Trump's new faith adviser is a televangelist who says Jesus loves rich people
Paula White has preached the ‘prosperity gospel,’ the belief that God rewards believers with personal as well as financial success.
The ascension of Paula White as an official member of Donald Trump’s White House highlights how closely Trump is relying on his inner circle of evangelical Christian supporters as he fights an impeachment probe during his reelection bid — while giving liberal evangelicals a new opening to push back at his administration’s mingling of religion and policymaking.
White, is a televangelist who has sparked division among fellow Christians over her association with the so-called “prosperity gospel,” an assertion that God rewards believers with personal as well as financial success. She’s also frequently identified as personal minister to Trump and is now set to become an adviser heading Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative, according to a White House official.
In some ways, White’s new position only formalizes her long-standing influence in the White House. The 53-year-old has known Trump for more than 15 years and frequently meets with him alongside fellow evangelical Christian advisers, including a White House visit this week where the group laid hands on Trump in prayer. But White is a more contentious figure within her faith than other pro-Trump evangelicals and was the subject of a yearslong investigation into her finances by Iowa Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley.
That profile makes White, who uses her married name White-Cain, a compelling symbol for liberal Christians who are making an increasingly vocal appeal to religious Americans who do not align with Trump’s broader political agenda.
“The rise of the religious left has been given a shot in the arm every time Trump doubles down on his white evangelical base,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a religious activist on the left who created an anti-Trump network called The Resistance Prays. “Yes, he may score short term political points. But in the long term, he really is energizing and mobilizing this whole swath of people who are religious and are astonished by what’s happening with the Paula Whites of the world.”
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a liberal evangelical preacher who works with the progressive group Red Letter Christians, said White’s use of her ministry “to exploit the poor … should be of real concern to all people of faith.”
“While we often frame religion in public life as progressives to conservatives, it’s important to say that even within that frame, Paula White is an extremist and always has been,” Wilson-Hartgrove said.
The White House role for White, whose ministry did not immediately return an interview request, was first reported by The New York Times. White distanced herself from the prosperity gospel in a 2017 statement that said she would “reject any theology that doesn’t affirm or acknowledge the entirety of scriptural teaching about God’s presence and blessing in suffering as much as in times of prosperity.”
The Florida-based White’s website features a pitch for followers to purchase a $130 “Favor Seed” in order to help battle “an enemy of debt, depression, a job, or a health issue prevailing against you.”
The White House initiative she will advise was created by the Trump administration last year to help faith-based groups partner with the federal government. White’s advisory role, according to the executive order setting up the initiative, empowers her to suggest “changes to policies, programs, and practices that affect the delivery of services by faith-based and community organizations.”
Beyond White’s new position, Trump’s meeting this week with his closest conservative evangelical supporters included some discussion of how they would try to energize their contacts on Trump’s behalf, according to attendee Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Perkins said that while the Tuesday meeting with Trump was not entirely “a planning session,” attendees did perform “a quick inventory” of their own networks to determine what “we can do” to help Trump.
“Several of us have daily radio programs and some of us have TV programs and some of (us) lead very large churches and ministries,” Perkins said. “It was more looking around the room and how do we be more intentional about getting this out there and using the platforms that we already have.”
Recommended
Biden on abortion rights: President expects to give speech Tuesday on new Florida 6-week ban
‘Having the president of the United States speaking out loud and with confidence about abortion access is a great thing’
By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix - April 22, 2024Biden calls for expanded child tax credit, taxes on wealthy in $7.2 trillion budget plan
President Joe Biden released his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year Monday, calling on Congress to stick to the spending agreement brokered last year and to revamp tax laws so that the “wealthy pay their fair share.”
By Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom - March 11, 2024Biden rallies Democrats in Las Vegas: ‘Imagine the nightmare’ if Trump reelected
With a primary win all but inevitable, President Joe Biden used his Sunday appearance in Las Vegas’s Historic Westside to rally his most vocal supporters in a battleground state that delivered for him four years ago.
By April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current - February 05, 2024