SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

US pastor Paula White: ‘Our President is not a racist’

RNS

Paula White

Paula White, spiritual adviser to US President Donald Trump and pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Floride, speaks with RNS reporter Adelle Banks at a Religion News Association meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. PICTURE: RNS photo by Jerome Socolovsky

“I can say 1,000 per cent, our President is not a racist.”

Paula White, US President Donald Trump’s most prominent spiritual adviser, made the statement in front of a crowd of journalists on Saturday at the Religion News Association’s annual conference in Nashville.

White also said she regretted saying last month on the PTL Network’s The Jim Bakker Show that the President is someone “authentically raised up by God.” But that’s not because she doesn’t believe what she said.

“I’m a preacher, and I got a little fired up, and I said some things that I wish I wouldn’t have said and some things that could most definitely and have most definitely been taken out of context,” she said.

The reason she regretted her comment, she said, was “because of the responsibility of the role that I have”. That’s something she still is learning, she noted, since the president called her a decade and a half ago after seeing her preach on TV and the two forged an unlikely relationship.

Earlier this year, Ms White became the first clergywoman to pray at a presidential inauguration and a leader among the evangelical advisers to the president who since have gathered for meetings, dinners, photo ops and conference calls.

Responding to a question from Think Progress’ Jack Jenkins on her view that Mr Trump was raised up by God, she said “I believe that for President Obama” as well. And had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential race, Ms White said she would have said the same thing about her.

“I believe that authority is raised up by God, and I understand that I don’t understand all things and what his purposes are,” she said. “He’s the sovereign God.”

Ms White also said that Mr Trump “100 per cent is a Christian who understands…repentance,” though, as his pastor, she said she wouldn’t divulge what he has repented for.

And in response to a question from freelance religion reporter Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, she said there “absolutely” is a line Mr Trump could cross that would cause her to criticise him publicly, though she also would not say what that line might be.

“Yes, there is a line with the president, or any line that if I felt was in extreme violation, I would publicly criticise,” she said. “We tend to privately criticise and publicly stay together because I believe that’s how within a family, within church, within leadership, that is how things should be handled.”

Ms White and other evangelical advisers to the president have been criticised for not distancing themselves from the president after his response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one woman dead. After Mr Trump adamantly condemned violence on “many sides,” members of several business councils and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned.

One pastor, AR Bernard of Brooklyn, did formally resign from Mr Trump’s evangelical advisory board, though many have pointed out that board formally dissolved when the campaign ended and the evangelicals who now have the ear of the president are not part of any organised group.

Ms White, who pastors a largely African-American congregation at New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, noted in response to a question about their views of the president’s policies from Sarah Pulliam Bailey of The Washington Post: “For 33 years of my life, I’ve predominantly done work in the African-American community. I’ve been a bridge builder and one thing that I can say is 1,000 per cent – and I know this is going to open up a lot – is that our President is not a racist.

“As a white person, I don’t think any of us can fully understand what it is to be a black person in America today, so what I do know is that our nation has a lot of work to do and I believe it has to start with the community of faith.”

New Destiny Christian Center church now is preparing to act as a shelter during Hurricane Irma, she said.

RNS managing editor Lauren Markoe and writer Aysha Khan contributed to this report.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.