Donald Trump’s choice to lead the newly-created White House Faith Office is being rejected even by some Christian conservatives.
The president signed an executive order on Friday to open a ‘Faith Office’ at the White House, led by the televangelist Paula White, Trump’s spiritual advisor.
White hit the headlines in 2020 when she led a marathon prayer session to call for Trump to win the US election against Joe Biden.
The minister, married to rockstar and Journey lead singer Jonathan Cain, is also a proponent of what’s known as ‘Prosperity Gospel’ and ‘Word of Faith,’ which both connect giving money to churches and religious causes to general health and wealth.
White at one point said in a sermon in 2019 that Christians who give money to her ministry will receive life-clarifying ‘visions’ from God.
Many Christians, including many conservatives and supporters of Donald Trump, are now critical of White being given a role in the White House.
‘This is an abomination,’ wrote Christian motivational speaker Scott Ross on social media.
‘She preaches the heresies of Word of Faith & Prosperity Gospel, both utterly opposed to authentic Christianity. Worse, she has lived a life of scandal, with multiple husbands, twisting the Gospel for profit.’
Ross went as far as calling it the ‘worst and most dangerous thing’ Trump has done and said a prayer for America.
‘Paula White-Cain is a Word of Faith/prosperity gospel false teacher,’ added pro-life advocate Samuel Sey. ‘May God bless the White House in spite of her.’
Another social media critic, who describes himself as an independent conservative, called White a ‘prosperity gospel charlatan heretic.’
Jon Root, a conservative YouTuber, not only slammed White for her beliefs but said that ‘women should not be pastors according to The Bible.’
The White House praised White-Cain as someone ‘fighting for religious freedom and humanitarian rights, and advocating for the voiceless’ in a press release announcing her appointment.
Trump said on Thursday he would create the White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government.
Trump delivered remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol and used his speech to call for ‘unity’, telling lawmakers his relationship with religion has ‘changed’ after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year.
At a second prayer breakfast in Washington, Trump struck a more partisan tone, took a victory lap for getting ‘rid of woke over the last two weeks’ and announced steps to protect Christians from what he said was religious discrimination.
‘The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies,’ Trump said.
The president said he will sign an executive order on Thursday to have Bondi head the task force and vowed his attorney general would work to ‘fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.’
The president did not cite specific examples of anti-Christian bias during his remarks but has previously claimed that the Biden administration used the federal government to target Christians specifically.
Biden’s administration announced a strategy in December for countering anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry, and a similar plan to fight antisemitism in September 2023.
The actions announced on Thursday could pose constitutional questions about the separation of church and state, with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment limiting government endorsement of religion.
Trump, who has become the de facto figurehead of conservative American Christianity, has repeatedly invoked a religious anointing since he survived an assassination attempt last year. ‘Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,’ Trump has told supporters at events around the country.
In the last three election cycles, White evangelical Christian voters, who make up a critical piece of the Republican base, have supported Trump.
He has embraced the conservative Christian world view and policies that speak to the bloc’s anxiety about changing gender norms and family patterns.
Trump established a similar office at the White House during his first term and regularly consulted with a tight group of evangelical advisers.
The president also said he would create a new commission on religious liberty, and criticized the Biden administration for the ‘persecution’ of believers for prosecuting anti-abortion advocates.
‘If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,’ he said.
‘I have been appointed to lead the White House Faith Office,’ wrote White in a statement to X.
‘The office will work alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi to combat discrimination against Christians in federal institutions and ensure religious liberties are upheld across the country!’
She previously served an advisor to President Trump in the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, as well as the chairwoman of his Evangelical Advisory Board.