Posted on 05/13/2011 2:57:33 AM PDT by Gamecock
Pastor Paula White broke her silence Thursday night, addressing all the scandals that she has been associated with since her divorce in 2007.
"We’re letting our hair down," White told thousands at the 2011 Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla. "I'm not here to look cute ... I came to let the devil know ... I'm stronger than I've ever been."
Though the two-hour message began with shouts of encouragement and notes of affirmation for the participating leaders who may be facing challenges or opposition, by the end of the night it was apparent that the popular charismatic pastor was also preaching to herself.
"I have a word to those who have all odds stacked against them," she preached. "You're about to get your bounce back."
"The enemy strategically plotted against you, hunted you like prey, set out to destroy you, tried to wreck your mind, destroy your heart, jack up your family, take your ministry, ruin your reputation ... and he thought that he had you. He set you up and thought this is what will kill them.
"I came to put every devil on notice ... I'm getting my dream back, I'm getting my prophesy back, I'm getting my vision back, I'm getting my anointing back, I'm getting my strength back."
White, who calls herself the "former messed up Mississippi girl," let the audience know that she would be "very vulnerable and very open" that night.
Before walking back through her tumultuous past few years, she told them, "I think it's time we stop being hypocrites in the pulpit. I think ... it's time that we take the mask off to this generation and show them that we have the same issues and the same struggles."
"We (sic) going public with all our stuff. Somebody's got to get real in the church now."
She did just that, opening up about the pressures that piled up and the crises in her life that the media was all over.
It all began in 2004 when the IRS launched a nine-year investigation into the personal and organizational finances of White and her then husband, Randy.
Just two years earlier in 2002, White had written in her journal: "I'm living heaven on earth. Life cannot get any better."
"I'm above the struggle and beneath the radar. I love my husband and my husband loves me. And we do. The kids are doing good. And millions of dollars in the bank. Not sick," she recalled feeling at the time.
White had risen to prominence as a preacher, motivational speaker, author and TV personality after co-founding what is now Without Walls International Church with her husband and starting her own ministry.
She was living her dream life, as she described to pastors at the Orlando conference.
But after the IRS investigation began, she began to face challenge after challenge to the point where she wanted to and even tried to quit.
"You can handle something if it's for a short season. But how do I praise Him when my days turn into weeks and my weeks turn into months and my months turn into years and my years turn into decades?" she said. "How do I praise Him under that continual pressure? That kind of pressure wears you out."
Listing the numerous trials she went through, White said she experienced a midlife meltdown, compassion fatigue, her friend being falsely accused and sent to prison, a stroke, addiction to the prescription medication she was given following her stroke, and problems in her marriage.
Continuing, she added that her church staff split in the middle with some turning on the Whites and going to the media.
She maintained that the articles written based on allegations from former church staff were "mostly, totally unfounded" and "lies." The Whites were accused of being all about money and fame.
She also indicated that the staff turned on the church because they couldn’t "supply the staff with the lifestyle that they were used to."
Family problems were added when White found out that her son had a drug addiction and was sexually abused by another male at a staff member's house. She then had to experience the pain of her non-biological daughter battling brain cancer. Kristen, Randy's oldest daughter, died in 2008 at age 30.
In the midst of all this, White said she was being pressured to preach and prophesy and fulfill her role in the church.
"[Bishop] Randy, Pastor Paula, give me a word, marry me, bury me, pay these bills, prophesy. Why aren't you doing this? Why isn't it like it used to be? We don't like the music. We leaving the church because you didn't know our names and you didn't come have lasagna with us," she said, mimicking the demands and criticisms she was met with.
White noted that it was under "that kind of pressure" and "in a really weak moment" that she and her husband made the decision to divorce in 2007. The split was amicable.
According to White, her husband closed up to her. While she traveled the world preaching, she pondered, "Why can I win the world and not go home and win the one that I love?"
She recounted a time when Randy took her into a dark room, placed a mask on her, spun her around and told her to find her way out. With tears, White said she sat there for half an hour, scared and calling out to him. He took off her mask and informed her that that is what he felt like he was going through.
When the two announced their split, Randy had agreed to take the responsibility. And "God told me to keep my mouth shut," she said.
Randy, who no longer co-pastors Without Walls, is now writing a book, she noted.
But she added, "I'm proud of him. He never quit .... God or anything else."
The trials continued even after the divorce when White and televangelist Benny Hinn were pictured last summer in The National Enquirer leaving a hotel in Rome holding hands. They were accused of having an affair and being engaged.
