Pastor Paula White: Trump’s ‘Spiritual Adviser’ Facing Jeremiah Wright-Style Backlash Ahead Of Inauguration Invocation
Pastor Paula White is attracting attention again; this time for the wrong reasons, and Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day 2017 ceremony continues to be clouded in controversy.
White, 50, is the head of New Destiny Christian Center, a non-denominational place of worship located in Apopka, Florida. Multiple news outlets are reporting a public backlash over the president-elect’s choice for the invocation; Pastor White, Trump’s spiritual adviser, was tapped to lead the event in prayer.
Erick Erickson is the editor of The Resurgent and a Fox News contributor. In a blog post on Thursday, he criticized Trump for choosing an “open heretic,” whom he accuses of rejecting the “eternality off Jesus Christ and the trinity itself.”
Paula White has spent her life taking money from gullible people. Now, she’ll be at the inauguration: https://t.co/JNhtiwPlXd pic.twitter.com/mEdxB4lFgz
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 30, 2016
Furthermore, the WSB radio host is comparing Trump’s pick to Barack Obama’s past association with Jeremiah Wright during his presidential campaign.
“You think I’m overreacting, a sore loser, or some such. And you know damn well that if Jeremiah Wright had said a prayer at Barack Obama’s inauguration you’d be publicly outraged and calling for Obama to reconsider the invitation. Jeremiah Wright’s black liberation theology and Paula White’s prosperity gospel are two sides of the same heretical coin.
“By being outraged about one and not the other, and admit it that you would be and you were upset by Barack Obama attending Wright’s church, you have reduced Jesus Christ to partisan team sport.”
Reverend Wright retired from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago in early 2008 after 36 years as its leader. As Obama’s personal pastor, Wright came under fire when ABC News operatives played sound bites of his past sermons during then-Senator Obama’s presidential bid.
The Atlantic hosts a video on its website from Wright’s 2003 sermon where he famously said, “God damn America” instead of “God Bless America,” as part of his suggestion that the government is responsible for killing innocent people in wars overseas.
Later in another sermon, Wright used a famous line from the late Malcolm X by suggesting that America is a host of terrorism and largely responsible for the September 11 attacks: “America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” Under pressure by the public and electorate, Obama later censured Wright and eventually resigned as a member of his church.
Erickson suggests that a double standard is at play by scolding Trump supporters for expressing outrage over the fallout. Paula White is no stranger to controversy. The self-proclaimed, “former messed up Mississippi girl,” preaches and practices a theology called the “prosperity gospel” where God anoints believers with wealth and material things as the fruits of their labor.
As Complex wrote, in 2004, White’s Without Walls International Church with her then-husband, Randy White, was the subject of a nine-year investigation by the IRS. In 2007, the Senate investigated Pastor White and six other mega-church ministers for their opulent lifestyles. White was never brought up on charges as investigators failed to produce enough evidence for an indictment.
Erickson berates White for allegedly dismissing the Christian embrace of the Nicene Creed. As one of the creeds of Christendom, it says in part,”We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” In its simplest form, it’s a public profession of faith.
Erickson points to a video in making his claim of her denunciation of the orthodoxy.
“And you are an absolute hypocrite if you ever said or thought a critical word about Jeremiah Wright, but will keep your mouth shut now about this because of partisan team sport,” Erickson adds.
“Paula White is a trinity denying heretic. She rejects the Council of Nicaea’s creed that every Christian accepts. To reject the orthodoxy of the Nicene Creed is to reject Christianity itself.”
Erickson warns that White’s presence at the Jan. 20, 2017, presidential inauguration will offend Christians from all faiths that acknowledge the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Franklin Graham and Paula White are among the faith leaders participating in Donald Trump’s inauguration https://t.co/l8OQcEt3Xc pic.twitter.com/wSxPsDxOaH
— CNN (@CNN) December 29, 2016
In an attempt to bolster his case against Pastor Paula White, Erickson lauds Obama for being the “first President to mention atheists in his inaugural address” while admonishing Trump for adding insult to injury by inviting “an actual trinity-denying heretic to pray at his inauguration.”
Share you opinion about White’s backlash. Are critics fair to compare the pastor to Rev. Wright?
[Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]
