Paula bashin’, always in fashion

By Abdul Masih —

Trump’s Christian adviser Paula White takes a lot of flak from the faithful.

“Paula White is a charlatan and recognized as a heretic by every orthodox Christian, of whatever tribe,” tweeted Russell Moore, a prominent Southern Baptist leader.

Paula-bashing is as popular as kvetching Kanye or moaning about Musk. Trump, who appears to have accepted Christ via the woman pastor, named her head of the new White House Faith Office to protect religious liberty in the U.S. and around the world. She’s the girl everyone loves to hate.

Just on Sunday, Paula hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife at the Daystar T.V. conference in Jerusalem.

The fault-finders — including mainstream evangelicals, Reformed, Catholic, Orthodox, Christian Research Institute, Pulpit & Pen and a host of YouTubers who are self-appointed doctrinal purists — focus on two things: Paula’s penchant for the prosperity gospel and her two divorces and bankruptcy.

A lot of the bellyaching stems from envy. She’s an easy target, just like Joel Osteen. With flamboyant showmanship, glam girl makes herself an easy target for the grumps who like to grouse. Not just the high-flying leaders slip up; the little guys also err in doctrine and pecadillos.

To the Sanhedrin, Gamaliel urged restraint in cracking down on Christians in Acts 4:38-39: Leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrown. You may even be founding fighting against God.

This is good advice for all of the Christian celebrities, pastors and performers. Until their sins get exposed, leave them alone. Criticizing others is not one of the Holy Spirit’s gifts or ministries, as long as the leader adheres to the Christian creeds.

“I have been called a heretic, an apostate, an adulterer, a charlatan, and an addict,” Paula told CNN. “It has been falsely reported that I once filed for bankruptcy and — my personal favorite — that I deny the Trinity! I hesitated to even address such patently false accusations about my personal life and my beliefs so as to not dignify them with a response.”

The lady likes luxury now, but she grew up in poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, after her father committed suicide when she was 5. Her mom worked and struggled with alcoholism. Meanwhile, care-givers took advantage of Paula through physical and sexual abuse.

When she was 9, her mom married a 2-star admiral of the U.S. Navy and family moved to Washington D.C., where they lived in better circumstances, but she struggled with emotional baggage from the past.

“There were the eating disorders: bulimia, anorexia, sleeping with different people, thinking this is how you find love,” she said on CBN. “There was such a fear in me that men would never come back so do whatever you have to — hit me, beat me, call me a dog, do whatever, just don’t leave.”

Then in 1984, while living in Maryland, Paula converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God and received a heavenly vision instructing her to preach the gospel.

“The Lord gave me a vision that every time I opened my mouth and declared the Word of the Lord, there was a manifestation of His Spirit where people were either healed, delivered, or saved,” she said. “When I shut my mouth, they fell off into utter darkness and God spoke to me and said ‘I called you to preach the gospel.’”

She skipped college and began ministering in the inner-city of Washington D.C. in the late 1980s. After Los Angeles’ Rodney King riots, she moved to L.A. to minister to needy people, whose neighborhoods had been burned and decimated.

Her start on the streets in the neighborhoods of people of color led to her having a large following among African Americans. She went from being a “messed-up Mississippi girl” to a prosperous preacher who flaunted “millions in the bank” in her mega church and on her T.V. show Paula White Today.

Paula divorced her first husband and married Randy White and co-pastored Without Walls International Church in Tampa, FL, from 1991 to 2009, a church that blew up to 20,000 but also struggled financially. Eventually, the lender foreclosed on the property, the church was investigated by the IRS and Randy and Paula divorced after 18 years of marriage for reasons never stated, although Randy said, “I take full responsibility for a failed marriage – 100%. I don’t blame Paula, and I don’t blame other parties.”

She started Paula White Today, where her flash and panache caught the eye for performers. She has ministered to Michael Jackson, talk show host Tyra Banks and baseball stars Darryl Strawberry and Gary Sheffield. In 2014, she ministered to Journey‘s keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and shortly thereafter married him.

She even caught the attention of a New York real estate tycoon by the name of Donald Trump. “She’s fantastic,” Trump said.

In 2011, Paula started pastoring the New Destiny Christian Church board in Apopka, Florida. In the summer of 2016, Trump called her for spiritual encouragement when he was trailing Hillary Clinton by double digit numbers.

Not only did Paula, who flew out, deliver confidence to the candidate. By several reports (including James Dobson), she also got Trump saved, leading him in a sinner’s prayer (she downplays her role in his salvation). When Trump won the first time, Paula became the first ever woman to perform the inauguration prayer.

Hubris got the best of her in 2020 when Paula prophesied that Trump would defeat Joe Biden in his re-election bid. When numbers indicated that Biden was winning, she streamed on Facebook Live a prayer rally and prayed in tongues for “angelic support.” “I hear a sound of victory,” she declared. “The Lord says it is done.” SMH.

Then in December 2021, Paula did a bizarre thing. She participated in the “Prayer Rally for Peace on the Korean Peninsula,” hosted by the cult Unification Church’s Universal Peace Federation. During the event, she called Hak Ja Han Moon, the widow of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, “a jewel from God” and lauded “Mother Moon for her great work as a spiritual leader who loves the Lord and seeks to carry out and to comfort the heart of God in all the areas of conflict in the world.”

Paula has engaged in interfaith dialogue and peace-promoting events, but what was she thinking when she joined up with the Moonies? Was she thinking at all? C-R-I-N-G-E.

“God knew everything I would go through before I ever went through it, not everything is perfect in my life, but I don’t think everything is perfect in anybody’s life,” Paula says. “My life and my decisions have been nowhere near perfect.”

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