#414: Paula White

Author, charismatic churchleader and speaker Paula Michelle White founded and runs the relatively large Without Walls International Church (one of the churches being investigated – and which refused to divulge financial information – during Chuck Grassley’s fraudulent fraud investigation of megachurches), and hosts the relatively widely distributed TV show Paula White Today, in which she appears generally jocular and jovial – as con men and women generally do. Paula White is a firm proponent of the prosperity gospel and has close ties to e.g. Benny Hinn. Her sermons and talks are pretty vapid, generally blaming anything you don’t like (whatever that may be) on Satan (or negative thoughts, which you will be bound by unless you find God), and subtly invoking the Law of Attraction with statements like “I say, God is already engineered us for success. So all we have to do is come in alignment with the decrees that God has made. We just have to agree with it.”

More info on her church and herself can be found here.

A few years ago she was involved in something resembling a scandal when she was caught holding hands with Benny Hinn in a hotel room, but she has managed to stage a comeback, blaming the incident on – but of course – Satan. Because although you are responsible for your own position in life (through Jesus and giving money to White), she is not responsible for her own actions before she has decided in retrospect whether she wants to be.

Diagnosis: Ok, so she’s a con woman. The charity needed in order to interpret her as a mere loon is more than can reasonably be applied. But despite the futility of doing so, garbage like Paula White ought to be exposed at every possible opportunity, even in our tiny Encyclopedia.