Category 4
Verdict: Louie Giglio is a sellout.
Preface
Part of how this Discernment ministry operates is taking in reader questions about prevalent teachers. Louie Giglio was voted by the members of Evangelical Dark Web to be researched next out of the top requested figures. You can make a request here and see our answered verdicts here.
Bio
Louie Giglio is Pastor of Passion City Church and the Founder of the Passion movement, which exists to “call a generation to leverage their lives for the fame of Jesus.”[1] In 1997, Louie and Shelley Giglio founded the Passion Conferences, an organization that puts on conferences targeted at college aged students of faith around the world. In 2009, Louie Giglio founded his own church, Passion City Church in the Atlanta region. Prior to this, he was a member of North Point Community Church, the church led by Andy Stanley. Andy Stanley is an obvious false teacher.
Passion City Church
The statement of faith on the Passion City Church website is consists of dumbed down essential doctrines.[2] However, there is one major deviation that stands out in this faith statement. Passion City Church has an emphasis on making God “famous.” This is what they believe about the Holy Spirit:
We believe that life on earth is to be lived in the power of the Holy Spirit, who indwells believers, enabling them to live distinctive lives in the life and power of Christ, making famous the Father in heaven.
On the role of the church, PCC believes:
The worldwide Body of Christ function best in localized communities of believers. Thus we seek to plant churches that amplify His fame, strengthen the lives of people and repair communities so that all people can know the healing power and grace of the Savior.
Ironically, the faith statement makes reference to the Westminster Confession quote, “the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
PCC has a franchise in DC helmed by Ben Stuart. Speakers who have preached at PCC include Sadie Robertson Huff (more on this below), the woke Benjamin Watson, Priscilla Shirer, David Platt, and Levi Lusko.
Is Louie Giglio Woke?
In 2020, Dan Cathy, the owner of Chick-Fil-A would embracingly shine Lecrae’s shoes in a video that went viral. Louie Giglio hosted a struggle session[3] in which posited the 1619 Project’s view of American history. The third man on that stage was Louie Giglio. Louie Giglio in on board with the Social Justice Gospel, pleading on Instagram how real white privilege is whilst apologizing for trying to rebrand it in order to proselytize fellow white people with his wokeness. Despite trying to be creative with anti-white ideology, his statements were rejected by the woke activists.
Louie Giglio is woke which is strong evidence that he is a false teacher.
Passion Conferences
The Passion Conference is the leading source of evidence for Giglio’s association with false teachers. This association is more profound, because these are Giglio’s events. Currently the 2023 Passion Conference has the following questionable speakers that we know about.[4]
- Sadie Robertson Huff
- Matt Chandler
- David Platt
- DawnCheré Wilkerson (Rich Wilkerson Jr’s Wife)
- Christine Caine
- Elevation Worship (Steven Furtick)
- Jackie Hill Perry
Passion 2022[5] featured the following questionable speakers:[6]
- Levi Lusko
- Jennie Allen
- Tim Tebow
Passion 2021:
- Priscilla Shirer
Passion 2020:
Sexuality
One of the only instances of broad controversy Louie Giglio has undergone is decades old preaching on homosexuality resurfacing in 2013 prior to the second inauguration of Barack Obama in which Giglio was invited to do the benediction. In his statement on withdrawing from the inauguration he stated “Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past 15 years.” It is strange that they had to go back that far to hear Giglio preach against homosexuality, and perhaps stranger that he is reticent on the issue ever since. In 2017, he allowed the pro-homosexuality singer, Carrie Underwood to perform at the Passion 2017[7]. Louie Giglio may be serious about the ongoing issue of human slavery, but he is not serious about speaking to major sin issues of our day, unless from a Marxist perspective. The record of this verdict reflects that in the face of public backlash, he caved, an assessment shared by other ministries.[8]
Teacher of False Teachers
In Evangelical Dark Web’s verdict on Sadie Robertson Huff, it was noted “Sadie Robertson Huff is doing what she has been brought up to do by people like Louie Giglio.” Further research shows that this is the most noticeable mentoring relationship he has with a rising questionable speaker. The Passion Conference is the perfect opportunity to mold Christian celebrities into horrendous teachers and create an audience for them.
Conclusion
This verdict is not exhaustive, but the red flags articulated here are determinative enough for a verdict. To review, the Passion City Church has flawed missiology bent on making the King of Kings and Lord of Lords famous. This premise is flawed as the name ID on Jesus is near 100%, even if the gospel is not widely known. This idea, in practice is about making the pastor famous. It’s rather noteworthy that after a decade of building a brand of Big Eva conferences, then Louie Giglio decides to start a church after realizing the importance of the local church. Prior to this sudden change shift, Giglio was affiliated with Andy Stanley.
It cannot be overlooked that Louie Giglio is an egalitarian, and for someone who was raised in this dangerous faith tradition, it would not be a major red flag. But Louie Giglio has a degree from a Southern Baptist seminary, so faith tradition is therefore inexcusable for his errant practice of egalitarianism.
Giglio’s Passion Conference mostly features false teachers of varying theologies. As for Giglio himself, he is seeker friendly and that is about it. After his controversy in 2013, he retreated from culturally offensive preaching. This should be viewed as selling out. Additional selling out behavior includes his clumsy attempts at going woke because it was the popular thing to do at the time.
Perhaps the most nefarious element to Giglio is how he is grooming new false teachers, most notably Sadie Robertson Huff. Should she become the next Christine Caine, this would be the direct result of Louie Giglio’s influence.
Louie Giglio wants to be famous, and he got famous by selling out. This verdict concludes that he is a Category 4.
[1] https://louiegiglio.com/about/
[2] https://passioncitychurch.com/us/
[3] The Beloved Community – Dan Cathy, Lecrae, Louie Giglio Jun 15, 2020
https://youtu.be/xEuI-03Jcc4
[4] This is not to excuse the other questionable choices Evangelical Dark Web is less familiar with.
[5] https://www.passiondigitalallaccess.com/passion-2022?html=1&sort=alphabetical
[6] Repeats omitted for going forward
[7] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/01/06/carrie-underwood-performance-passion-2017-criticized/96235932/
[8] https://afa.net/activism/action-alerts/2019/christians-must-not-fold-to-lgbt-activist-pressure/
3 Responses
He’s also a beta and a heretic. He affirms the demonic Enneagram. Rosebrough proposed the question of him being a tri-theist.
you guys are crazy. Louie loves Jesus and is doing what he has been called to do. He preaches the Word and is not ashamed.
Amen. Sick of all these witch hunts.