For a moment I sat in shocked silence. For one thing, I didn't know about her daughter’s illness. But more importantly, I was shocked that White would use a family tragedy to make me look like a terrible person given her inability to offer legitimate answers to my legitimate questions about her theology and lifestyle.
What, I thought, does her daughter's illness have to do with answering questions about her divorce and psychologically saturated prosperity theology? Is what Paula White believes and teaches above criticism because she has a terminally ill daughter?
Interestingly, the daughter in question is actually her estranged husband Randy's daughter from a previous marriage. And this person is not a child, but an adult. Paula White led me and my audience to believe that she had a young child at home dying of cancer; she played the sympathy card when it became apparent she had lost the sympathy of the audience on the issues she was asked to address.
Paula White is a well-managed image worth millions of dollars. Behind that image, however, is a real person, a wounded and broken human being, who lives in fear of being exposed. Paula White revealed how broken she is when she used her dying daughter as a desperate cover to protect her well managed image.
It’s not only her daughter that needs our prayers. It’s Paula White as well.