Parasites Pimps & Prostitutes The Straders and Whites Are Losers http://www.scribd.com/doc/35148151

SEE ALSO GREAT EXPOSES OF WOLVES IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING http://theexposes.weebly.com/index.html

BISHOP RANDY WHITE AND T.D. JAKES

RANDY AND PAULA WHITE ARE VERY DISHONEST

In his autobiography, "Without Walls," and on a 2002 Web profile, Randy said he enrolled at the former Lee College in Cleveland, Tenn., and earned a bachelor's degree in ministerial studies and a master's in divinity. He said he was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va.

Representatives from both schools said he did not receive degrees there, though Lee confirmed he took two classes.

According to documents Randy gave the Tribune in April, he received a doctorate of humane letters from Commonwealth Assistance Foundation Institute of International Studies in Alexandria, Va., in May 1993. An in-depth Internet search found no mention of the school. There is no telephone listing for it.

Randy does have a bachelor's degree in theology from the International Bible Institute and Seminary, a correspondence school in Orlando.

Creditor Posts Top Bid at Auction for Without Walls Church

Without Walls Central Church sits vacant in North Lakeland in December 2012. The building, once the Carpenter's Home Church, is set to be auctioned on July 8 as the result of a bankruptcy filing by the Tampa church that owns it.

CALVIN KNIGHT | THE LEDGER (2012) By Gary White THE LEDGER

Published: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at 11:07 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at 11:07 a.m.

TAMPA | Polk County's largest church building is on the verge of having a new owner. But the fate of the former Without Walls Central property is not necessarily any clearer.

The credit union that holds the mortgage on the North Lakeland property bid $2 million Tuesday morning to take possession of the 63-acre property that includes the former Carpenter's Home Church, which has a capacity of 9,600.

The auction took place in a conference room at the offices of Stichter, Riedel, Blain and Prosser, the Tampa law firm representing Without Walls. It lasted about two minutes and produced only a single voiced bid — the $2 million offer from Evangelical Christian Credit Union.

Sealed bids on the auction were due by Monday and resulted in an opening bid of $1.7 million, as explained by Walt Driggers, a broker with Tranzon Driggers, the company that managed the auction. That bid was made by Joe Barron, an independent developer based in Celebration.

A representative from the credit union immediately bid $2 million, and the other two qualified bidders — Barron and a priest from a Chicago church — declined to bid higher than that.

The three representatives from the credit union declined to comment about their plans for the property following Tuesday's auction. The transaction must be approved today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa.

The credit union had three representatives at Tuesday's auction. The two other qualified bidders,

The auction resulted from a long legal battle between the California-based credit union and Without Walls International, the Tampa church that has owned the property since 2005. The credit union, claiming it was owed $13.9 million by Without Walls International, began foreclosure proceedings in October 2012.

Without Walls International filed for bankruptcy in March, bringing the foreclosure case to a halt. Judge Michael Williamson of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa signed an order for the auction in April.

The property includes a Mediterranean-style structure built in the 1920s as a retirement home for a carpenters' union. That building was used in recent years as a private school.

Without Walls Central has been dormant for about three years. Records show Without Walls owes Lakeland Electric $5,236.41. The church also has accrued about $30,000 in fines from Lakeland's code enforcement office for violations, city spokesman Kevin Cook said.

The First Assembly of God constructed Carpenter's Home Church in 1985. The church split in 1989 and never again had a congregation large enough to fill the 9,600-seat sanctuary. Church Foreclosures Plague California Credit Union By Michelle A. Samaad June 19, 2013

In the thick of the economic meltdown that ravaged the housing market a few years ago, churches in some communities were among those that felt the bruises of foreclosures more than other properties.

One of the credit union industry’s top business lending programs can be found at the $1.1 billion Evangelical Christian Credit Union in Brea, Calif. Toward the end of 2012, it ranked second in the nation, amassing $833 million in business loans, according to SNL Financial.

However in 2009, Evangelical Christian started grappling with an increase in foreclosures on churches. In a USA Today article, the credit union said it had to foreclose on seven of its 1,100 loans in 2008. At least one Texas church had filed for bankruptcy, owing the cooperative nearly $2.8 million.

Fast forward to 2013 and Evangelical Christian is embroiled in yet another foreclosure case that stretches back to 2008. This time, it involves a proceeding against one of Florida’s largest churches.

The Lakeland, Fla.-based Without Walls International Church initially went into foreclosure in 2008, owing Evangelical Christian $13.9 million, which was due in September 2012, Ledger.com reported. In 2009, it approved a mortgage modification for the church.

Evangelical Christian then moved forward with its foreclosure proceedings against the church last October. After filing a request for documents on May 21, a hearing is set to take place in September. Meanwhile, Without Walls filed a complaint last October against Evangelical Christian seeking more than $23.8 million with claims that the credit union acted inappropriately towards the church’s founder, Randy White, by allowing his ex- wife, Paula White, to take more than $2 million worth of video and music equipment from the church to use for her own ministry, according to the Ledger.com. Paula White was apparently hired as senior pastor at a church in Orlando.

Without Walls’ complaint also said Evangelical Christian allegedly made false statements about the church in order to thwart a deal initiated by Randy White to sell the property.

According to real estate filings, Without Walls is currently up for sale, with an asking price of $14.75 million, the Ledger.com reported. The property, which has 63 acres and houses the 9,600-seat church, was initially bought in 2005 for $8 million.

A comment from Evangelical Christian was not available.

In a 2009 article titled “Crisis and Faith” featured in a leadership education publication from Duke University, Mark Holbrook, president of Evangelical Christian, offered his take on the growing number of church foreclosures.

“Certainly, this is unprecedented in our history,” Holbrook said. “Because of the grace factor, churches tend to put off hard decisions,” he added referring to how some churches may see their soured financials as a sign of wavering spiritual faith.

Nationwide, Evangelical Christian continues to deal with churches that have not kept up their mortgage payments. In the spring of 2012, it was reported that the Faith Center in Rockford, Ill., owed the credit union $4.17 million after it borrowed funds to expand back in 2007. The center filed for bankruptcy last January.

As of March, Evangelical Christian had nearly $2.6 million in loan charge-offs, according to its NCUA Call Report. The bulk of the losses came from members business loans excluding agricultural loans. Loans charged off due to bankruptcy totaled $135,707 year to date. However, the total dollar amount of loans originated by members who either filed for either Chapters 7, 11, 12 or 13 year to date came to nearly $5.3 million.

Still, with an 8.11% net worth ratio, the credit union is considered well- capitalized, according to its Call Report. In all, Evangelical Christian had $853 million in business loans as of March. Like the housing market, churches were not immune to the impact of the Great Recession. A 2008 survey by the National Association of Church Business Administration showed that nearly four in 10 congregations had reported a dip in income, 12% had resorted to layoffs and a growing number of churches declared bankruptcy. http://www.cutimes.com/2013/06/19/church-foreclosures-plague-california-credit-union

$29M Church Default Heads to Auction By Michelle A. Samaad June 16, 2014

Plagued by a bankruptcy and mounting, unpaid code enforcement fines, a Florida church that received a loan from Evangelical Christian Credit Union in 2008 is up for auction.

According to local media reports, sealed bids for Without Walls Central Church in North Lakeland, Fla., are due by July 7. The auction is scheduled for July 8.

Without Walls Central is owned by the Tampa, Fla.-based Without Walls International Church, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection March 5 owing $29 million to the $1 billion Evangelical Christian in Brea, Calif.

Read more about the Without Walls saga:  Church Files BK in Evangelical Christian Foreclosure Case  Church Foreclosure Saga Continues  Evangelical Christian Embroiled in Five-Year Church Foreclosure Fight

Without Walls International had defaulted on its loans prior to the bankruptcy filing. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court denied the credit union’s Dec. 31, 2013 request to move forward on a foreclosure case that began in October 2012.

The auction order was signed in April by Judge Michael Williamson of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa, according to The Ledger.com. It is still possible that Evangelical Christian could regain ownership of the property because it is listed as a qualified bidder for the upcoming auction, the publication noted. A comment from the credit union was not immediately available.

In addition to owing Lakeland Electric more than $5,200, Without Walls International has accrued nearly $30,000 in code enforcement fines from the city of Lakeland, Fla. In its bankruptcy petition, the mega church said it had an estimated $10 million to $50 million in liabilities and assets.

Without Walls International initially went into foreclosure with Evangelical Christian in 2008. In 2009, the credit union approved a mortgage modification for the church. In October 2012, Without Walls International filed a complaint against Evangelical Christian seeking more than $23.8 million with claims that the credit union acted inappropriately towards the church's founder, Randy White, by allowing his ex- wife, Paula White, to take more than $2 million worth of video and music equipment from the church to use for her own ministry. Paula White was hired as a senior pastor at another Florida church.

Without Walls International had previously said Evangelical Christian allegedly made false statements about the church in order to thwart a deal initiated by Randy White to sell the property. http://www.cutimes.com/2014/06/16/29m-church-default-heads-to-auction

RANDY WHITE A LIAR AND A FOOL

A year ago, church officials had high hopes of emerging from foreclosure to not only re-open the Lakeland church but also to add a school.

"The intended future use of the Polk County property will be consistent with the church's mission," John Anthony of Tampa, Without Walls' lead lawyer, told a Lakeland newspaper in May 2013. "At present, it appears likely that a sanctuary will be complemented by a monastery school with a target of several hundred students and a curriculum based in strong values."

