaywomen.org
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