‘WORD CHOICE WASN’T GREAT’

White Megachurch Pastor Apologizes for Describing Slavery as a ‘White Blessing’

The pastor said that “a fuse goes off” for a lot of people when they hear the term “white privilege.”

A white megachurch pastor has apologized for saying white Americans don’t spend enough time thinking about the “blessing of slavery.” Passion City Church pastor Louie Giglio made his comments during a discussion about race with rap artist Lecrae and Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy. Giglio said that white Americans understood “the curse that was slavery” but that they “miss the blessing of slavery—that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in.” He added that “a fuse goes off” for a lot of white people when they hear the term “white privilege,” so he suggested a change of language. “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,” the pastor said. In an attempt to clarify his comments, Giglio later wrote: “Not seeking to refer to slavery as blessing—but that we are privileged because of the curse of slavery. In calling it a privilege/benefit/blessing—word choice wasn’t great. Trying to help us see society is built on the dehumanization of others. My apology, I failed.”