Paula White, the “prosperity gospel” television preacher who became President Donald Trump’s spiritual adviser, recently equated opposition to Trump with opposition to God.
During an Aug. 22 cable television interview on “The Jim Bakker Show,” White told fellow TV preacher Bakker that she’s glad Trump isn’t “presidential.”
“He is authentically – whether people like it or not – has been raised up by God,” White said. “Because God says that he raises up and places all people in places of authority. It is God who raises up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of God, you are fighting against the hand of God.”
She also likened Trump’s electoral victory to Esther becoming queen in the Bible because both were unconventional choices for the roles they received.
White immediately faced criticism for comparing America’s elected president to a sovereign appointed by God. “You don’t have to be a theologian to see some flaws in White’s reasoning,” Rob Boston, AU’s director of communications, wrote on the “Wall of Separation” blog. “First of all, does God really raise up all rulers? God raised up Caligula, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and Kim Il Sung? And anyone who fought those guys was fighting against God? Many believers would argue the opposite: opposing evil, genocidal dictators is doing God’s work.”
But others praised White’s words and said they reflected a view among some evangelicals that Trump’s election felt like divine intervention.
“I believe that bible-believing Christians have been praying for a turn in our country and we feel our religious liberties have been eroded and our country is less and less Godly,” Stephen Strang, the founder of the Pentecostal Charisma Magazine, told The Washington Post. “And somehow, some way, his election was a partial answer to our prayer.”