Thursday roundup

What was she doing on that board in the first place?

Four prominent pastors came under harsh criticism last week for promoting the new book of President Trump’s spiritual advisor Paula White, who is also on Trump’s evangelical advisory board. The ire directed at Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham), former Southern Baptist Convention President Jack Graham (no relation), Greg Laurie, and Robert Jeffress for their promotion of White was well deserved.

An article at The Gospel Coalition highlights some of the disqualifying aspects of White’s ministry, the most egregious of which include unrepentant adultery and a fundraising video made by White in 2016 in which she suggests that giving her $1,144 could result in salvation.

“There’s someone that God is speaking to, to click on that donation button by minimizing the screen. And when you do to sow $1,144. It’s not often I ask very specifically but God has instructed me and I want you to hear. This isn’t for everyone but this is for someone. When you sow that $1,144 based on John 11:44 I believe for resurrection life.”

The video has been removed from YouTube, but The Christian Post reports that White went on to offer those who couldn’t afford the $1,144 “resurrection seed” prayer cloths that could heal them and bring about other miracles.

“You say, ‘Paula, I just don’t have [$1,144]’, then sow $144. ‘I don’t have that.’ Sow $44. But stand on John chapter 11:44. And when you do, there are prayer cloths that we have anointed that we have prayed over, that are going to be a point of contact.

“In Acts 19, the Bible says, Paul prayed over these prayer cloths and they brought forth special miracles, signs and wonders. There have been times that I have taken prayer cloths that have been anointed as a point of contact. I put them in my loved one’s sneakers, I put them under their bed. I put them on parts of my body that I believe God for healing.”

Sadly, such heresy is not out of character for White, who calls fellow prosperity gospel preacher T.D. Jakes her “spiritual father.”

Another particularly egregious example of the overtly non-Christian nature of White’s ministry is when her co-pastor and ex-husband Jonathan Cain promoted pornography to the women in the congregation that they would discover what their husbands like sexually. White laughed along with the crowd before stating that while she and Cain aren’t advocating for anyone to get addicted to porn, people do need to educate themselves. This is supposedly a church service to give glory to the creator of the universe and redeemer of sinners.

Laurie and Franklin Graham have rescinded their endorsements, but JackGraham and Jeffress have not.

Maybe, as he said later in a tweet attempting to explain it, that it was kind of a shout-out to Colorado and Kansas people that were in his Pennsylvania audience, but that comes across as pretty flimsy, given the way he put together this word salad:

President Donald Trump said, “We’re building a wall in Colorado” when talking about border wall progress on Wednesday afternoon. Trump was speaking in Pittsburgh at the Shale Insight Conference when he made the comments.

“And we’re building a wall on the border of New Mexico and we’re building a wall in Colorado, we’re building a beautiful wall, a big one that really works that you can’t get over, you can’t get under and we’re building a wall in Texas. We’re not building a wall in Kansas but they get the benefit of the walls we just mentioned,” said Trump.

No unicorns, rainbow, tofu and sprouts in 2019 post-America: 

Partisan political division and the resulting incivility has reached a low in America, with 67% believing that the nation is nearing civil war, according to a new national survey.

“The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war. That to me is a very pessimistic place,” said Mo Elleithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.

And worse, he said in announcing the results of the institute’s Battleground Poll, the political division is likely to make the upcoming 2020 presidential race the nastiest in modern history.

Thanks, Squirrel-Hair: Major shift in Mideast power dynamics:

Once again, Syrian President Bashar Assad has snapped up a prize from world powers that have been maneuvering in his country’s multi-front wars. Without firing a shot, his forces are returning to towns and villages in northeastern Syria where they haven’t set foot for years.
Assad was handed one victory first by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northeastern Syria, analysts said. Then he got another from a deal struck between Turkey and Russia, Damascus’ ally.
Abandoned by U.S. forces and staring down the barrel of a Turkish invasion, Kurdish fighters had no option but to turn to Assad’s government and to Russia for protection from their No. 1 enemy.

Freshman House member from California Katie Hill needs our prayers.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling for his state's attorney general and Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate this suituation with 7-year-old James Younger.   So glad to see that the jury decision will not be the final chapter on this grotesque situation.