Paula White Has Got to Go

On the morning of January 17, 1991, Rev. Billy Graham received a phone call from the White House, inviting him to join President George H.W. Bush for lunch. The Bush and Graham families were close friends and had occasionally vacationed together before Bush 41 was elected President. In fact, when President Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 1989, he asked Dr. Graham to lead every prayer during the inaugural ceremonies. At first, Billy refused, giving Bush the same advice he had given to President Nixon, which was to have other faiths represented. However, after the new president insisted, saying that “he didn’t want people to think he was just trying to play politics by having representatives of different faiths,” Billy agreed.

Now back to January 17, 1991.

Due to time and travel constraints, Graham wasn’t able to make it to the White House for lunch, so the invitation was pushed back to dinner. That evening, President and Mrs. Bush and Rev. Graham retired to the Blue Room to watch the beginning of the Gulf War unfold before their eyes.

They prayed together about the war, specifically that it would be short and have few casualties. After President Bush delivered an address to the nation via television later that night, he told Billy, “I know in my heart I’ve done right.”

Billy Graham knew every U.S. President from Harry Truman to Donald Trump and was a trusted confident of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in particular, as well as Bush 41 and Bush 43. I suppose that is why he was known as the “Pastor to Presidents” as well as “America’s Pastor”.

I share the story of Billy Graham, his close association with so many Chief Executives, and the night he was invited to pray with President Bush before the start of the Gulf War for a reason. Actually, to draw a parallel.

Describing the presidency, Billy Graham once wrote that “No matter how much a president might wish it otherwise, there is a loneliness to that office that can never be completely overcome. That loneliness is one of the burdens of leadership.”

In other words, the President of the United States needs to surround himself with wise and godly counselors because of the weight and gravity of the decisions he faces every day. Johnson, Nixon, and both Bushes had enough common sense – and spiritual sensitivity – to seek advice from Billy Graham in their darkest hours.

Conversely, Donald Trump – who has championed traditional values and religious freedom more than virtually any president in modern history – has asked Paula White-Cain to be his senior advisor for spiritual matters during both of his administrations. In fact, Ms. White currently serves as the head of the White House Faith Office.

First, a little history about the White House Faith Office and then a little history about Paula White-Cain.

The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) was established by executive order by President George W. Bush on January 29, 2001, just nine days after his inauguration. President Obama changed its name first to The Office of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships and then to The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Following President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the office remained without a director, and its website was no longer available. Finally, in May 2018, President Trump launched the Faith and Opportunity Initiative, a new White House office to help faith-based organizations receive equal access to government funding. The initiative acted in conjunction with the Centers for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives, bodies within federal agencies giving religious groups more voice in government programs.

On October 31, 2019, the White House confirmed that Paula White – a televangelist, pastor, and author – would join the White House to advise Trump's Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

When President Biden took over, he reestablished The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, but President Trump shut it down for a second time when he assumed office in January 2025, replacing it with the White House Faith Office. Once again, Paula White-Cain was tasked as its leader.

Now back to Paula White-Cain and why I believe she is such a distraction to President Trump and such a danger to America.

First and foremost, I believe that Ms. White is a false teacher. She preaches (I should say peddles) the prosperity gospel, which is 100% unbiblical in nature. Whereas Ms. White and her compatriots fool their followers into believing that God wants everyone to enjoy earthly health and wealth, Jesus told His disciples in John 16:33, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (NLT)

Jesus also added in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first.” That’s something you will never hear from the lips of Paula White, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, or Benny Hinn.

And yet, incredulously, this thrice-married woman has the ear of the 47th President of the United States. So much so, that when she compared his trials to that of Jesus Christ’s at the White House Easter Service, no one in the room batted an eye.

But Ms. White didn’t stop there. She went on to say that “Because He rose… you rose up. Because He was victorious, you were victorious. And I believe that the Lord said to tell you this: Because of His victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hand to.”

Imagine telling a man with a world-class ego that God said you are going to be victorious in all you do? And then having the temerity to say that God had entrusted you with this very special and very secret message to personally deliver to the President.

I hate to break the news to you, Paula, but you are not in the same league as Nathan, the prophet, who confronted the adulterous King David; or Elijah, who openly opposed King Ahab and Queen Jezebel about their Baal worship. On the contrary, from my vantagepoint, you more closely resemble Balaam, a mercenary prophet so greedy and gullible that God empowered his own donkey to speak and rebuke him.

I am reminded of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s scathing remark to Sen. Dan Quayle during the 1988 Vice Presidential debate in 1988. “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.”

Paula, you are no prophet... unless we are including false ones in the equation.

Could it be that Ms. White is simply trying to ingratiate herself further with President Trump by stoking his ego? If so, she is more to blame for his recent religious meme that backfired than he is, because she is his enabler-in-chief.

“For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (BSB)

For the record, Ms. White and her second husband, Randy White, both simultaneously divorced their respective spouses so they could marry each other in 1990. A year later, they co-founded the Tampa Christian Center, which later became the Without Walls International Church. By 2004, it had grown to 20,000 members, making it the seventh largest church in America, grossing $150 million over a three-year period (2004-2006).

Although Paula and Randy divorced in 2007, they continued to co-pastor the church until 2009 (how bizarre is that?), at which time Randy stepped down for health reasons and Paula took over as senior pastor. In 2011, Paula was also named senior pastor of Without Walls Central Church in Lakeland FL, but that church disbanded a few months later when its power was cut off for failure to pay $50,000 in electric bills.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) launched an investigation into the church that same year but took no further action. By 2012, Randy White was back in charge and by 2014, Without Walls filed for bankruptcy.

Apparently, Ms. White “got out of Dodge” just in time, because in 2011 she was named senior pastor of the New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka FL, a position she held until 2019, when she turned the church – now named City of Destiny – over to her son and his wife.

There is so much more to this pathetic soap opera, including Ms. White speaking in tongues during a live-streamed prayer service in which she repeatedly called on "angelic reinforcement" from Africa and South America to help secure Trump's reelection in 2020 when he was trailing on Election Day. Apparently, the angels weren’t moved by Paula’s prayers and neither was God, because Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States.

Ms. White calls T.D. Jakes, another charlatan, her spiritual father, and their combined wealth is estimated at more than $25 million. She is currently married to her third husband, Jonathan Cain, a keyboardist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Journey.

Please join me in praying that President Trump will show Ms. White the White House door and surround himself with more godly counselors.

“For lack of guidance, a nation falls, but with many counselors comes deliverance.” Proverbs 11:14 (BSB)