Evangelical leader who advised Trump says Christians’ role is to understand Judaism

Florida pastor Paula White was Donald Trump’s closest religious adviser and helped shape his pro-Israel policies.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Florida televangelist Paula White told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that Christians should try to understand authentic Judaism instead of attempting to convert Jews.

White firmly believes that “You can be Jewish without being Christian, but you cannot be Christian without understanding Judaism.” She has therefore come to Israel to study Torah as well as tour such Jewishly historical sites as the Temple Mount and Hebron with various Orthodox educators, she told the Post.

An unwavering supporter of the Jewish State of Israel, she also backs the Israeli Right.

“We believe the Jews are returning to Israel because that is God’s promise to the Jews,” she told the Post. “I believe there should be resettlement. This is your land…. And I believe that the Temple belongs to the Jews, so I believe there must be restoration.”

The mega-pastor was former president Donald Trump’s personal minister, and he appointed her to chair his evangelical advisory board. Saying now that she believes she was assigned by God to ensure he “stood strong” for Israel, she worked together with his closest religious Jewish advisers, among them son-in-law Jared Kushner, former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Middle East point man Jason Greenblatt, to do things for the Jewish state that had never been done before.

This included moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and announcing that Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is not illegal under international law. The administration also passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts financial aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it ends its payments to terrorists and their families, and walked away from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Israel has long argued that the nuclear agreement was disastrous, as its sunset clause would permit Iran to return to its nuclear program within years and did not stop either their ballistic missile program or their destabilization of the Middle East.

According to the Post, instead of bringing Christian groups to Israel, as she has done dozens of times over the years, this is a personal time for White, and she brought her whole family with her to share the experience.