Thursday 18 October 2007

Paula White's desperate moment!! (audio link below)

Written by Paul Edwards (http://www.godandculture.wordpress.com/)

Televangelist Paula White was a recent guest on my radio program in Detroit. She and her husband of 18 years, Randy White, announced in August that they would be divorcing and yet continuing their respective ministries: Randy as Senior Pastor of Church Without Walls in Tampa, Florida and Paula as an itinerant evangelist and “Life Coach.”
For most of the 30 minutes we talked I challenged her on her theology, as revealed in her latest book “You’re All That!,” as well as her divorce. I asked her to justify statements made by members of her church that her divorce would have no impact whatsoever on its ministry. How is that possible, I asked? How is it possible that two high profile ministers could conclude that their own relationship was so damaged that divorce was the only solution, and yet believe themselves spiritually fit to continue their ministries? She had no concrete answers, and so she concluded our 30 minute conversation this way:
“And while we’re talking about painful, difficult situations, with all due respect, I understand “let’s get the elephant out of the room,” we’ve taken 30 minutes on divorce. But I don’t understand why not an interviewer or a believer as yourself has not asked me how my daughter, who has a death sentence, with third and fourth stage cancer, how she’s doing now.”
I sat stunned for a moment; stunned because I didn’t know, but more shocked that she would use a family tragedy to make me look like a terrible person simply because I challenged her theology and lifestyle.
What pray tell, does her daughter’s illness have to do with answering questions about her divorce and her humanistic theology? Is Paula White above criticism because she has a terminally ill daughter?
The larger question is: if her daughter’s illness is so serious as to warrant her not having to answer questions about her very public divorce and her very abberant theology, why is Paula White on an eight city book tour while her daughter lay dying? During our conversation she boarded a plane for Detroit for a book signing the next day.
The fact is, “her” daughter is not her daughter at all. “Her” daughter is actually her estranged husband Randy’s daughter from a previous marriage. “Her” daughter is an adult, not a child. She led me and my audience to believe that she had a young child at home dying of cancer. Paula White played the sympathy card when it became apparent she had lost the sympathy of the audience on the issues she was asked to address.
Paula White is a well managed image worth millions of dollars. Behind that image is a real person, a wounded and broken human being, who lives in fear of being exposed. Paula White revealed how broken she is when she used her dying daughter as a desperate cover to protect at all costs her well managed image. She needs our prayers as much as her daughter.

Listen to the complete interview here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I listened to the radio broadcast related to this article. Paul (radio host) kept asking questions that Paula White gave answers to in my opinion. I am for calling a spade a spade and in this situation, I would say that the intentions of the radio host were to humiliate Paula and "expose" her. She said more than once that the opinion of one member saying that the divorce wouldn't affect the ministry was just one voice of many. She also said that there would be others of the exact opposite opinion and it probably would fall more likely in between the two.

I'm all for exposing false prophets, but let's do it legitimately. Let's not knit-pick situations and then inaccurately report the "findings" or misrepresent the individuals who are allegedly being exposed. The integrity of this blog is more important than taking potshots at ministers over such trivial incidents as this. Honestly, the radio interview shined a negative light on the interviewer long before Paula made her comment on her daughter's illness. All I'm saying is let's stick to the real issues and report them with integrity.

Anonymous said...

Pastor Paula, This is my first time hearing this interview given last year. I've never blogged or commented before, but I felt compelled to comment on such a distastefully given interview. I commend you on how you handled yourself during an interview that was very clearly meant to humiliate you. It shocked and, if I may be honest, angered me to hear a man who is a believer of God ask questions (that were so obviously taken out of context) in hopes of "tripping you up" into saying something, anything that would totally discredit who you are as a woman of God. It saddened me to hear how he audaciously challenged you on things covered in your book when he took ONLY ONE DAY to read/study it. Every rock he threw, you answered biblically and with integrity. You confirmed for me the reason I continue to follow your ministry on tv and buy your books. You preach and teach nothing but the word and I thank God for you. I am grateful that we serve a loving, faithful God who wants his children to prosper and model his glory. He is not a broke, busted, and disgusted God and we should represent all that he is to the fullest.

Anonymous said...

God will expose her for who she really is...........Jezebel!

Anonymous said...

I can't understand 80% of what she says in her sermons, to me that speaks volumes.

Anonymous said...

Those questions are completely legitimate. Uncomfortable? You bet, but legitimate for a person who claims an "anointing" from God to lead people in Christ.

No teacher is above accountability, the scriptures are clear on that. And you can't sweep her deception about her ex-husband's daughter under the rug like it's nothing. That's big. And that's before you even deal with the theological/doctrinal issues of her answers.