Nearly a year before that, lead pastor Randy White, who had just returned after a three-year hiatus, talked of even bigger plans to add a restaurant, cinema, condominiums and possibly even a Christian theme park to the 63-acre property with some lake frontage on the north side of Lakeland, a city roughly halfway between Tampa and Orlando. But the church was never able to overcome mounting debt to the California credit union that holds its mortgage and had the electricity turned off more than once. The Lakeland church has been closed for about three years; the Tampa facility remains open for services.

White and his then-wife, Paula White, founded the church, first called South Tampa Christian Center, in 1991 with a heavy emphasis on outreach and changed its name to Without Walls International Church after they bought the current property in the late '90s. The church added the Lakeland site in 2002, first on a rental basis before purchasing it in 2005. Randy White led the churches until 2009, when he left citing health issues that turned out to include drug addiction, a problem that apparently developed after the death of his daughter. The couple had divorced in 2007, and Paula White, an internationally recognized evangelist, author and TV personality, moved to the Orlando area at the first of 2012 to take over leadership of New Destiny Christian Center, a predominantly African- American congregation, several months after its pastor died.

The property occupied by Without Walls Central was better known 20 years ago when it was Carpenter's Home Church, an Assemblies of God megachurch founded in the early 1980s and pastored by Karl Strader. The main auditorium could seat nearly 10,000, and the church became the largest between Tampa and Orlando. But it closed in the '90s after attendance dwindled to 1,000 making it impossible to maintain the large facilities. Much of the loss in membership was attributed to a financial scam perpetrated by Strader's son Daniel, who stole $3 million from investors, mostly Carpenter's Home members. Daniel Strader was convicted in 1994 and is serving a long prison term. A bid for clemency was denied in 2006.

Roy Aldrich, a retired school teacher, who was robbed of a $100,000 by Dan and Karl Strader, knew that Pastor Karl Strader was an enemy of good men. http://goo.gl/GjQJ3 http://www.scribd.com/doc/56459981/

KARL STRADER'S MASSIVE CARPENTER'S HOME CHURCH IS AN ALBATROSS AND PASTOR KARL STRADER IS HISTORY http://wp.me/P2M7AJ-c0

Housing, retail planned for Without Walls property

About 2.5 acres of church property fronting Columbus Drive would be developed with restaurants and shops. Pastor tries to rebuild church http://www2.tbo.com/lifestyles/faith/2012/jul/22/embattled-pastor-randy-white-returns-to- pulpit-at--ar-437166/ By Kathy Steele | Tribune Staff Published: January 5, 2013 TAMPA - Officials at Without Walls International Church have a pending sales contract with developers who plan to build apartments, restaurants and shops on the church's property. The beleaguered ministry has struggled in recent years with its finances, including a $12.5 million mortgage and a dwindling membership. The proposed 557 apartments, if approved, would be built in two phases. The first construction of Grady Avenue Apartments would be completed in winter of this year; the second in winter 2014. The prospective buyer is West Palm Beach-based The Richman Group of Florida. The company has filed an application to rezone the property. A public hearing is scheduled for April 11. Two four-story apartment buildings would have parking garages, shared courtyards, a swimming pool and a club house, according to city records filed with Tampa's growth management department. About 2.5 acres of church property fronting Columbus Drive would be developed with restaurants and shops. Pastor Randy White could not be reached for comment. In July, he told a reporter that church officials planned to sell the administrative building for about $4.4 million, with a closing anticipated within 60 days. A sign is posted in front of the church at 3860 E. Columbus Dr. announcing a pre- demolition public auction for the administrative building at 10 a.m. Jan. 15. The Richman Group has developed several East Tampa apartment complexes in recent years, including Meridian Pointe, Brandywine and Grande Oaks, which lease apartments based on a renters' income and a sliding fee scale. The apartments planned for the Without Walls' property would be upscale and market rate, said Michael Horner, who represents the parties involved at April's public hearing. TAMPA Without Walls International Church to Be Sold, Will Become High Rise Condos

Everything is going down but the word of God in Tampa. After several reports from members of WWIC in Tampa, who read my blog, as well as a little Google research, I am able to report that I’ve found an interview that Randy White did with the Tampa Bay Turbine on the sale of the church property in early January of this year. It has been no secret whatsoever that the Whites have been trying to remain above water after a scandal hit the church. This came after their very public divorce and government investigation into their lavish spending lifestyles. I am able to report to the readers of my blog that WWIC has been sold and will be demolished in the next few months, coming after years of speculation. While the founders of WWIC will continue to pimp weak-minded believers out of their hard earned money Sunday after Sunday, perhaps some of them will wake up and come to the conclusion that Randy and Paula White are not at all of GOD. Randy White confirmed on January 7th that a deal for $14 million has been put on the table for the property located on North Grady Ave. in Tampa. White also says a search committee has begun to look for a new location within 3 miles of the current location (back to a shopping center.) According to sources (I don’t name my sources unless they want to be named), some members have already begun to look for other church homes and have been visiting various churches in the area on Wednesday nights. I find it amusing that Randy White told the Tampa Tribune, “The bank has to accept it. The church board has to approve it. And the buyers have to get permits,” said White, who leads the nondenominational congregation. “But if this all goes through, it would be an incredible situation for us.” My question is this what church board ? You mean to tell me that a church board has been in place for all these years and has allowed scandal rock their church, and has furthermore allowed both Randy and Paula do ungodly things outside of the pulpit and sometimes in the pulpit? The Whites life’s started to unravel in 2007 – a public divorce, a U.S. Senate inquiry into church finances, his daughter’s death, media scrutiny for the couple’s jet-setting lifestyle, his addiction to prescription drugs, and a stroke. Paula White took over Without Walls for a few years, and now leads New Destiny Christian Center in Orlando, which has also seen a decrease in membership since she took over in 2012. This should be a wakeup call for all the pulpit pimps out there. God doesn’t like ugly and He is not pleased with your lifestyles. Randy, you may now announce to your faithful church members that you have thrown in the towel and have given up! http://www.joshuarandolph.info/?p=671 any article. Order a reprint of this article now. Foreclosure Fight Pits Pastor With His Ex-Wife

Credit Union is pursuing foreclosure

By Gary White THE LEDGER Published: Friday, May 31, 2013 at 10:31 p.m.

CALVIN KNIGHT | THE LEDGER (2012) The Without Walls church in North Lakeland has been dormant for nearly two years, and its future might not be decided soon. Recent plans for concerts have been announced and then canceled.

LAKELAND | Without Walls Central, the largest church sanctuary in Polk County, is caught up in a legal dispute between its Tampa parent church and a credit union pursuing foreclosure.

It's a battle that indirectly pits the pastor, Randy White, founder and leader of Without Walls International Church, against his former wife, Paula White, who left the church about 18 months ago. The future of the North Lakeland church, which has been dormant for nearly two years, is tied up in the court system and might not be decided anytime soon.

Records filed in Polk and Hillsborough counties show the lender, California-based Evangelical Christian Credit Union, began foreclosure proceedings on the Lakeland property last October and most recently filed a request for documents May 21. A hearing on the case has been scheduled for September in civil court in the 10th Judicial District.

Without Walls has countersued, charging that the lender "acted inappropriately" toward Randy White and the church.

The most notable claim in Without Walls' court filings says that Mark Holbrook, the credit union's CEO, improperly encouraged Paula White to take more than $2 million worth of music and video equipment from the Tampa church for use in her own ministries. She was hired Jan. 1, 2012, as senior pastor at New Destiny Christian Center in suburban Orlando.

Without Walls' complaint, filed in October in Hillsborough County, seeks damages in excess of $23.8 million.

Without Walls Central has not held services since August 2011, and Lakeland Electric disconnected power to the building March 27 — the second time in two years that has happened. The church owes the utility more than $32,000, city spokesman Kevin Cook said.

At this point, Randy White is deferring to his lawyers in describing plans for the North Lakeland church.

"The intended future use of the Polk County property will be consistent with the church's mission," John A. Anthony of Tampa, Without Walls' lead lawyer, said in a written statement to The Ledger. "At present, it appears likely that a sanctuary will be complemented by a monastery school with a target of several hundred students and a curriculum based in strong values."

Anthony said his office plans to file an amended version of the counterclaim against the credit union, which he said was "improperly motivated" in its dealings with the church. He declined to offer details.

Cassandra Denmark, who works out of Anthony & Partners' Bartow office, also is involved in the case.

Without Walls Central, still known to many by its former name, Carpenter's Home Church, has been a source of rumor and drama since 2008, when it went into foreclosure for the first time. The credit union granted a mortgage modification the following year on the 63-acre property.

Without Walls owed the credit union $13.9 million on the Lakeland property for two loans due last September, according to court records. The credit union also holds a mortgage on Without Walls' Tampa property, and the church also is challenging foreclosure proceedings on that parcel.

Without Walls International announced plans in January to sell its main church site near Raymond James Stadium in Tampa for a reported $14 million. White has said Without Walls was seeking a new location in Tampa.

In legal documents filed in Hillsborough County, Without Walls accuses Holbrook and the credit union of making false statements about the church in an attempt to sabotage a deal White was negotiating to sell the Tampa property.

Even as the Lakeland sanctuary and an adjacent former school have remained vacant, White has steadily spoken about plans to resume holding services. In early May, a promoter separate from Without Walls announced plans for a June 1 concert at the Lakeland church featuring Christian musician Canton Jones, only to contact The Ledger later and say the concert had been canceled "due to circumstances beyond our control."

