March 23rd 2020

Bill Berkowitz 

The onset of COVID-19 has given rise to its share of grifters, con artists, schemers and hucksters. Few, however, do it more effectively or openly than Paula White, the Diva of the Prosperity Gospel, a Christian theology claiming that faith and donations will bring adherents health and wealth, and closer to God. Begging for cash has been a longtime staple of the religious right, dating back to the late 1970s and early 80s when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson hustled money for the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition respectively. As money flowed into their coffers, powerful evangelicals like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard, were involved in multiple scandals.. And they lived high off the hog ... until they didn’t.  

These days, Paula White is one of the stars of conservative evangelism. She is Donald Trump’s spiritual advisor, and serves as a special adviser, since last October, to the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives in the Trump Administration -- which Trump created through an executive order in 2018 as part of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Like Trump, she has television savvy and has been reported to be twice-divorced with a history of marital infidelities. Awhile back, White’s charisma caught Trump’s attention and they bonded instantly. He appeared on her television program and she bought a $35 million condo in Trump’s Park Avenue building.

Shamefully, but probably not unexpectedly, she is using the coronavirus to plead for donations for her various enterprises. 

Last week, White, “asked her followers for private donations to bankroll her private church, which she described as a ‘hospital to the sick’—the metaphysically sick, that is,” Mother Jones’ Will Peischel reported. 

“During a coronavirus-themed ‘prayer session’ that she delivered to her online congregation, she conflated the coronavirus outbreak…with the fundraising needs of the City of Destiny, an Apopka, Florida, church in which she holds a prominent position,” Peischel pointed out.  

Peischel wrote that “White used medical imagery to add urgency to her fundraising plea during a pandemic. ‘Every single day we are a hospital to the sick, not necessarily the physically sick,’ she said. ‘But we are a hospital for those who are soul sick, those who are spiritually sick.’ White went on to suggest that contributors offer a $91m or ‘maybe $9 or whatever God tells you to do.’”

White’s deal goes something like this: You send her money and she will speed up your access to God. 

Last month, Mother Jones’ Stephanie Mencimer reported (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/02/paula-white-how-do-you-get-from-the-trailer-park-to-a-white-house-job-give-money-to-trumps-spiritual-adviser/) “As one of the only women in the male-dominated world of TV preachers, White long ago reached evangelical celebrity status, publishing nearly a dozen books, launching a successful TV show, and ministering to everyone from the late Michael Jackson to the New York Yankees.” Then she reached a pinnacle of sorts: a job in Donald Trump’s White House. “As such, her official duties entail consulting with the faith community on such social issues as poverty and crime prevention and making recommendations to the White House Domestic Policy Council,” Mencimer pointed out. 

The White House gig has not prevented White from continuing her “day jobs.” Since her appointment, “ Mencimer reported, “White has continued to preach at her own Florida megachurch [the Apopka, Florida-based City of Destiny] . She’s promoted a new book, Something Greater: Finding Triumph Over Trials. Her TV show ‘Paula Today’ airs five days a week, and she makes numerous public speaking appearances, many of which involve asking people for as much money as they can possibly spare—often even more.”

At the center of her fundraising pitches is Donald Trump, as White defends him at every turn and uses his name liberally when soliciting money. According to Mencimer, “[E[xperts say the arrangement raises significant conflict of interest questions, concerns about her compliance with tax laws banning nonprofit churches from endorsing candidates. And there’s the more fundamental question as to whether by installing her in a White House job, Trump has put the government’s stamp of approval on a religious ministry that includes faith healing and preying on vulnerable people for money.

Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit government watchdog group, said: “If she is formally working on the White House staff and continuing to raise money and do other activities for her church, she creates the appearance of using her public position for personal gain.” 

He added: “If the president believes in using public office for private gain, who is he or anyone in this administration to hold people accountable for doing it? When it comes to proper conduct by executive branch officials, the Trump presidency is a lawless one.”

Stephanie Graham, the White House press secretary put the stamp of approval on White’s activities. “She works closely with [the White House Counsel’s Office] to ensure compliance with all government ethics rules related to her outside positions,” Grisham told Mencimer in an email. 

According to Mencimer, “White is not part of any religious denomination. She’s often linked to the New Apostolic Reformation, a loose association of charismatic and Pentecostal churches that, like King Jesus, focus on the supernatural and anoint their own prophets and apostles.”

White advised Trump against running for president in 2011 and then heartily approved of his efforts in 2015. She was the fixer; the link to an evangelical community that was not favorably disposed towards him. According to Mencimer, White “helped improve his standing by creating an evangelical advisory council for the campaign, made up mostly of other televangelists like her, including Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, and Robert Jeffress, the controversial Dallas megachurch pastor who in 2012, told evangelicals not to vote for Mitt Romney because, as a Mormon, Romney wasn’t a real Christian.”