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'Jesus often offended and challenged people': Rivers Church pastor responds to racism allegations

Rivers Church in Sandton. Picture Credit: Rivers Church on Facebook
Rivers Church in Sandton. Picture Credit: Rivers Church on Facebook

Rivers Church has attracted a lot of attention after being accused of using its platform to sow hatred towards black people.

Pastor Andre Olivier has come under fire for telling his congregation that white people are wealthy because they work hard.

He was also accused of saying that black people are lazy,that white people did not steal land and that they have it because they are favoured by God.

Speaking to Radio 702 on Monday, Pastor Olivier said that is words were taken out of context.

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"I never said that, you can listen to the CD, in fact you can play the CD on radio, it's not what I said at all. I said if white people have got things it's because they work, they are working for it," he said.

He said he doesn't believe his words were divisive and that he noticed that the section black people were seated in the church did not clap to his remarks.

"I said, I probably lost you, hopefully I will get you back later. [Comments] No they weren't dividing, they were just controversial, maybe tension building," he said.

According to Pastor Olivier, Jesus also often offended people and was persecuted for it.

"Jesus did that, he often offended people, he often challenged people. We need to speak into our nation if we are going to grow and heal it, it's unfortunate that people are sensitive because we definitely not a racist church."

He said people who were making the allegations were in the minority.

"No I don't think that's fair at all, we have a lot of congregants, we have 10 000 people in church you know, if 60 people say it's not a lot, what about the silent majority who come every week, who contribute, who support the church? We've never had an allegation of racism."

When asked about another controversial sermon last year in which he also made "offensive" remark. Pastor Olivier had this to say:

"I probably have said that because I believe we need to be productive and I believe that student protests are not valid. They burned down a million rands worth of buildings."

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