All the while, the Lakeland property has remained actively listed as for sale. The broker, the Tampa office of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate, is asking for $14.75 million for the property, which includes an expansive parking area and ballfields. The listing was last updated May 24.

Without Walls International, once among Florida's largest congregations, bought the Lakeland property for $8 million in 2005. It never came close to filling the 9,600-seat sanctuary, and services halted in the summer of 2011 following the departures of two consecutive pastors.

Brian Rewis, Lakeland's code enforcement division manager, said Without Walls has been cited in recent months for violations at the Lakeland site. He said the most serious violations involved the appearance of the former school, originally a residence for retired carpenters. Rewis said the city's staff cited Without Walls in September for damage to the exterior walls and roof of the historic building, along with broken and boarded windows. The church was given 120 days to fix the problems, and when the city deemed the owner had not done so, it began assessing a fine of $30 a day on Jan. 6.

The city determined the building was in compliance May 9, at which point Without Walls had accrued $3,690 in fines, Rewis said. The Code Enforcement Board is scheduled to review the case at its June 18 meeting, though Rewis said the fines may be a moot point if the property goes into foreclosure and is sold.

The First Assembly of God constructed Carpenter's Home Church in 1985. The church split in 1989 and never again had a congregation large enough to fill the sanctuary. In its prime, the venue held major concerts by such Christian musicians as Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman.

City Commissioner Keith Merritt, whose district includes the Without Walls property, said it's unfortunate to see the sanctuary sitting unused.

"We are limited in the amount of help we can provide to a private business, especially if they haven't come to us, and I don't know if they have," Merritt said. "An institution like that lends vibrancy to the community, and it's important we do what we can to help them out, not necessarily financially but maybe in identifying options."

Tony Delgado, Lakeland's deputy city manager, agreed that there's little the city can do about the property.

"Whether you went to church there or saw shows there, it has a great history," Delgado said. "In its heyday, it was a heck of a facility. From that perspective, we'd love to see it used some day, and hopefully somebody out there can make that happen."

Even as the massive church remains dormant, it has been mentioned in recent news reports involving the Lakeland Police Department. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the department for the actions of several employees, some of whom were given tours of buildings on the Without Walls property by Officer Steve Sherman.

Sherman has resigned, and other LPD employees have been suspended or reassigned as the investigation proceeds. Randy White told investigators that Sherman had never been given permission to enter any of the buildings, according to records reviewed by The Ledger. Anthony, though, seemed to contradict that in a statement to The Ledger.

"(The) church continues to have great confidence in law enforcement authorities who have acted diligently at all times in safeguarding the premises," Anthony wrote. "The Church has authorized officers to give tours of the property, and appreciates their contribution at a time that leaves much to be desired in light of the Lender's conduct."

Pastor Randy White: Church Visitor Questions His Integrity While Asking for 3 Offerings

This letter is in connection and in addition to the article posted by our sister site AT2W titled: Has Pastor Randy White Been Caught Playing the Prosperity Gospel Game of Lies?

Below, is a letter AT2W received from someone who visited Without Walls International and you can read what they experienced this Sunday on July 8th: My husband and I attended this church this morning July 8th, 2012. We had read some articles about some of the problems the church had faced but not the full extend and decided to go with an open mind. First I anticipated Paula White to be the one who spoke but it is of course her ex- husband Randy. The church is nasty and needing repairs. The carpets were filthy the paint was peeling. Yet the pastor was in a very nice expensive suit and took 3 different offerings. One for tithes, and 2 different offerings. Begging the congregation that looked to be common working class African American for more and more money. He spoke and showed video of a man who gave 10,000 dollars to the church in the past but had no idea where it would come from and since doing so told how much God had blessed them. Randy encouraged other people to be like that man and to give. The last and final offering was to turn the lights on at the Lakeland church because they were in debt to the electric company of excess of 20,000! He spoke of how people often get caught up in the ways of the world like drinking and partying yet never mentioned his own DUI. Also he invited all the men to his very large house with pool, hot tub, pool table (this is his words not mine) for a BBQ, yet they can't turn the lights on at their Lakeland location? This service left a sicking feeling with my husband and I. When I got home I began to read more and more about what kind of people Randy and Paula White are. Please continue to cover this churches misconduct. These people are scam artist and do not deserve to be preaching the word of God. I believe everyone deserves a second chance but how many chances does it take to show someones true nature?

Thank you for showing your readers the truth and I hope others take notice and stay away!

If you read AT2W's article: Has Pastor Randy White Been Caught Playing the Prosperity Gospel Game of Lies?, you'd see that Randy White has told yet another black lie, as Karen Pansler-Lam calls it in her article at the Liberty Advocate "Randy White's Black Lie". He told The Ledger that "he is selling his house and has drained his retirement funds to help support Without Walls International."

So, we agree with the person who wrote us the letter: How can he invite people to his big home for a huge party when he claimed he is selling his house and is broke? On top of this, it appears WWIC is in need of repairs as well and the Lakeland property may not be the only location that has been neglected. Surprised?

To the congregation that follows Randy White: please be aware of what is staring you in the face. You are not receiving the truth. Yet, you are being fed lies and deception- all in the name of you emptying your pocket books. It should be clear and the nose on our faces by now!

“Has Pastor Randy White Been Caught Telling Lies Soon After Returning to

Without Wall Intl?

Our friends at Liberty Advocate have brought to our attention some untruths told by a popular Florida minister. According to them, they have been following Pastor Randy White who recently returned as the leader of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fl. As former wife, Paul White has moved on to Orlando area church New Destiny Christian Center, Pastor Randy White has taken over WWIC now, according to the reports and his words, to what we call the prosperity gospel game of lies. Liberty Advocate has put together some information using reports that Pastor Randy White told the media himself. Here’s what they stated he told one publication: Without Walls Randy White reveals to The Christian Post the $4.4 MIL sale of property: According to White, a part of the Without Walls property is being sold for $4.4 million to a condominium developer, which will help lower the church’s debt. He further announced that he would personally be giving $10,000 to the church and urged congregants to help reach the goal of $300,000 to “pay off all accounts payable debt.” Responding to the media on why he asks for offerings so frequently, he said simply, “We need it.”

Now, take a look at what he stated on another date to The Ledger: Previously, on June 26th, White boasted to The Christian Post that he sold a piece of property and would build a new Tampa sanctuary. But a few days later, on July 10th, White told a black lie ( a $4.4 MIL lie) to The Ledger…he’s broke and cannot repair Without Walls Central in Lakeland. And Randy White has allowed historic Carpenters Home to go to ruin by failing to secure and maintain the property. Source So, they asked the critical questions that are important since he has to build some credibility but it seems like he is sticking to how things were before: the prosperity gospel of lies. So, Mr. White, which story is a black lie? Two different articles…two different stories. What’s the truth…prosperity or poverty? He had the gall to quote in the July 10th Ledger article, “Bishop Wants to Revive the Vacated Without Walls Church” that he apologized for what occurred at the Lakeland church property: “I think it’s an indictment against the body of Christ to let that building go as it’s going,” White said. “As the leader of this organization, I take full responsibility – although I was not in the position to lead at that particular time when things started going south – I still, at the end of the day, want to ask Lakeland, as I apologize, to forgive us for letting that go the way that it has. I love Lakeland and I think it’s a great city and I just want them to be patient with us.” Pastor Randy White made his apology but did he apologize for all of the years he and Paula White squandered their money and could pay their bills or should we say wouldn’t pay their bills? Years ago when they were still married, he and Paula White would skip out on paying bills (read the story here) and they had church members and creditors thinking they were upstanding church leaders but all along took advantage of their clergy positions. People don’t want to think that some church people will be fraudulent but it surely happens more than we may know. Another question remains to be answered: If the Whites have been caught up in scandal and created a bad name for themselves with creditors and others, how can he, or Paula for that fact, be trusted now? As you can see, Randy White is giving conflicting stories not only to his congregation but to two other publications in print!! Unbelievable! Nothing seems to change these folks and we all need to be aware of it. Read a letter that we received from someone who updated us on some information about WWIC and Pastor Randy White at Church Scandal Report.”

Read more about Has Pastor Randy White Been Caught Playing the Prosperity Gospel Game of Lies? | AT2W on: http://www.atoast2wealth.com/2012/07/20/has-pastor-randy-white-been-caught-playing-the- prosperity-gospel-game-of-lies/?utm_source=INK&utm_medium=copy&utm_campaign=share& http://www.atoast2wealth.com/2012/07/20/has-pastor-randy-white-been-caught-playing-the- prosperity-gospel-game-of-lies/

Bishop Randy White Returns to Without Walls Church 11:30AM EDT 6/22/2012 Jennifer LeClaire

Randy White

Bishop Randy White has returned to Without Walls International Church. White will serve as the overseer for the Tampa, Fla., and Lakeland, Fla., campuses of the church he started with his ex-wife, Paula, in 1990.

“I am so thrilled to be back at Without Walls International Church,” White wrote in an email newsletter to the congregation. “God has done a wonderful work in my life. He is the God of Restoration!!”

White resigned from Without Walls and handed the church over to Paula White in June 2009, citing ongoing health issues. Paula recently accepted the senior pastor position at New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Fla., which was founded by the late Zachery Tims and his then-wife Riva.

It is unclear if Paula will continue serving at Without Walls. However, Paula's name is not currently listed on the staff directory.

