- Paula White, a White House employee and controversial televangelist, said a sermon which went viral online was taken out of context.
- White rebuked "strange winds" sent to hurt President Donald Trump, who she has advised since at least 2016.
- In her sermon, delivered January 5, White called on divine forces to "command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now."
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Paula White, a controversial televangelist who joined the White House in an official capacity last year, is arguing that the content of a sermon she delivered on January 5, which mentioned adversaries of President Donald Trump and soon after advocated for divine forces to cause the miscarriage of babies in "satanic wombs," was taken out of context.
In a video of the sermon posted by Right Wing Watch, a news outlet that "monitors and exposes the activities of Radical Right political organizations," White can be heard mentioning adversaries of the president before calling on God to miscarry babies convinced by what she called "satanic wombs."
"We declare any strange winds – any strange winds that have been sent to hurt the church, sent to hurt this nation, sent against the president, sent against myself, sent against others – we break it by the superior blood of Jesus right now," White said in the video. "In the name of Jesus, we command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now. We declare that anything that has been conceived in satanic wombs will miscarry, it will not be able to carry forth any plan of destruction, any plan of harm."
Her comments caused a stir on social media. The video received more than 300 retweets from the Right Wing Watch account, though copies of the video have been recirculated across Twitter. One copy of the video, tweeted by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a self-proclaimed expert on the religious left, had been retweeted almost 6,000 times.
This is pure hatred. How can someone, who calls herself a Christian woman, pray for the deaths of innocent unborn children? 🤷♂️🤦♂️ And what the fuck is a satanic pregnancy anyway!? When will this type of idiocy stop? #SatanicPregnancies #PaulaWhite https://t.co/gG48hgMZm0
— 😈 The Devil Made Me Do It 😈 (@revoltofangels) January 26, 2020
Without Safanic pregnancies, would we even have a Paula White? https://t.co/hsRhITpwFZ
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 26, 2020
In response to the social media backlash against her comments, White said that her comments had been taken out of context.
"I don't normally respond but clearly this has been taken out of context," White tweeted on Sunday. "I was praying Eph 6:12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Anything that has been conceived by demonic plans, for it to be cancelled[sic] and not prevail in your life."
Ephesians 6:12, which White says she was praying during her sermon that mentioned the president, does not mention miscarriage from satanic wombs.
"That is- any plans to hurt people," White added in a follow-up tweet. "Let's be clear what is really going on... this is a disingenuous attempt to use words out of context for political gain. I will just keep praying!"
White joined the White House in November 2019 in an official capacity, though she had been the president's unofficial spiritual adviser since 2016. The president first connected with her in the 2000s when he was a reality TV star. In 2017, White was one of six religious figures who prayed with the president during his inauguration in 2017.
She joined the Office of the Public Liason as part of the president's Faith and Opportunity Initiative, created by executive order, which exists to help religious organizations to "strengthen the institutions of civil society and American families and communities."
As Business Insider previously noted, the move to hire White came amid the president's desire to drum up support from his religious base a part of his campaign for re-election. Still, White — the former senior pastor at the Without Walls megachurch in Florida — has often divided Christians, who don't buy into her version of Christianity, with her controversial statements and behavior.
White is known as a "prosperity gospel pastor," meaning that she believes that God rewards the pious with wealth, health, and happiness, per a previous report from Business Insider.
The White House and White did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
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