So Paula White’s a complementarian? Really?

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on April 30, 2025.

While many express concern about Paula White’s leadership in the White House Faith Office due to her adherence to the prosperity gospel and her bizarre, tongue-speaking prophecies for Donald Trump, one of the surprising developments of this past week was video of her embracing conservative evangelicalism’s view of male headship.

It’s often strange to see complementarian men like Mark Driscoll, Josh Howerton and Robert Jeffress huddling close to Trump with White alongside them in the room, given their opposition to female pastors and to White’s over-the-top version of prophecy that included speaking in tongues while calling angels from Africa to fly over the Atlantic Ocean to overturn the 2020 election.

Mark Driscoll

In a podcast from 2024, Driscoll and evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht discussed the need for “men of God” to be “the only ones” offering prophecy. Driscoll criticized what he called “the weird, counterfeit, bizarro tinfoil hat, medical marijuana, Trump prophets.” He continued, “I mean, those guys are just, they’re just flat out freaking weird. They’re just weird. And they’re, you know, all their prophecies are about America and Trump, not about Jesus and the kingdom. I mean, they’ve really, you know, they thought they were kicking it through the uprights and they were kicking it into the concession stand.”

Misogyny aside, Driscoll could not have been more accurate in his portrayal of the prophecies that come out of White’s mouth. All these men believe men should lead women, that women should not be pastors. And yet, there’s White, a female pastor, leading the White House faith office. And she’s the one inviting these complementarian men in. They need her for access to the president.

In an episode last week of “The Steve Gruber Show,” White unexpectedly embraced the complementarian view of gender hierarchies.

“God has an order,” she said. “The head of my household is my husband, Jonathan Cain. Period. And we have a loving, amazing relationship. But if there’s ever a time that a decision has to be made and we don’t agree on something, he’s the head.”

God has an order

“Men! Men! Men! I say that all the time on this program,” Gruber declared, hardly able to contain his excitement. “We need more fathers, more leaders, more community leaders, more men that are real men. Toxic masculinity? Throw that term out the window. Be a man! Step up and be somebody!”

Sean Feucht

His words are reminiscent of the conversation between Driscoll and Feucht. When Feucht asked Driscoll what has been missing in our nation, Driscoll said, “Balls.”

“Balls,” Feucht echoed.

“Balls,” Driscoll repeated.

“Well said. Yeah,” Feucht affirmed.

Then Driscoll added, “That’s what’s missing. The de-masculination of men.”

It’s the same theology Robert Jeffress preaches at First Baptist Church in Dallas. In a sermon titled “Order in the House,” Jeffress defines order in the home as “a military term to submit. It means to place yourself under the leadership of your husband. It’s something you do voluntarily. It doesn’t have anything to do with inferiority or superiority. You may be smarter and more spiritual than your husband. But you do so because that’s the order God has created. Wives are to follow the leadership of their husbands.”

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.