“I believe in Without Walls, and I know that God's hand is upon this great church,” White wrote. “Let's fight and take back the city of Tampa for Jesus! Together, we CAN DO THIS!”

White also informed Without Walls via his Facebook page that “I am now going to be the overseer Bishop of Tampa and Lakeland.”

Most of his Facebook followers were thrilled. Jennifer Gibson Baines posted on his Facebook page: “God does restore and put his people back in their rightful position. He's not through with them yet. We all have faults and we all have sins. With God's forgiveness we are white as snow and all our sins are washed away.”

BUT RANDY AND PAULA WHITE MUST SERVE A DIFFERENT GOD THAN BENNY AND SUZANNE HINN FOR WHILE RANDY STATED “God has done a wonderful work in my life. He is the God of Restoration!! Benny and Suzanne Hinn Discuss Reconciliation AND THAT Suzanne Hinn's drug problem caused the divorce? http://tl.gd/hr4fr3.

RECOMMENDED READINGS BILL JOHNSON IS THE DECEIVER http://www.scribd.com/doc/25418818 BENNY HINN THE SCOUNDREL http://www.scribd.com/doc/17673980 RANDY AND PAULA WHITE PARASITES PROSTITUTES PIMPS http://www.scribd.com/doc/35148151 CATCH THE FIRE - DEMONS FROM HELL http://www.scribd.com/doc/38075133 THE NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION IS DECEPTIVE http://www.scribd.com/doc/16611959 TODD BENTLEY IS A DEMON FROM HELL http://www.scribd.com/doc/47784235/ THE DEMONIC Lakeland-Revival WITH TODD BENTLEY AND STEPHEN STRADER http://www.scribd.com/walthope/d/34189317 FALSE PROPHETS http://www.inplainsite.org/html/false_prophecy.html Dominion Theology http://www.inplainsite.org/html/dominion_theology.html Heaven Can't Wait http://www.inplainsite.org/html/heaven_cant_wait.html JOHN ARNOTT, TACF/CTF ARE CRIMINALS, PERJURERS THIEVES http://tl.gd/g215i1 http://tinyurl.com/78t3dxw http://tinyurl.com/2fxgggt

Randy White (The Con-artist)Shares Big Dreams for Without Walls Central

10:30AM EDT 9/5/2012 Gina Meeks

The Without Walls Central campus in Lakeland, Fla.

Without Walls' once-abandoned Lakeland, Fla., campus could become the next full-blown Christian mini-city, complete with a megachurch, restaurant, movie theater and even condos. And the lead pastor has got the backing of several megaministries behind him.

Of course, Bishop Randy White, who recently took back the reins of Without Walls, is taking it one step at a time. The first step was getting the electricity back on after nearly a year of lights out in the megachurch.

White, who leads Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.—which owns the property— and a team of church members and staff cleaned up the Lakeland building last month in efforts to restore the ministry there.

“There's been a lot of behind-the-scenes planning for over two months now of exactly what kind of direction we want to lead the church to take back the property and really impact central Florida,” White told Charisma News.

“[W]e cleaned up the facilities at Without Walls Central in Lakeland, FL,” he wrote in an email to the church on Aug. 17. “We repaired doors and windows, and I am so happy to let you know that today we turned the electric back on. I am believing for a revival to hit Central Florida!”

White told Charisma News he expects the Lakeland campus to open in the next few weeks. Construction will occur while the church is open, as crews work on repair stained glass windows, update the water fountain in the lobby and make modern-day upgrades to the—in addition to renovating the 10,500-seat sanctuary.

In the beginning stages of the reopening, White will teach at Saturday evening services in Lakeland, and Sunday services in Tampa. Without Walls Central will then transition into holding Sunday morning services, and White will appoint a lead pastor. He said the church is currently in the midst of discussions with two couples, and will decide “which ones will serve the community best.” He did not give names, but said one couple is from the East Coast and one is on the West Coast.

Although Without Walls International had previously mentioned selling the Lakeland property— which it purchased in 2005 for $8 million—White said Evangelical Christian Credit Union “bent over backward to work with us and lowered the payment to interest-only so we can keep it.

“We do not want that property to go to a secular developer that may tear down that sanctuary,” he explained. “That sanctuary was built for the glory of God and dedicated to the glory of God. I would hate to see that used for anything other than what it was intended for, and that's to worship God.”

In addition to remodeling the sanctuary, White said the church is also in talks with a five-star restaurant interested in opening a location at the property's theater so Christians can enjoy a dinner theater with family-friendly films.

The campus currently features a tower (pictured), which White said rises 80 to 100 feet in the air. The church is planning to renovate the tower. It will be used for high-end living, and the top will be turned into a 24-hour state-of-the-art prayer center. Modern technology will allow for interactive prayer, 24/7.

White also said Without Walls is in discussions with several developers, and there are talks of building condominiums or a Christian theme park on the property. Either way, the church and sanctuary would be epicenter.

“It would be like the 21st-century PTL,” he explained. “That's the best way I can describe it.”

White is more than optimistic about the new venture.

“Optimistic is not even the word,” he said. “I'm ecstatic. I can't sleep at night. With all of these developers coming on board, I can see this being a hub for the christian community.”

Of course, this is a very large undertaking. In July White said it would take $50,000 to get the Lakeland property repaired and the electricity restored, and he estimated it would cost $75,000 a month to operate the megachurch, the Lakeland paper The Ledger reports. But support has been pouring in.

“I've been in office a little under 100 days and we've accomplished more than we ever thought we would. It's been from the generous help of the Christian community,” White noted.

The pastor also said the church has gotten support and donations from several high-profile Christians, such as Bishop T.D. Jakes, senior pastor of the Potter House in Dallas; Daystar Television Network Founder and President Marcus Lamb; Perry Stone, author and director of Voice of Evanglism; and more.

“They've all given sacrificially to this cause and this is what the body of Christ is all about,” White said.

STEVE STRANG THE OWNER OF CHARISMA ALWAYS SUPPORTED THE STRADERS OF LAKELAND NO MATTER WHAT http://tl.gd/8lsb2k KARL STRADER'S MASSIVE CARPENTER'S HOME CHURCH IS AN ALBATROSS AND PASTOR KARL STRADER IS HISTORY http://www.theledger.com/article/20111226/NEWS/11122947 4 http://www.scribd.com/doc/56459981/

Holy High Roller

When New Destiny picked Paula White to rebuild the megachurch’s congregation in the wake of Zachery Tims’ mysterious death, it put its faith in the jet-setting preacher’s redeeming qualities.

By Mark I. Pinsky

Although she took over as pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Paula White still preaches at Without Walls International Church in Tampa, which she co-founded in 1991. Here she is seen at Without Walls in 2007.

Tampa Tribune

The new preacher is working hard this Sunday morning to mend and reinvigorate the shattered congregation of New Destiny Christian Center, once the most dynamic and fastest-growing African-American megachurch in Central Florida, if not the country. Brandishing her large, softbound Bible with gilt-page edges, Paula White, dressed in a black ensemble with a button- down top, sleeves to the elbow and black stiletto heels that appear to be in the four-inch range, is practically a blur as she swoops, kneels, bounces, pivots, spins, shouts, falls to her knees, points to the sky, shakes her fist, snaps her fingers and pounds the podium. Every proclamation is greeted by “amen’’ and other shouts of the spirit from the faithful. Hands on hips like Mick Jagger, the slender, blond White struts on the stage, wisecracking like a Comedy Central stand- up, then backpedaling for effect. She steps in front of the pillared, faux marble lectern, advancing to the edge of the stage, bends her knees and seems to lean into the congregation, chopping the air for emphasis.

“God loves New Destiny,” she tells worshippers in the barely half-filled sanctuary. And within a year, she vows, “they’ll be fighting over seats. . . . I will bring you into the land promised by your founder.”

White seems an unlikely figure to lead them there. A charismatic evangelist with enough personal baggage to fill a circus train, White came to the Pentecostal New Destiny church after its founder, Zachery Tims, 42, was found dead in a Times Square luxury hotel room last August. The suspicious circumstances surrounding his death—an unexplained envelope of white powder was found on him, and his mother won a court battle to keep the toxicology report sealed—were yet another blow to a church that had already been fractured by Tims’ personal behavior. In 2007, Tims confessed from the pulpit that he had had an affair, with a Parisian stripper no less, sundering his picture-perfect family. Two years later, he and his co-pastor wife, Riva, divorced. Forced out of New Destiny, Riva started her own ministry, and thus began the erosion of a church that the couple started with six people in a hotel room and grew into, beginning in 2001, an 8,800-member church on 21 acres in Apopka.

In hiring White, 46, in December, the church’s succession selection committee chose a white preacher similar in many ways to the late Tims, who was black. Both had troubled upbringings that involved drug addictions, with White saying she was abused, and Tims saying he was a gang member. White has been described on her Facebook page as a “smokin’ Barbie” by an admirer, while Tims so resembled the actor and rapper Will Smith that one of his YouTube clips is titled “The New Fresh Prince of Preachers.” Attractive, fit, fashionably dressed and rich, each at the height of their career could pack a house of worship and fill collection plates, bringing in millions of dollars a year to their respective ministries. And each made and spent millions. In a financial affidavit submitted in his divorce, Tims reported that he earned $33,400 a month and listed as assets a $2.2 million home in Windermere and $437,000 in savings. But his standard of living would have paled in comparison to White’s.

