Paula Michelle White-Cain (née Furr; born April 20, 1966) is an American pastor, author, spiritual advisor, and televangelist. She has written several books and is a leader in the charismatic movement. White served as a pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida, a church she co-founded with her then-husband, Randy White, in 1991. From 2011 until May 2019, White was senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida.
White is a spiritual advisor to Donald Trump. She served as chair of the evangelical advisory board to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. White delivered the invocation at Trump's first inauguration on January 20, 2017, becoming the first female clergy member to deliver an inaugural invocation. In November 2019, Trump appointed White as a special advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative at the Office of Public Liaison.
A Test of Faith | Paula White-Cain
Early Life and Conversion
White was born Paula Michelle Furr in Tupelo, Mississippi, the daughter of Myra Joanelle and Donald Paul Furr III. Donald and Myra Furr's marriage began to fail when White was five years old. White's mother left Tupelo and took her to Memphis; her separation from her husband and his subsequent suicide drove White, her brother, and her mother into poverty. White's mother became an alcoholic. While she worked, caregivers looked after her daughter. White has said that she was sexually and physically abused between the ages of six and thirteen by different people on different occasions.
White's mother married a two-star admiral in the United States Navy when White was nine years old. Her family moved to the Washington, D.C. While living in Maryland in 1984, White converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God.
Ministry and Career
The Tampa Christian Center was founded in Tampa, Florida, by the then-married Paula and Randy White in 1991. The church struggled financially and could not afford to pay the Whites a salary for the first two years. From 1991 to 1998, the church changed locations three times.
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On December 31, 2011, the New Destiny Christian Center board in Apopka, Florida, announced it had appointed White to succeed Zachery Tims as its senior pastor. New Destiny Christian Center had been searching for a replacement since Tims's death in August 2011. Tims' ex-wife Riva filed a lawsuit against the board of directors but quickly dropped it, citing a hold harmless clause in her 2009 marital settlement agreement. Upon hearing of the controversy, White addressed the New Destiny Christian Center during a service she led: "I'm not asking you to like me. I'm not asking you to love me or respect me, because I'll do the work to earn that."
On May 5, 2019, White announced that she was stepping down as senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center and that her son and his wife would become the new senior pastors.
White recorded the first broadcast of Paula White Today in December 2001. White considers T. D. Jakes her spiritual father. Jakes invited her to speak at his 2000 "Woman Thou Art Loosed" conference. White has ministered to Michael Jackson, Gary Sheffield, and Darryl Strawberry. In 2003, after Strawberry completed a prison sentence for cocaine possession, White became his personal pastor.
White's ministry began to take on modern-day prophetic aspects in the early 2010s that are common in Independent Charismatic Christianity. At that time, she called Independent Charismatic Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams her spiritual father.
Involvement with Donald Trump
White supported Trump in his 2020 reelection campaign, delivering a prayer at his June 2020 campaign launch event. White warned that "Christians that don't support President Trump will have to answer to God." One day after the election, when election results showed Trump was losing to Joe Biden, White appeared at a live-streamed prayer service in which she spoke in tongues and repeatedly called on "angelic reinforcement" from angels from Africa and South America to secure Trump's reelection.
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White has been described as a Christian nationalist and a "Christian Trumpist" who has forged close political ties with Donald Trump. Unlike some other Christian nationalists associated with Trump, White has been described as valuing Christian identity over racial identity.
Controversies and Criticisms
In response to her critics, In 2017, White said, "I have been called a heretic, an apostate, an adulterer, a charlatan, and an addict. It has been falsely reported that I once filed for bankruptcy and that I deny the Trinity!" Instead, he argues, the terminology refers to the destruction of evil schemes against Christians. In December 2021, White participated in the "Prayer Rally for Peace on the Korean Peninsula," hosted by the Unification Church's Universal Peace Federation.
In a July 2018 interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, White criticized immigration advocates who cited the Gospel's account of Jesus migrating to Egypt, saying: "Yes, he did live in Egypt for three-and-a-half years. But it was not illegal."
Personal Life
White was married to Randy White from 1990 to 2007. They met while attending Damascus Church of God in Maryland, where Randy White was an associate pastor.
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