Paula White and Donald Trump Deserve Each Other

          Paula White is a famous "evangelical" who is especially close to Donald Trump right now. Currently, Paula White-Cain (her married name) supposedly serves as the Head of "The White House Office of Faith and Opportunity Initiative," according to several press reports published between early November 2019 and January 2020 (for example, see this in the National Catholic Reporter at https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/paula-white-head-trumps-faith-office ). This initiative is part of President Trump's Executive Order of May 3, 2018, found at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-establishment-white-house-faith-opportunity-initiative/?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_name=&utm_source=govdelivery&utm_term=.. The EO ordered various agencies within the U.S. Government to each establish a "Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives." A good example of one that seems somewhat fully developed can be found at the Department of Education site at https://sites.ed.gov/cfoi/.

          However, in terms of finding out what the main White House Office is doing, well, good luck. You will not find any such office on the Whitehouse.gov website. The website, as it currently exists, is frustrating to navigate, and mostly seems like a campaign site for Donald Trump. I looked in vain to see any office headed up by Paula White, which supposedly operates within the Office of Public Liaisaon, an office that is also not possible to locate on the website. So, it remains a mystery as to what Paula White's "official" role in government is.

          It's inaccurate to say that EOs that include faith-based initiatives began with President Trump. In fact, the May 2018 EO supplements and replaces parts of EOs signed by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Faith-based initiatives, however, seem to turn into fodder by persons of both Left and Right. What makes the Trump administration different is the insistence that persons of faith were somehow being marginalized prior to the "Providential Intervention into the Election of 2016." This is a now standard claim made by many evangelical leaders, that God inserted himself into the election. The logic of this claim escapes me, because I do not understand why an omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent God apparently sat out the other elections. This logic strikes me as the same as that employed by athletes and coaches who credit God with a victory. What about the other team? Was God not on their side?

          This example of how those currently calling themselves "evangelical" is what I am on about here. On the other hand, many people who oppose evangelicals do so because they are, in fact, not religious. That's not my story. In fact, I grew up evangelical. I was "went forward" during a youth rally in my junior high school days. I grew up believing. I grew up believing the Bible. When non-believers argue with believers, I often wonder how the non-believers hope to win an argument by belittling people of faith. In fact, believers of all strains of belief in the Almighty, but especially evangelicals in America, have been able to adopt something of a persecution complex. They claim that they are under assault by the humanistic, worldly, and largely leftist unbelievers. This enables many evangelicals to avoid criticism from within, but they do not know how to react when such criticism occurs. When Mark Galli of Christianity Today said, in December 2019 https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html, that Donald Trump should be removed from office, he was vilified. An excellent example of this vilification is the look-down-your-nose righteous indignation of Cal Thomas, written in the wake of the Galli piece ( https://www.omaha.com/opinion/cal-thomas-anti-trump-christians-should-ponder-a-key-question/article_3f720fbb-fd17-551c-979a-0235f14327ac.html).

          Here is my problem, with reference to this kind of thinking: I understand it. I have read the Bible, all of it, more than once. I attended a conservative Baptist Bible College for one year following high school graduation. I understand terms like "predestination," "dispensationalism," and "sacrament." I understand the differences in Catholic, Lutheran, and Baptist views on baptism, and the differences in the three Christian views of the meaning of the bread and wine used in the Eucharist (referred to as "Communion" by many Protestants). I am pretty sure I have read the Bible more than Donald Trump has.  One of my favorite lines from the movie "Patton" is the scene where an incredulous reporter says to the George C. Scott version of Patton, "You read the Bible, General?"  The wry response: "Every goddam day."

          As a matter of full disclosure, I must say that I no longer call myself evangelical. If anything, I suppose I identify as a "Deist," like many of our Founding Fathers did. There are many reasons I left the evangelical church, not the least of which is the politicization of the church that began in the late part of the 1900s with the work of people like Jerry Falwell, Sr., and Pat Robertson. I point to these two because I think they were both influential in establishing the thinking of the current crop of evangelical leaders, a number which include their own offspring.

          So, it is my view that the current self-appointed "evangelical leaders" need to be challenged, not as crackpots, but with the Bible. Don't misunderstand. Many might be crackpots (Jim Bakker comes to mind), but inside the Church, that criticism does not convince any believer. I would rather challenge the thinking of American evangelicals using the Bible. I find it both extremely disturbing, but also extremely satisfying, that one of Donald Trump's primary evangelical advisers is a person calling herself "Pastor" Paula White-Cain. I find it disturbing because a few years ago, evangelicals would criticize the theology that "Pastor Paula" holds. They rarely do so now. I find it satisfying because, well, Paula and Trump deserve each other. They are both carnival barkers in their respective spheres.