White, who along with then-husband Randy White, founded a Tampa-based congregation in 1991 later named Without Walls International Church, has enjoyed a level of wealth her followers could only dream of. Before the couple amicably divorced in 2007, their extravagances included private jets, luxury vehicles, a condo in Trump Park Avenue and another costing $3.5 million in Trump Tower on New York’s 5th Avenue, and a $2 million family home fronting Tampa Bay.

Also in 2007, the Tampa Tribune, as part of an investigative series on the Whites and their church, reported that an independent audit showed the couple and Without Walls ministries brought in nearly $40 million in 2006. That year, the paper reported, the Whites took a combined $600,000 in salary and benefits, although one of the church’s financial advisers said that some years the Whites’ combined compensation was $1.5 million, and family members were believed to make up much of the ministry’s $5 million annual payroll. At one point, Paula’s separate broadcast business, Paula White Ministries, was bringing in $50,000-$80,000 a week, according to the Tribune.

Paula, in 2007, gave Bishop T.D. Jakes of Dallas a black Bentley convertible for his 50th birthday. Paula credits Jakes, pastor of the black megachurch The Potter’s House, with catapulting her career to stardom when he invited her to speak at an African-American women’s conference in 2000.

White, like Jakes and the late Tims, is a strong proponent of the controversial prosperity gospel, theology that advocates that the more money worshippers put into the church or ministry, the greater their return. In other words, you have to give money to the church to be granted wealth from God.

The Whites’ lavish spending caught the attention of the IRS in 2004, and later a U.S. senator, who, in 2007, launched a congressional investigation into the financial dealings of six churches led by televangelists, including Without Walls. The separate probes into organizational finances and possible personal misuse of donations ended in 2011 without any charges or conclusions against the Whites and their church.

Still, Without Walls, which had added a satellite church in Lakeland, fell deeply into debt. In 2008, a Christian credit union threatened to foreclose on both Without Walls locations, citing failure to maintain payments on approximately $25 million in loans.

Paula left the church after the couple filed for divorce and devoted her time to Paula White Ministries. She took out a $650,000 mortgage to buy a 4,880-square-foot house near San Antonio, Texas, which she still owns. Meanwhile, Randy remained over the church but leased a Malibu, Calif., beachfront and returned to preach at Without Walls only sporadically. Two months after a DUI arrest in 2009, Randy, then 51, stepped down from the pulpit, citing health concerns. Paula took over as the congregation’s sole senior pastor. Last August, Without Walls’ financial troubles resurfaced when the 10,000-seat Lakeland site suddenly closed after its electric service had been discontinued for lack of payment.

Paula White, through a public relations firm, declined to be interviewed for this article.

“You must understand, we’ve had quite a few people trying to do hatchet-job stories lately, and we really see no value in participating in a rehash of past news, controversies, responding to claims by detractors, etc.,” James Florez, managing director of Burson-Marsteller Public Affairs in Dallas, replied to a request for an interview with White.

Outspoken critics, including several bishops from Central Florida and around the country, say they have been warned that they face being sued for libel and slander if they make disparaging remarks about White on the record. “She has absolutely no respect among the leadership of the Pentecostal movement,” says a longtime observer of White’s career, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “But she’s made of rubber—she crashes and she just bounces back.”

Ironically, White agrees with that last assessment, telling a Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando on March 31, 2011, “I got my bounce back. That’s my message.”

Ole Anthony, founder of Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, a religious watchdog organization, isn’t circumspect about his view of White. “Paula represents everything that is wrong with American religion,” he says. “No accountability, the jet-set lifestyle.”

The selection of White outraged many in the congregation and caused one outside member of New Destiny’s oversight committee, Bishop I.V. Hilliard of New Light Christian Center Church in Houston, to resign in protest. Explained Hilliard in an Internet posting: “My commitment to integrity will not allow me to support something that I believe is deceptive and that compromises previously agreed upon procedures and protocol.” Hilliard and several other pastors insisted that Zachery Tims would never have wanted White to succeed him, since Tims had complained to several intimates that she shunned him and refused to take his calls after he confessed to his affair.

While the selection process was done in secrecy, a megachurch is like a small town and before long details of White’s hiring leaked out among the congregation. As the process began, one board member put Riva Tims’ name forward, but a majority of the five-member board pushed the suggestion aside, citing church guidelines that stipulate the congregation should be led by a married pastor. The unwritten assumption was that Zachery and Riva Tims founded Tims’ successor would be an African-American man. But New Destiny in 2001. Seen here in after interviewing five black pastors, all married men, 2005, the couple divorced in 2009. some members of the board proposed hiring White, who Zachery’s death last August, under had been consulting on the selection process. A suspicious circumstances, led New majority of the board backed White, who today splits Destiny to name Paula White as her time between preaching at Without Walls in Tampa, pastor. Riva, who was forced out of and New Destiny, where she delivers three sermons on the church in the divorce, called Sunday and one on Thursday. White incompetent to lead the black megachurch in a lawsuit that Shortly after she started working at New Destiny, White she quickly withdrew. told the congregation that she wasn’t taking a salary. Still, White could derive income through special offerings at certain services, as is done at some Pentecostal churches.

White also told the congregation she had found a place to live here, but didn’t say where. It’s Isleworth, the luxury gated community in Windermere. She stays at a 7,600-square-foot rental home on Worsham Court that is owned by timeshare mogul David Siegel, who confirmed White is living there. He declined to disclose the amount of the rent and said he didn’t know who paid it, White or the church. However, New Destiny Christian Center applied for water service to the home on Jan. 31, according to the Orange County utilities department.

Riva Tims lives nearby in another gated enclave, the Reserve at Lake Butler Sound. She got the family’s six-bedroom home in the divorce settlement.

Riva filed suit against the church in December, with White and three board members listed as defendants. In the suit, Riva claimed that White was incompetent to lead New Destiny as pastor, a position that makes her president of the organization as well. The suit further alleged that three named board members knew or should have known White had accumulated debt “in excess of $26 million dollars that would cause her to be incompetent as president of a megachurch with assets in excess of $4 million dollars.”

Riva’s lawsuit further claimed that after her ex-husband’s death, the church “came into possession of a large sum of money in excess of four million dollars and up to nine million dollars.” With White as pastor and president, she and her co-defendants had conspired to control church assets, Riva’s suit said.

The suit seemed to be making the argument that Riva, as co-founder of New Destiny, should have been the obvious choice to take over the church. But in an uh-oh moment, Riva withdrew the case a day after filing it. As part of her divorce settlement, she said she couldn’t sue the church.

In an interview at her Majestic Life Ministries, a modest facility behind a North Orange Blossom Trail strip mall, Riva denies rumors that suggested she campaigned to succeed her ex-husband, although immediately after his death she declared, “I am the mother of the church.”

“I wasn’t running after the church. I was interested in facilitating the process, to bring healing and hope—that’s what I wanted to do,” she says, adding she would have taken the position “if I had been called. [But] I never asked to be the pastor.”

Still, the decision to reject Riva and pick White as pastor left the inescapable impression to the wider black community that a virtuous African-American woman and mother of Tims’ four children had been disrespected in favor of a white woman with a controversial past.

White may hold the distinction of being the only white woman to head a high-profile black church in Orlando, but she isn’t the only white pastor of a black megachurch in the area. Gospel singer Clint Brown leads FaithWorld, an interdominational church with an overwhelmingly black congregation, and where White preached last September. And televangelist Benny Hinn led the then-racially diverse World Outreach Center (originally named the Orlando Christian Center) from 1989 to 1999. Hinn and White were the subjects of a tabloid scandal in 2010 when the National Enquirer reported that they had a three-day “sexy Rome tryst” in a five-star hotel. The story ran with two photos showing Hinn and White leaving a hotel and strolling in Rome, holding hands. Both White, who was divorced, and Hinn, who had recently separated from his wife, denied they were romantically involved.

Brown and Hinn also are proponents of the prosperity gospel.

With allowances for the hyperbole, exaggeration and outright fabrication that attends “testimony” in some evangelical traditions—the more epic the sin, the more miraculous the redemption—this is the story White tells about herself in sermons, interviews and books. She turned into a “messed up Mississippi girl” from Tupelo after her father killed himself when her mother left him and refused to give him Paula. She was five at the time and has said her mother became an alcoholic who over the next several years left her with various caregivers, with some abusing her. “Paula’s childhood was marred by sexual and physical abuse, leading to feelings of abandonment, confusion and betrayal during her teenage years,” according to her official bio, leading to promiscuity and, later, bulimia.

When Paula was nine, her mother married a two-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, and in the late 1970s the family moved to Orlando when her step- father was assigned to the Orlando Naval Training Center. Paula Furr, as she was then known, attended Liberty Middle School on Chickasaw Trail and Oak Ridge High.

Another transfer, this one to the National Naval Medical Center in Washington, D.C., brought the family to suburban Maryland, where Paula, at 18, had a child out of wedlock and married the father, a young musician. She joined the Damascus Church of God and got saved. The experience had an odd effect. She soon left her first husband and took off for Tampa with the congregation’s associate pastor, Randy White, who left his wife and three young children. The couple married and eventually bought a vacant warehouse and set it up as a church. Its predominantly African-American congregation grew at a phenomenal rate through the late 1990s and early 2000s, at one point claiming 23,000 members.

The Whites established more than 100 urban ministries in Tampa, with their missions ranging from feeding the hungry to sheltering the homeless to providing free medical care and legal and financial counseling.

