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By now most of you have probably heard that Louie Giglio told Lecrae that perhaps we should avoid using the term ‘white privilege,’ and instead suggested we start using the term ‘white blessing’ (its very easy to find online if you haven’t).
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I’ve been hesitant to comment, because a.) He’s already being appropriately eviscerated for it, as he should; b.) because I don’t want to pile on to the already terrible image that White evangelicals have in broader culture (of which I am complicit).
3b.) Why is he even talking at this point, instead of listening to Lecrae? This happens ALL the time. And it gets worse when the power then bleeds into dictating what type of action we take to fix the problem, and how we think it should be addressed.
2b.) That was on full display here. The whole basis of this comment was searching for a way to relieve those of us who are white from the discomfort of the term ‘white privilege.’ We need to really sit in what that represents.
3a.) A third, serious problem here, was a naked display of power. Power is not talked about enough in my tradition, but it should be. Where is the exercise of power here? First, words matter. Why is he as a White minister telling a Black leader what words are acceptable and not?
1c.) I come from a tradition in White evangelicalism where pastors were routinely checked and even pulled if they spoke heresy. For the record, this is what heresy sounds like. It is spiritual malpractice. And he’s not the only one who does this - lots of us do.
2a.) One of the endemic problems we continue to face is the work of addressing race/white supremacy is the centering of white people’s feelings in the process of truth telling.
Upon further counsel, it seems that I should say at least a word as to why this was so dangerous. Here’s three fast observations:
3c.) Unexamined and unchecked power are SUPER dangerous. We as White people need to be checking our power, listening, learning, and following the lead of leaders like Lecrae - not dictating to them what should happen next.
1b.) Giglio said, “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.”