On Thursday, White flatly denied that she ever had an affair.
"They're going to talk about you and write ... because it sells ragtag magazines," she said. "They're going to lie on you but God's going to tell you to keep your mouth shut."
There was also the so-called Grassley investigation. Sen. Charles Grassley launched a Senate probe in 2007 into six influential ministries, including White's, following complaints of opulent spending and possible abuse of nonprofit status.
The probe came to a close in January of this year. With little cooperation from most of the ministries, which called the investigation an attack on their religious freedom and privacy rights, Grassley's office was unable to make any conclusion about the spending of the ministries and handed out no penalties.
White interpreted that to mean her ministry was cleared.
"The church better recognize, it should be thanking six ministries for fighting for the body of Christ for saying 'we are not going to let you dictate to us how we interpret Scripture' and you can't tell us 'because Jesus rode in on a donkey' because if you start telling us how to interpret Scripture in one way, you'll tell us how to interpret it in every way," White said in frustration. Grassley had referred to Jesus' humble entrance into Jerusalem to make the point that ministers today don't really need Bentleys and Rolls-Royces to spread the Gospel.
"I preach in countries if I say 'Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth and the life,' they'll arrest me. And don't think America's that far away. Unless the people of righteousness stand up and say 'we're not going to allow for this because you cannot take what is our First Amendment rights. You can't do that!" White asserted. "We pay taxes. We work hard. We do it by the books. We have integrity. But you're going to make a public misery and mess out of it like something's wrong!"
Stressing that her church gave $9 million to mission in January 2007, built education centers in Pakistan, put students through college, fed and continue to feed thousands every week, and helped transform countless lives, White said, "Are you serious? You want to fight over a $50,000 what? Excuse me?!"
Her long, emotional testimony was met with applause and support from the thousands of pastors in the conference room in Orlando.
Though at the time, she wondered whether she would be able to overcome the trials, she now says what the devil meant for bad, God has turned around to work for the good.
"God uses every enemy, every lawsuit, every lie, every betrayal, all the brokenness," she stressed.
"It's not over. I got my bounce back. That's my message."
The three-day Pastors and Leadership Conference, hosted by Bishop T.D. Jakes, kicked off on Thursday.
“Paid clergy problem.”
Yep. Their allegiance is to the people paying their salary.
But in White’s case, they started worshiping the fame, fortune and glamor that came with being celebrities. God was just a vehicle for that lifestyle. That’s how she ended up with a blasphemous swindler like Hinn. They worship the same god.
Satan is good at this religion game.
It’s hard for me to accept her “victim” mentality when they are burning churches in Egypt.
Excellent, your comments and location reminded me of the story of North Koreans who embraced the Gospel and were so fervent in their faith that they returned to N Korea to share the Gospel.
Their likely fate: death.
This woman is neither candid, honest, nor biblical. Your glib defense of her belies the biblical teaching that you yourself include on your info page:
...”Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart”.... 1 Peter 1:22.
You are fond of quoting verses about love on your info page, with little attention to obedience. Do you consider those who are "annointed" to be above obedience? To the contrary, the above passage commands us to obey the Truth as given us in Holy Scripture.
As you are surely aware, we are commanded to "avoid the appearance of evil." Furthermore, ministers of the Gospel are instructed to be "above reproach."
For purposes of brevity I will leave aside serious issues regarding how this "minister" boasted in her journal about the "millions" she has in the bank as a result of fleecing her flock, and simply ask one question: Do you consider two ministers of the Gospel, who are not married to one another, who are photographed hand-in-hand coming out of a hotel in Rome to be engaging in acceptable behavior?
Do you consider being seen under such compromising circumstances to be acting "from a pure heart"?
If you in any way excuse such behavior, you would do well to examine your own heart to see if you are genuinely "in the faith."
(Oh yes, I know, "do not judge!" And, for good measure: "Do not touch the Lord's annointed!" and "We are not under the law but under Grace!" To the contrary, it is the responsibility of ministers of the Gospel to live lives that are beyond reproach - not to twist the Scriptures to excuse their behavior.)
Since you are fond of quoting verses about love on your info page (as though that were the sum total of the Gospel), I find it curious that you do not shrink from making numerous highly derogatory and offensive comments towards other Christians and churches. I find this behavior hypocritical to say the least - something else about which Jesus had much to say.
I have spent a lifetime in Evangelical and Pentecostal circles, and have a terminal degree in Theology, studying in "Ivy League" Evangelical schools, and have taught theology on the college-level, and have written numerous books.