While Randy led the growth of the Tampa congregation, his wife concentrated on building a nationally recognized, television-based brand known simply as Paula. Paula White Ministries promoted and sold White’s books and CD and DVD sets. It also bought time on Trinity Broadcasting Network, Daystar satellite and Black Entertainment Network as well as other stations. Her programs, including “Paula White Today,” “Paula” and “Just Paula,” were highly rated and reached 200 countries, according to the ministry. For a time, she was even a regular guest as a life coach on supermodel Tyra Banks’ talk show.

Punctuating her sermons with urban slang, White connected with African-American viewers, telling them to “slap somebody upside their weave,” “grab their nappy hair,” and asking, “can you help a sistah out?” She spoke to tens of thousands of African-American women at coliseum revivals. “You know you’re on to something new and significant when the most popular woman preacher on the Black Entertainment Network is a white woman,” Ebony magazine wrote.

In her sermons at New Destiny and at revivals around the country, White often addresses the great unasked question in the minds of many of the worshippers before her: What does a rich, famous white woman have in common with a church full of working and middle-class black folk struggling to survive the recession? Invariably, she answers with a recitation of her own early life of abuse, promiscuity, bulimia, two divorces, addiction to prescription medication and personal tragedy, including her son’s crack addiction when he was a teenager. She offers hope by example, overcoming struggles to live in prosperity and with the promise of salvation.

Some New Destiny members hope White can bring the church back to greatness. Lucy Alvarez of Orlando, a member for seven years, says that White has “brought so much life to the congregation. The church was divided; now the church is packed again. She is bringing everyone together.”

On a Sunday morning in late February, New Destiny’s parking lot seems fuller than it did a month earlier. Inside the sanctuary about 1,000 people gradually fill half the seats, perhaps drawn by a visiting, high-energy, multi-racial troupe of young Christian rockers, singers and dancers, “Eddie James and Team.” It’s as much a deafening concert, complete with a light show, as a service—although there are heart-wrenching testimonies of redemption and deliverance from the group’s boys and girls—with much of the congregation urged to move forward in front of the stage. The crowd stands, clapping and swaying and waving their arms to the music. Ushers circulate, offering tissues to those overcome with emotion. White leaves the stage for the front row of seats, joining in the enthusiasm.

After the performance, White closes with an invitation to the evening’s healing service, where she promises to lay hands on everyone in need, including those coming from hospitals (“Only rent the ambulance one-way,” she advises). She closes the service with a second plea for tithes and offerings, both for the church and the troupe, exhorting people to “sow in fertile ground.’’

New Destiny, too, is trying to become fertile ground under White’s stewardship. Given her track record, the odds seem to be against her delivering New Destiny to “the land promised” by her predecessor. But, as White is fond of saying in nearly every sermon, “The devil is a liar.’’

Future In Doubt for Without Walls Central Church Property Without Walls Central has not held services since at least August.

By Gary White THE LEDGER Published: Monday, December 26, 2011 at 9:48 p.m.

MICHAEL WILSON | THE LEDGER WITHOUT WALLS CENTRAL, formerly Carpenter's Home Church, isn't in use and power has been disconnected.

LAKELAND | Polk County's largest church sanctuary sits idle, its power turned off and its future uncertain. Without Walls Central, the 9,000-seat sanctuary in North Lakeland formerly known as Carpenter's Home Church, has not held services since at least August, when Lakeland Electric disconnected electrical service because of missed payments by its owner, Tampa-based Without Walls International Church. Rev. Randy White, a co-founder of Without Walls International and the ex-husband of its senior pastor, Paula White, told The Ledger in November that the Lakeland property was on the verge of either being sold or going into foreclosure and that an announcement on its future would come soon. White has not responded to several subsequent phone messages. The status of the sanctuary became even more uncertain last week with reports that Paula White may assume leadership of one of Florida's largest congregations, New Destiny Church in Apopka. The megachurch's leader, Pastor Zachery Tims, died in August. Paula White replaced Randy White as leader of Without Walls International in 2009. A spokesman for New Destiny Church did not return a call from The Ledger. Church leaders are scheduled to announce Tims' replacement on Jan. 1, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The First Assembly of God constructed the 9,000-seat sanctuary in North Lakeland in 1985 and began holding services in the renamed Carpenter's Home Church. The church split in 1989 and never again had a congregation large enough to fill the sanctuary. If services were held at full capacity, the sanctuary would rank among the eight largest churches in Florida, according to a database maintained by the Hartford Institute for Religious Research at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. Lakeland Electric discontinued electrical service to the property in August, city spokesman Kevin Cook said. He said Without Walls owed more than $50,000 in unpaid bills at the time. Lakeland Electric applied the church's deposit of $51,180, he said, leaving the owners with a balance of $2,953.79. Lakeland Fire Marshal Frank Bass posted notices at the property in late September reading, "This structure is unsafe for human occupancy and ordered vacated. This structure must remain vacant and unoccupied until all violations are corrected." Bass said he posted the order because the lack of power to the sanctuary makes it unsafe for use. Bass said he had heard reports that a small remnant of the church's congregation had continued to meet at the sanctuary, using an emergency generator to power the lights. Cook said Without Walls owes $84.53 on the building's fire pump account, but the city has not disconnected it because an ordinance requires the sprinkler system to be in working condition in case of a fire. Without Walls International bought the property for $8 million in 2005, renaming it Without Walls Central. The church has struggled to attract a large congregation, and in 2008, Without Walls International announced that both the Lakeland and Tampa sanctuaries were up for sale. Later that year, the mortgage holder, California-based Evangelical Christian Credit Union, reportedly began foreclosure proceedings on both properties, claiming the church defaulted on a $1 million line of credit. Without Walls managed to reach a settlement with the credit union in 2009, thanks to the sale of two parcels to the city of Lakeland for $1.38 million. The city bought the parcels for a stormwater project to improve water quality in nearby Lake Gibson. The credit union filed a mortgage modification document with the Polk County Clerk of Courts in January. The document listed the original principal amount as slightly more than $4 million and gave a revised loan maturity date of Jan. 1, 2013. A spokesman for Evangelical Christian Credit Union this week declined to comment on the status of the property, saying the credit union doesn't talk publicly about member institutions. No new foreclosure records have been filed in Polk County. Without Walls Central had a substantial congregation for a time, though never one nearly large enough to fill the cavernous sanctuary. Senior pastors Scott and Cindy Thomas drew about 1,500 people for weekly services, according to their spokeswoman, but the couple broke off to form their own church in late 2010, and much of the congregation followed them, according to people familiar with the church. In February, Randy Coggins stepped in to lead services at the North Lakeland sanctuary, but he departed a few months later to form his own congregation, Bridge of Hope Church. Without Walls International filed a lawsuit against Coggins in August, claiming he made "derogatory statements and allegations" about Without Walls International from the pulpit of the Lakeland branch and used his position there to lure parishioners to his new church. The suit, filed with the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Bartow, sought $15,000 in damages. No court records have been filed since the original suit, and Coggins did not respond to a request for comment about the suit's status.

Ex-Without Walls pastor Randy White faces DUI charge in Tampa

Photos Video

2007, JASON BEHNKEN

Randy White and his wife, Paula, built Without Walls International Church into a multimillion-dollar ministry.

Randy White By TBO.com Published: May 22, 2011 TAMPA --

Randy White, the former pastor of Without Walls International Church, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence Saturday night. White, 53, who cultivated a bad-boy image while he and ex-wife Paula White built Without Walls into a multimillion-dollar ministry, was arrested about 11:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ashley Drive exit ramp of southbound Interstate 275, according to Hillsborough County Jail records.

Released after posting $500 bail Sunday morning, White could not be reached for comment.

White's blood-alcohol level registered at 0.09, according to jail records. In Florida, a person is presumed intoxicated with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08.

At its peak, people flocked to Without Walls' 4,000-seat sanctuary on North Grady Avenue, making the church one of the fastest-growing Christian ministries in the country and allowing the Whites to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, expensive cars and homes.

But criticism of the Whites' "prosperity gospel" mounted, and a congressional inquiry spent three years reviewing the spending habits of Without Walls and five other televangelist ministries.

Randy White struggled to keep the church growing after he and Paula announced they were divorcing in 2007 and she left to focus on what was then a flourishing career as a televangelist, life coach and author. In July 2009, White stepped away from the church and welcomed back his ex-wife as its senior pastor, saying he needed a change after experiencing stress-related health problems.

Paula White became the face of Without Walls, and while Randy White retains the title of "bishop," it's unclear what, if any, role he plays in the church. The church's most recent annual report to the Florida Secretary of State's office, filed in April, lists him as the registered agent for Without Walls and as one of its directors.

White still owns the Bayshore Boulevard home he bought with his ex-wife, county property records show. But he is living in a penthouse suite at 345 Bayshore Blvd., according to his arrest report.

Paula White addressed her ex-husband's arrest at church Sunday morning:

"This ministry is a ministry of restoration. This ministry does not compromise the principles of God, but we are the perfect church for people who are not," she said, according to a transcript posted on the church's website.

"That doesn't mean I am an enabler. That doesn't mean I condone. That doesn't mean I agree with things. It means that I will help you walk through life. And I want you to walk with me through life. And I think that's what the church is all about."

Paula White Breaks Silence on Probes, Divorce, Benny Hinn

Fri, Apr. 01, 2011 Posted: 02:49 PM EDT

Pastor Paula White broke her silence Thursday night, addressing all the scandals that she has been associated with since her divorce in 2007.

