Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Trump’s Evangelical Guru Says President Has Big ‘Faith Agenda’ Plans For 2018

Paula White, the megachurch pastor and spiritual adviser to President Trump, said the president’s evangelical council is planning to unveil a string of new “faith initiatives” in 2018.

“We thought we did some things last year, boy, wait until this year,” White told the Christian Broadcasting Network.

White told hosts David Brody and Jenna Browder that the initiatives will focus on criminal justice reform, religious liberty and and mental health care, but she did not go into further detail.

“We’ll be touching on everything from humanitarian, working of course on criminal justice reform, religious liberties, so many different aspects, mental health care, substance abuse,” White said.

White also responded to recent tweets from Trump in which the president boasted that he was “really smart” and “a very stable genius.”

“He’s great mentally,” White said.

White, a televangelist associated with what is known as the prosperity gospel — the teaching that faith in God will increase are one’s material wealth and physical health — has been acting as an adviser to Trump in recent years. She spoke at the president’s inauguration and helped organize group prayer sessions in the Oval Office.

White has also adopted some Hebrew rituals and observances at her megachurch, like observing a version of Passover and fasting for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Contact Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter,@skestenbaum

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version