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By Monica Sager
Live News Reporter
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Pastor Paula White-Cain, the president's chair of the evangelical advisory board during his 2016 campaign, has been appointed to lead the White House Faith Office.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would create a Faith Office while directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force to end anti-Christian bias which will also include the rest of the Republican's Cabinet. He signed an executive order Thursday to "protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government."
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Trump had attended two prayer breakfasts Thursday morning, noting that people within the Democratic Party "oppose religion" as well as "oppose God."
The former President Joe Biden administration had announced a strategy in December to counter anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry. In September of 2023, it announced similar plans to fight antisemitism.
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What To Know
White-Cain, 58, delivered the innovation at Trump's first inauguration on January 20, 2017. She was the first female clergy member to do so.
In 2019, Trump appointed her as his special advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative, which was part of the Office of Public Liaison. She is expected to become the lead of the White House Faith Office during this Trump administration.
"I have been appointed to lead the White House Faith Office," White-Cain posted to X, formerly Twitter. "The office will work alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi to combat discrimination against Christians in federal institutions and ensure religious liberties are upheld across the country!"
White-Cain was born in Mississippi and grew up in Maryland following her mother's marriage to a two-star admiral in the United States Navy.
While living in Maryland, she converted to Christianity at the Damascus Church of God. She has said she received a vision from God at that time.
White-Cain is a proponent of the prosperity theology, which is centered around financial and physical well-being being done through the will of God. The Charismatic Christians believe that by giving to charity, their own material wealth will rise as well.
She has been criticized for some of her beliefs, however. In 2020 she prayed for the miscarriage of "all Satanic pregnancies" and she also embraced an anti-Black Lives Matter stance. Christian rapper Shai Linne called her out in the song "Fal$e Teacher$"
White-Cain's first marriage was to a local musician while she was a teenager. The two had a child named Bradley Knight but divorced four years into their marriage.
She married Randy White and they founded the Tampa Christian Center in 1991 in Tampa, Florida. A Senate report found that the couple had used tax-exempt ministry money to pay for a private jet, salaries to family members and nearly $900,000 for a waterfront mansion.
White-Cain became the senior pastor in 2009 and replaced her then-former husband when he stepped down. Two years later, in 2011, White-Cain became the senior pastor of Without Walls Central Church as well.
She recorded broadcasts of Paula White Today, starting in 2001 and then on television networks by 2006. Trump appeared on her show, and White-Cain—who has owned a condo in Trump Tower for 20 years—was credited by James Dobson for converting Trump to Christianity.
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In 2011, White-Cain became the senior pastor at the New Destiny Christian Church in Apopka, Florida. She stepped down in 2019, and her son and his wife became the new senior pastors.
In 2015, White-Cain got married for the third time, this time to Journey's keyboard and guitarist Jonathan Cain. It was also Cain's third marriage.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump in his executive order on Thursday: "The Founders established a Nation in which people were free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or retaliation by their government...Yet the previous Administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses. The Biden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges and obtaining in numerous cases multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities... My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians."
Ebony magazine in 2007: "You know you're on to something new and significant when the most popular woman preacher on the Black Entertainment Network is a white woman."
What's Next
Trump will make an announcement about the Faith Office at 2 p.m. while also signing executive orders, according to a daily schedule sent to Newsweek.
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