"We’re letting our hair down," White told thousands at the 2011 Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla. "I'm not here to look cute ... I came to let the devil know ... I'm stronger than I've ever been."

Though the two-hour message began with shouts of encouragement and notes of affirmation for the participating leaders who may be facing challenges or opposition, by the end of the night it was apparent that the popular charismatic pastor was also preaching to herself.

"I have a word to those who have all odds stacked against them," she preached. "You're about to get your bounce back."

"The enemy strategically plotted against you, hunted you like prey, set out to destroy you, tried to wreck your mind, destroy your heart, jack up your family, take your ministry, ruin your reputation ... and he thought that he had you. He set you up and thought this is what will kill them.

"I came to put every devil on notice ... I'm getting my dream back, I'm getting my prophesy back, I'm getting my vision back, I'm getting my anointing back, I'm getting my strength back."

White, who calls herself the "former messed up Mississippi girl," let the audience know that she would be "very vulnerable and very open" that night.

Before walking back through her tumultuous past few years, she told them, "I think it's time we stop being hypocrites in the pulpit. I think ... it's time that we take the mask off to this generation and show them that we have the same issues and the same struggles."

"We (sic) going public with all our stuff. Somebody's got to get real in the church now."

She did just that, opening up about the pressures that piled up and the crises in her life that the media was all over.

It all began in 2004 when the IRS launched a nine-year investigation into the personal and organizational finances of White and her then husband, Randy. Just two years earlier in 2002, White had written in her journal: "I'm living heaven on earth. Life cannot get any better."

"I'm above the struggle and beneath the radar. I love my husband and my husband loves me. And we do. The kids are doing good. And millions of dollars in the bank. Not sick," she recalled feeling at the time.

White had risen to prominence as a preacher, motivational speaker, author and TV personality after co-founding what is now Without Walls International Church with her husband and starting her own ministry.

She was living her dream life, as she described to pastors at the Orlando conference.

But after the IRS investigation began, she began to face challenge after challenge to the point where she wanted to and even tried to quit.

"You can handle something if it's for a short season. But how do I praise Him when my days turn into weeks and my weeks turn into months and my months turn into years and my years turn into decades?" she said. "How do I praise Him under that continual pressure? That kind of pressure wears you out."

Listing the numerous trials she went through, White said she experienced a midlife meltdown, compassion fatigue, her friend being falsely accused and sent to prison, a stroke, addiction to the prescription medication she was given following her stroke, and problems in her marriage.

Continuing, she added that her church staff split in the middle with some turning on the Whites and going to the media.

She maintained that the articles written based on allegations from former church staff were "mostly, totally unfounded" and "lies." The Whites were accused of being all about money and fame.

She also indicated that the staff turned on the church because they couldn’t "supply the staff with the lifestyle that they were used to."

Family problems were added when White found out that her son had a drug addiction and was sexually abused by another male at a staff member's house. She then had to experience the pain of her daughter battling brain cancer. Her daughter, Kristen, died in 2008 at age 30.

In the midst of all this, White said she was being pressured to preach and prophesy and fulfill her role in the church.

"[Bishop] Randy, Pastor Paula, give me a word, marry me, bury me, pay these bills, prophesy. Why aren't you doing this? Why isn't it like it used to be? We don't like the music. We leaving the church because you didn't know our names and you didn't come have lasagna with us," she said, mimicking the demands and criticisms she was met with.

White noted that it was under "that kind of pressure" and "in a really weak moment" that she and her husband made the decision to divorce in 2007. The split was amicable.

According to White, her husband closed up to her. While she traveled the world preaching, she pondered, "Why can I win the world and not go home and win the one that I love?"

She recounted a time when Randy took her into a dark room, placed a mask on her, spun her around and told her to find her way out. With tears, White said she sat there for half an hour, scared and calling out to him. He took off her mask and informed her that that is what he felt like he was going through.

When the two announced their split, Randy had agreed to take the responsibility. And "God told me to keep my mouth shut," she said.

Randy, who no longer co-pastors Without Walls, is now writing a book, she noted.

But she added, "I'm proud of him. He never quit .... God or anything else."

The trials continued even after the divorce when White and televangelist Benny Hinn were pictured last summer in The National Enquirer leaving a hotel in Rome holding hands. They were accused of having an affair and being engaged.

On Thursday, White flatly denied that she ever had an affair.

"They're going to talk about you and write ... because it sells ragtag magazines," she said. "They're going to lie on you but God's going to tell you to keep your mouth shut."

There was also the so-called Grassley investigation. Sen. Charles Grassley launched a Senate probe in 2007 into six influential ministries, including White's, following complaints of opulent spending and possible abuse of nonprofit status.

The probe came to a close in January of this year. With little cooperation from most of the ministries, which called the investigation an attack on their religious freedom and privacy rights, Grassley's office was unable to make any conclusion about the spending of the ministries and handed out no penalties.

White interpreted that to mean her ministry was cleared.

"The church better recognize, it should be thanking six ministries for fighting for the body of Christ for saying 'we are not going to let you dictate to us how we interpret Scripture' and you can't tell us 'because Jesus rode in on a donkey' because if you start telling us how to interpret Scripture in one way, you'll tell us how to interpret it in every way," White said in frustration. Grassley had referred to Jesus' humble entrance into Jerusalem to make the point that ministers today don't really need Bentleys and Rolls-Royces to spread the Gospel.

"I preach in countries if I say 'Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth and the life,' they'll arrest me. And don't think America's that far away. Unless the people of righteousness stand up and say 'we're not going to allow for this because you cannot take what is our First Amendment rights. You can't do that!" White asserted. "We pay taxes. We work hard. We do it by the books. We have integrity. But you're going to make a public misery and mess out of it like something's wrong!"

Stressing that her church gave $9 million to mission in January 2007, built education centers in Pakistan, put students through college, fed and continue to feed thousands every week, and helped transform countless lives, White said, "Are you serious? You want to fight over a $50,000 what? Excuse me?!"

Her long, emotional testimony was met with applause and support from the thousands of pastors in the conference room in Orlando.

Though at the time, she wondered whether she would be able to overcome the trials, she now says what the devil meant for bad, God has turned around to work for the good.

"God uses every enemy, every lawsuit, every lie, every betrayal, all the brokenness," she stressed.

"It's not over. I got my bounce back. That's my message."

The three-day Pastors and Leadership Conference, hosted by Bishop T.D. Jakes, kicked off on Thursday.

Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter http://www.christianpost.com/news/paula-white-breaks-silence-on-probes-divorce-benny-hinn- 49671/

Strang/Charisma suing Benny Hinn for Adultery http://bit.ly/grvOZw http://tinyurl.com/2dtubzf

BENNY HINN THE SCOUNDREL http://tinyurl.com/2dtubzf

Rodney the Fleecer http://tinyurl.com/343w372

Laughing Clark http://www.scribd.com/doc/35148050/

Benny and Paula http://www.scribd.com/doc/34879987 Rev. Karl Strader http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/strader.htm

The massive sanctuary of Carpenter's Home Church which sat empty on Sundays for quite a while was sold by Karl Strader in 2005. Carpenter's Home was once a thriving church with five thousand attendees and was affiliated with the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination. The church had dwindled to almost nothing before closing and was struggling to maintain its large facilities. A large part of the loss in membership was attributed to a financial scam perpetrated by Karl Strader's son Daniel, stealing $3 million from investors with the help of his father, mostly from Carpenter's Home members.

Cary McMullen Ledger Religion Editor i on July 15,2005 in an article titled “The Strader Family Talks About the Future of Congregations” wrote: A year after giving up the most visible symbol of his one-time religious conglomerate -- the monumental Carpenter's Home Church sanctuary -- Strader is now 76 and fighting prostate cancer. And after experiencing the loss of a once- thriving ministry and seeing one of his sons serve years in jail, his theology now embraces a concept not much talked about in his Pentecostal tradition -suffering. …In the 1980s, at its peak, Carpenter's Home Church welcomed thousands each week into its 9,000-seat sanctuary. Under the church's umbrella were a cable television broadcast, an FM radio station, a daycare center, Evangel Christian School and The Estates at Carpenters retirement home. But an internal dispute led to a split in the church in 1989. The worst blow for Strader and his ministry was the arrest and conviction of his son, Daniel, on charges of securities fraud. In 1995, Daniel Strader was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The Straders have steadfastly defended Daniel and waged a long legal fight to have him freed, but all his appeals are exhausted and last month he was turned down in a clemency hearing. In June 2005, with only a few hundred people remaining in the congregation, Carpenter's Home sold the sanctuary to Without Walls International, a Tampa megachurch.

In an article published in The Tampa Tribuneii on July 25, 2009 titled " Can Paula White be savior for Without Walls?" by Michelle Bearden and Baird Helgeson wrote: Paula White bounds on stage to a rousing ovation at Without Walls International Church.

"I want to feed you some faith food," she says, bringing the crowd to its feet at a recent Thursday evening service. "This is an assignment of the Lord and a plan of God. We are going to take this city."

Her ex-husband, Randy, announced the new assignment this month: He would step aside as senior pastor for health reasons and Paula would return from Texas to revive the church they started 18 years ago.

Paula returns to a ministry that has lost stature and supporters after the breakup of the couple's marriage two years ago. Without Walls has endured a dwindling congregation, threat of foreclosure and a U.S. Senate inquiry into the ministry's tax-exempt status.