          Paula White did not attend seminary. She is a self-styled "prosperity gospel" preacher who started a megachurch in Tampa, Florida. One needn't look far to see evidence of Paula White's charltanism. You really only have to go to her website at https://paulawhite.org/. Right up there, you can see that you can buy her "First Fruits Bundle," which consists of some books and other stuff. The theology of the "first fruits" is based on the Old Testament Book of Numbers, wherein the children of Israel were instructed to bring the "first fruits" of their harvest to the temple as sacrifice to Yahweh. What this has become in the hands of preachers like Paula White is this: bring your monetary offering to me, and God will bless you (https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/07/politics/paula-white-televangelist-white-house/index.html). Nobody said Paula White is not a good salesperson. In fact, Paula White was among those under investigation by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley in 2011 for skirting IRS income reporting rules (http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40960871/ns/politics-capitol_hill/t/televangelists-escape-penalty-senate-inquiry/#.XiX3x8hKiUk). Paula White is currently going about the country telling folks that they can be blessed by popping for her new book, "Something Greater."

          Paula White and her former husband, Randy White (not the football player) became millionaires, while serving as co-pastors of Tampa's "Without Walls International Church." Among other things, both Paula's children and Randy's children were on the church payroll. The church seems to be an actual example of the "prosperity" of the gospel; give money to me, and I will prosper.

          In contrast, Jesus of Nazareth had some fairly radical things to say about wealth, and he combined these with some fairly radical actions. To a "rich young ruler," Jesus said that he should "sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me" (Matthew 19:21). It was Jesus who said that it was easier to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven (Mark 10:25). It was Jesus who, on Passover (the high holy day of Judaism) overturned the tables of moneychangers and merchants in the Temple (John 2:15). Of his own economic circumstances, Jesus said this: Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). It was Jesus who encouraged his followers to be meek, to stive to become peacemakers, and to turn the other cheek. The historical Jesus was a poor, itinerant teacher, not a successful pastor or businessman.


          A fair criticism of what I just wrote is this:  what gives anyone, including me, the right to judge the motives of Paula White, or the genuiness of her faith? That is fair. In fact, it took me a while after I left the evangelical church to realize that the teachings of Jesus are all about striving to be something I am not. I am not a person willing to take up a Roman Cross and hang alongside Jesus. I am not a person willing to sell my earthly possessions. I convince myself that I do good with the money I have been given, but maybe I don't. But a fair reading of the words of Jesus in his three-year ministry tells us that the people he was talking to felt the same way--convinced of their own spiritual shortcomings. His entire body of teaching asked all of us to examine ourselves, to humbly admit our failure.  I do not see that humility in American evangelicalism. What I see is spiritual self-importance, striving for political power, for a seat at the table. My own moral and spiritual shortcomings do not invalidate that perception and criticism.

          That Paula White has become a millionaire by preaching her perversion of the words of Jesus puts her in perfect stead with Donald Trump. As embarrassing as it might be to anyone who has ever read a book of any kind, the official White House website says this about our current President:" Mr. Trump is also an accomplished author. He has written more than fourteen bestsellers.  His first book, The Art of the Deal, is considered a business classic." The book was on the New York Times best seller list for13 weeks in 1987, so that is saying something. However, the definition of "classic" is probably in the eyes of the beholder, but the lists of any beholders I found did not include this book at the top. If the 2016 campaign did anything, it debunked the authorship of Trump himself, when his coauthor revealed that Trump had very little interest in the content of the book, that it is essentially a collection of sayings about business.

          Instead, Art of the Deal is simply another symbol of "Trump the Businessman." Another important symbol of this is "Trump University," shown in court to be largely a pyramid scheme to bilk money from gullible people who really thought they were going to learn real estate selling tricks by attending this series of presentations. Like Paula White's various churches, the main pitch seems to be "give me money, and I will show you the hidden knowledge." The same level gullibility can be found among the adherents in both settings.

          In the end, we ought to be skeptical. Paula White is no more a "pastor" than Donald Trump is a "businessman." It is not untrue that Trump has made tons of money in business. However, he started with tons of money. In real estate, having money is a really important way to make money. Speculation is the name of the game. However, "Trump as Titan of Business," holding court in a boardroom, is the creation of the producer of "The Apprentice" franchise, Mark Burnett. There is no boardroom, there is no corporation, there is a Donald Trump and his family. In ministry, there is Paula White and her family

          Paula White has as much in common with the teachings of Jesus as Donald Trump does with our other Presidents, which is to say, not much.