Trump fires up religious critics with job for televangelist

ascension of Paula White as an official member of Donald Trump’s White House highlights how closely president 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 ministration’s mingling of religion and policymaking. White is a televangelist who has sparked division among fellow Christians over her association with 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 president and is w set to become an viser heing 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 White House. 53-year-old has kwn Trump for more than 15 years and frequently meets with president alongside fellow evangelical Christian visers, including a White House visit this week where group laid hands on Trump in prayer. But White is a more contentious figure within her faith than or pro-Trump evangelicals and was subject of a years-long 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 t align with Trump’s broer political nda. “ rise of religious left has been given a shot in arm every time Trump doubles down on his white evangelical base,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a religious activist on left who created an anti-Trump network called Resistance Prays. “Yes, he may score short term political points. But in long term, he really is energizing and mobilizing this whole swath of people who are religious and are astonished by what’s happening with Paula Whites of world.”

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, a liberal evangelical preacher who works with progressive group Red Letter Christians, said White’s use of her ministry “to exploit 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.

White House role for White, whose ministry did t immediately return an interview request, was first reported by New York Times. White distanced herself from prosperity gospel in a 2017 statement that said she would “reject any ology that doesn’t affirm or ackwledge entirety of scriptural teaching about God’s presence and blessing in suffering as much as in times of prosperity.” 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.”

White House initiative she will vise was created by Trump ministration last year to help faith-based groups partner with federal government. White’s visory role, according to executive order setting up initiative, empowers her to suggest “changes to policies, programs, and practices that affect 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 y would try to energize ir contacts on president’s behalf, according to attendee Tony Perkins of Family Research Council. Perkins said that while Tuesday meeting with Trump was t entirely “a planning session,” attendees did perform “a quick inventory” of ir own networks to determine what “we can do” to help president. “Several of us have daily rio programs and some of us have TV programs and some of (us) le very large churches and ministries,” Perkins said. “It was more looking around room and how do we be more intentional about getting this out re and using platforms that we alrey have.”