Christianity Today Article Trump Advisory
A clear majority of Evangelical Christians and denominations are opposed on doctrinal grounds to a woman serving as a pastor or in a leadership role like that of "elder" in a local church. And most of them consider the "Word of Faith" brand of Charismatic Christianity as heresy. There are literally thousands of blog posts, church newsletters and video of Evangelical preachers, pastors and teachers calling the Word of Faith movement a "cult" and who shake with rage over the idea of a woman serving in church leadership, especially one who preaches or teaches with (gasp!) men in the audience.
I for one am not surprised that Trump picked White as his "spiritual advisor" and to head his "Faith Advisory Board" during his Presidency. Nor am I surprised that she's still there. The bottom line is that they both openly demonstrate a love of money. In the Word of Faith movement to which White belongs, "miracles" are bought with money. Putting the offering in the plate is how you demonstrate your faith. Without "faith" there are no answered prayers. It's a win-win situation. You get an answer to your prayer and White gets your money.
Being able to buy forgiveness is ideal for Trump, who built his public reputation on his immoral, worldly lifestyle. Here's a faith that can be purchased with money instead of with conviction of sin, repentance and humility. Becoming a Christian requires admitting to your sin, but in the church that Paula White pastors, you just speak it into existence and God is somehow obligated to honor your word because of that money you put in the offering plate to "seed your faith."
Don't laugh at that. I'm not joking, I'm being serious. That is what they believe. Really, it is. You can look it up.
Trump Calls the Shots in His Deal With Evangelical "Leaders"
Trump went after the Evangelical right by making a deal with some of the more well-known leaders in order to get their commitment to use their influence to drive votes his way. In exchange for their open endorsement of his candidacy, delivering votes from the members of their churches and from among their ministry supporters, he would deliver on their political "wish list." There were plenty of Evangelical "leaders," pastors, television evangelists and religious celebrities in whose churches he could have landed who are conservative in theology and Biblically orthodox in practice. But he's sending a message with his choice of Paula White to let the Evangelical leaders with whom he made his political "deal" know that even though they gave him their support, he still calls the shots.
It's a test of their sincerity and loyalty to him. And they've had to swallow their pride, a massive amount of their pride, put a smile on their face, suck it up and look happy about it. Not only have they had to share his presence with Paula White, who gets more of his attention than they do, they've had to accept her leadership of his Faith Advisory Board. These Evangelical leaders, in order to get the political favors they want, must get in line behind a woman and submit to her leadership in order to get into Trump's inner circle. That's how Trump makes deals. He always sets it up to come out ahead.
God has quite a sense of humor. Evangelical leaders have traded his spiritual power to endorse Trump and use political power instead to get what they want. So in order to get close to the political power, they have to bow to a woman's leadership.
The "Word of Faith" movement is far from conservative, Evangelical theology and doctrine. It is, in their description of it, a "cult" that teaches false doctrine. More specifically, the Word of Faith movement teaches that Christians can access the power of faith through speech. It follows the pattern of "name it, claim it and believe it happened." That is not an exaggeration. These are people who believe that words can manipulate the "faith force" because God is obligated to honor words spoken in faith. Followers believe that speaking words in faith can create health and wealth. For church leaders like Paula White, who collect the offerings given as "seed faith," it does indeed create wealth.
By any standard of Biblical orthodoxy, especially among Evangelical churches, Word of Faith is an unbiblical heresy. Any Evangelical leaders who have joined in with Trump's Faith Advisory Board are hypocritically endorsing heresy in exchange for worldly power and influence. I'm not exactly sure what that does to them in a spiritual sense, since I don't believe the justification and sanctification that come from salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus can be undone, but it certainly strips them of all credibility and severely damages their witness and testimony.
A Record of Aversion to One of Their Own
At the core of Evangelical Christian teaching is the doctrine of salvation. Being "Christian" by the Evangelical definition, means that a person has been convicted of their sinful nature by God's Holy Spirit and in response to this conviction, they repent, or turn from their sin. They are "made righteous" before God by believing that Jesus was God's son and by pleading his sacrificial death on the cross as their atonement from sin.
Instead of "deal-making" with someone like Trump, who has never acknowledged his need for forgiveness of sin or publicly professed repentance from it, if Evangelicals believe that the use of political power is the best way to accomplish their agenda, why do they not simply elect one of their own as President and then expect him to get their political goals achieved? I've never understood why those who claim to have had an Evangelical Christian "salvation experience" such as I've described have never been supported for party nomination by their fellow Evangelicals.
Since World War 2, there have been three Presidents who had been baptized, which is the symbolic picture of conviction, repentance, forgiveness of sin and restoration to God, and were members of a local Evangelical church. All three were Democrats. That would include Harry S. Truman, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. All three were baptized into the membership of a Southern Baptist church, and while their comments and testimony about their Baptist faith show a varied experience, they all indicate a personal faith experience compatible with the doctrine of salvation.
There is no explanation for Evangelical support for Trump, except that they were tempted by worldly political power when it was offered to them in exchange for their support. The Republican field in 2016 contained several Evangelical Christians, most notably Southern Baptists Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Lindsay Graham, along with Baptist Scott Walker, When it came down to a contest between Cruz and Trump, white Evangelicals abandoned Cruz and in spite of the fact that Trump's payoffs to porn stars for their silence about the affairs they had with him were fresh in the press, went with the adulterer and liar. Or should I say, the more notorious liar.
Back in 2012, when the Republicans wanted to unseat President Obama so bad they could taste it, they had a shot at nominating a white, Southern, Evangelical, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was a likeable guy with a solid campaign and a great approach to real issues. In rallies with lots of white, southern Evangelicals, he could really talk the talk and handle the room like a preacher. But even though white Evangelicals made up the majority of GOP primary voters, they picked Mitt Romney, a Mormon. Not only do Evangelicals believe Mormonism is a dangerous cult, but Mormons aren't hard liners on the sanctity of human life, meaning that Romney wasn't a pro-life flag waver. Romney won the nomination on the strength of white Evangelical voters in Huckabee's back yard in the deep South.
A Smoke Screen
"Faith Advisory Board" is a misnomer. If you look at the article in Christianity Today, you can see that it's politics first, faith if there's time for it and it won't cost anything. Evangelical Christians, at least those who are Trump supporters, no longer believe in the power of prayer or in any kind of spiritual resolution to the issues they are trying to achieve by using politics. If that were the case, they'd have been more supportive of the Evangelicals running for their party nomination. They are willing to sacrifice integrity, morality and credibility to endorse Trump and they are willing to give up doctrinal integrity and Biblical practice to provide the support he needs from them. In this battle, at least, Trump wins hands down.
Clarification, September 9, 2021
When I make the statement that "Trump wins," what I mean is that in any "deal" he makes where there's some kind of trade-off in exchange for favors, Trump always puts himself in the position of calling the shots. These Evangelical "leaders" have to dance to his tune. They either have to accept things on his terms or they're not included. Both Paula White's theology and doctrine, and the fact that she is a woman pastor of a church are way outside the bounds of what is acceptable to virtually all conservative Evangelical Christians. But getting Trump's favor is more important to them than their doctrine and faith practice, apparently, so they are willing to lose their credibility on these issues in order to get political favor.
Well, now Trump has been defeated and isn't in office. They don't have to dance to his tune anymore but clearly, his favor is more important to them than their faith. They need a wake-up call and it seems that the exodus of their church members and the resulting loss of funds isn't quite enough to make that happen. That tells me most of the so-called "Evangelical leaders" who fawn after Trump are not very sincere when it comes to their faith.
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