All that amounts to "wood, hay, and stubble" compared to obedience to the Gospel. Obedience cannot be reduced to simply being "filled with the Holy Spirit," which to many (apparently including the above "ministers") justifies their actions.
If you imagine that such behavior can be overlooked or justified by the oft-misinterpreted verse "touch not the Lord's annointed," you are sadly mistaken. Each one of us, including Paula White and Benny Hinn, et al., will one day "give an account for the deeds done in the flesh," on that Day when the crowds of adoring followers, and all the excuses for the sinful behavior and for the lavish lifestyles, will all be stripped away. And those of us who enabled them, and turned a blind eye to their actions, will have much to answer for as well.
she’s also an obama supporter. dead give away for a FRAUD.
Satan is very good at religions and he’s invented many.
What shocks me is that the room was packed with other “pastors” cheering her on. They want her lifestyle and success.
Years ago I was listening to Christian radio in which an older pastor of a mega-church was scolding younger pastors for not ‘paying their dues’ and wanting to get a big church like his right away. He was as wicked as they - wolves dressed as lambs, vessels white and clean on the outside, but putrid within. Disgusting.
And murdering pastors' families in Nigeria. For goodness sakes! She brought all this "pressure" on herself. People like her are such a disgrace to the cause of Christ...she, Binny Hinn, et al. - nothing but self-worshipping money grabbers.
Years ago I would be watching CNBC early in the morning before going to the office to see how the overseas markets were doing. Sometimes the cable company would be late in switching the channel, since the channel was shared with BET. BET had Robert Tilton in the time slot. After watching some of his schtick, I concluded that his favorite hymn was by a dear sister from Port Arthur, TX. It goes like this:
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
[- From :http://www.elyrics.net/read/j/janis-joplin-lyrics/mercedes-benz-lyrics.html -]
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
Everybody!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
That’s it!
Anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see how corrupt and crooked many of these so-called ‘leaders’ are, yet they are supported because they hang the title of Christian around their necks.
They should be judged not just on their public works, but on how they live their lives as well. People can be fooled, but not God.
The humility of the repentant is missing, and it's supposed to be about Jesus, not Paula.
Amen - it's not the adversary from outside - it's the traitor within.
“Satan is very good at religions and he’s invented many.”
I think the realm of religion is his specialty. He has no need to concern himself with the drug dealers, the pornographers, the strip club owners. He’s got them in hand. Plus, no one is fooled by those folks. No one believes what they do is right.
It’s only in the realm of religion that he can con billions into believing soul-destroying lies. With his attractive lies he can distract a man for a lifetime, knowing his foot will slip in due time. One of the tricks that works in an affluent country like ours is twisting Scripture to guarantee health and wealth, your best life now, if only the mark, usually the less fortunate, has enough faith.
If the prosperity gospel is for real and these “ministers” are legitimate, why don’t they take it to the poor nations of Asia and Africa? Just think, if they could find enough people with sufficient faith to sow a $40/month seed, send in their “first fruits” offering, they could transform entire continents, all “for Jesus” of course.
I imagine it is somewhat like heroin. No one goes into it hoping to get addicted. But church is a numbers game. Everything is measured by numbers; money, congregation size, number of people Saved. Success is based on the numbers. When the numbers are going up, God is blessing them and Satan is on the run. When the numbers are going down, Satan has overcome God’s power and is trying to destroy them.
Oh,the poor, poor people! There is so much sorrow! I don’t care any more if it’s self-inflicted. The sinner who has no one to blame but himself is in the most pitiable condition, and in the most need of our prayers, it seems to me.
I don't know -- quix, do you know?
If I am Satan, I would try to convince people they were Saved when they were not. If they think they are Saved, they will quit struggling so much.
Prosperity Gospel works good for that. Everything is measured by a worldly standard and Satan has considerable power in this world.
True, we should forgive a repentant person, even a pastor can make mistakes (they're only human after all), but she doesn't seem repentant at all
Quix -- I see that you sincerely believe in not throwing rocks at any sinning pastor priests. That is very Christian of you.
I fear false professions abound in our country. People walk an aisle, pray a prayer with the preacher, and then invite grandma to watch them when they go into the baptismal pool. And I am sure most mean it at the time. But soon they put Christ on the shelf, believing they have eternity in hand.
Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!
Those born of God persevere until the end. And the saved don’t use God like a lucky rabbit foot they pull out when they need something.
Who is Paula White?
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