What has not changed is the message: God wants believers to be healthy and wealthy, and they can get there by giving generously to the church. The more congregants give, the more they will receive.

Critics see Paula's return as a last-ditch effort to fill church coffers before millions in loans come due next year. But others see her as a calm and steadying force and the church's best chance for a revival. They look forward to a renewed focus on God's word. "I come to church to be fed spiritually," said Saul Bruno Encarnacion, who started attending Without Walls four years ago. "That wasn't happening anymore. But with Pastor Paula, I always learn something. She's a great preacher and a great teacher." Paula's return Religious experts and those who follow charismatic and Pentecostal preachers see Paula's return as a necessity for her and the church. Without Walls stumbled in the absence of Paula, whose ministry increasingly took her away from Tampa long before she and Randy divorced. Randy, who struggled with the death of his 30-year-old daughter from his first marriage, often left preaching duties to associate pastors or guest ministers. He talked openly about wanting to move to Malibu, Calif. Sometimes congregants were surprised when Randy's sermons included anecdotes about going to bars, cavorting with bikers and hanging out with former strippers. Barbara Burgos, a small-business owner from South Tampa, left Without Walls almost a year ago because of Randy's "obsession with talking about strippers and porn." "I don't go to church to hear about sex, sex and more sex," she said. "After he preached that every woman needs a pole in the bedroom to keep her husband happy, I knew it was time to go."

In an article published in The Tampa Tribune iii on May 20, 2009 titled "Without Walls Founders Divorcing" by Michelle Bearden and Baird Helgeson wrote: when Randy White, Senior Pastor of Without Walls International Church, was asked whether he's contemplating a divorce he replied, "No one can predict the future. On Thursday, August 23, 2007, Pastors Randy and Paula White announced to their congregation that they would divorce. Dorreen Fawkes, a former administrator of Without Walls International Church, stated that "They grew at an unbelievable speed. It became less about God and more about self-promotion. In an article published in The St. Petersburg Times iv on July 11, 2009 titled " Without Walls Pastor Randy White steps down as ex-wife Paula White steps in" Sheeri Day wrote: Word of Paula White's new post seeped out Sunday when Randy White preached his last sermon as senior pastor at the church and resigned. White, 51, said he was stepping aside because of health concerns. He declined to elaborate on his condition, although he said he had been ill and in and out of the hospital for much of the last seven months. "I have some serious health issues right now," White said in an interview Friday. "I've had six different doctors say that I had to take the stress, the pressure out of my life. So I've resigned, and Paula's taking over." Although she had made periodic visits, Paula White, 43, has been away from full-time pastoring at Without Walls for more than two years. She left Tampa following a 2007 divorce from her husband. Since then, she said, she has ministered mostly in New York, Texas and abroad. …Once a powerhouse couple in charismatic Christian circles, the Whites started the ministry that would become Without Walls in a South Tampa storefront. Its present sanctuary seats 4,000, Randy White said. The ministry was hit hard in recent years by the couple's divorce, the death of White's daughter from brain cancer and the hint of scandals, including a federal inquiry into the church's finances by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

According to Wikipedia,v Paula White has received criticism from some Christians for promoting a prosperity gospel. Paula White’s ministries took in $39.9 million in 2006, according to an audit of Without Walls and Paula White Ministries released in June by an independent Clearwater accounting firm. Paula White used about $28.6 million to help promote her church's programs, conferences and outreach efforts, the audit said. A former staff member for Without Walls International Church named Hector Gomez said, "Mansions, big planes, money, fame. That's what it's all about now; there are prophets for God, and there are prophets for profit. That's the category they fit in." and that he has received "more manipulation than inspiration" from them. Larry DeLaRosa, who left the church in 2000, stated that "They've [Randy and Paula White] built an empire and used it to gain their own financial wealth.”

Pastor Paula Is Senior Pastor of WWIC

Pastor Paula White has accepted the mandate and mantle of Senior Pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida and the entire ministry organization.

Pastor Paula is very excited about this wonderful assignment and opportunity from the Lord and covets your prayers during this time of transition for herself and the congregation. We know this is the divine plan of God and that great things are in store!

Pastor Paula has been preaching that this is a “turn around season”…and we are beginning to see the manifestation of that prophetic Word! We invite everyone to join us at Without Walls International Church in Tampa, FL every Sunday at 9:00 and 11:00 am.

Divorced Paula White is a Pastor, Life Coach, Motivational Speaker, Author, Philanthropist, TV Personality, Mother, Preacher and Teacher. Behind her unassuming beauty and gentle, girlish charm is a story of tragedy and triumph, poverty and prosperity. She has overcome tumultuous early years to dedicate her life to helping others transform their circumstances, and discover God's unique plan of destiny for their lives. http://www.paulawhite.org/content/view/115/88888970/

Somebody should tell Randy White of Matthew 5:21-26 and about the lie he said and wrote about Walter Kambulow that he was demon possessed!

MT 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.'5:22 "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.

Too see Paula White at her best who had an expensive face lift and reconstruction surgery you must watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI- 7UMzMc5k

Of course Pastor Randy White was a great friend and supporter of lying thieving Senior Pastor Karl Strader of Carpenter’s Home Church – “Bird’s of feather stick together in all kind of weather “ (Pastor Karl Strader is history http://www.christiannews.0catch.com/strader.htm, http://crooksaog.tripod.com/)

This is why I stopped going to without walls over ten yrs ago, God showed me where Randy was having relations with one of the staffers. I told only one person, described the female to that person without ever seeing the female, the person told me I was right to a Tee. That’s why I stopped going, and Paula White so- called PROPHETESS I found out to be false when she was on stage trying to prophlie and couldn’t get it straight so she looked at someone in the audience and they began to speak, so I know that was full of crock, Then get this a day before Easter they were giving away a car, some people received yellow tickets and some received blue ones I was standing in line for a ticket, some girl came up the some of the staffers said to her we were waiting on you gave her a ticket they called the number lo and behold guess who received the car? you guessed it, I was driving a clunker needed a vehicle really bad told that to the Whites never heard from them. One member wanted to have a meeting with Randy he was told there was a siz month waiting list, but movie stars, atheletes, etc were seen right then and there.

Comment by Gloria | June 21, 2009 http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/randy-and-paula-whites-without-walls-stunning-reversal-of- fortune/

It makes sense now that Pastor Randy White who was reported to frequent bars in Tampa in the company of younger women committed adultery and to save face told everybody he was divorcing Paula. And in reality Paula wanted a divorce because of adultery and wanted nothing to do with him. And now she runs the whole show at Church Without Walls!

But they both still don't have any integrity and are wolves in sheep's clothing and the same is true of Todd Bentley and all those who supported him in Lakeland!

Todd Bentley John Arnott False Prophesy and Prayer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aWpTvcM74U&feature=related The rape of the church - the Todd Bentley quagmire http://bolaoged.com/?p=743

Athletes and evangelists cross paths By John Barr ESPN

TAMPA, Fla. -- Bishop Randy White and his wife, pastor Paula White, once headed up one of the fastest growing Christian congregations in the country. In its heyday, Without Walls International Church boasted more than 23,000 members, took in as much as $40 million a year in donations and attracted dozens of professional athletes to its high-energy services.

Some of the athletes were so moved by the Whites' message of prosperity through faith that they donated hundreds of thousands of dollars -- one former player even donated a World Series ring -- and showered the couple with lavish gifts, such as designer shoes and expensive suits.

In the decade leading up to 2007, the Whites amassed wealth and attained a lifestyle not unlike the star athletes who came to their church. In July 2005, the couple purchased a luxury condominium in New York City's Trump Park Avenue building for $3.5 million. In 2006, they bought a home on Tampa's exclusive Bayshore Boulevard for $2.1 million, according to real estate records. Randy White owns or leases several luxury vehicles, including a 2006 Bentley, according to Florida motor vehicle records. For years, the couple had access to private jets, either leased or owned by their ministry.

Major League Baseball players Gary Sheffield, Darryl Strawberry and Carl Everett and NFL players Michael Pittman, Hardy Nickerson and Derrick Brooks were among those who attended services at a converted Canada Dry plant in Tampa, Fla., a short drive from the Buccaneers' Raymond James stadium, according to Randy White.

Today, however, most of the big-name athletes are absent from the reserved front- row seats they once occupied as VIP members, and in recent years the church itself has undergone significant upheaval. The Whites divorced in 2007 after 18 years of marriage. Without Walls, according to several former staffers, is mired in debt and bleeding membership. The church recently staved off foreclosure proceedings, and has been the subject of a Senate investigation into its finances. Church leaders have had to contend with the resulting media scrutiny.

It's a stunning reversal of fortune for a house of worship that was built on the prosperity gospel message -- a controversial evangelical Christian doctrine that teaches members that through tithing, the practice of donating 10 percent of one's income to the church, they'll be rewarded, not just spiritually but financially.

"If you're the guy flipping hamburgers or you're the quarterback, I don't care who you may be," White said, "we teach that you have to tithe."

Several former Without Walls members and staffers, some of them professional athletes, have spoken out against White's prosperity message, calling it the "gospel of greed" and questioning whether their flamboyant former pastor targeted athletes and used church donations to bankroll what one former staffer called a "rock star" lifestyle.

"A lot of guys are brainwashed," a former NFL player, who once attended Without Walls, told ESPN on the condition of anonymity. "They've been told to honor God, you've got to give."

White insists every church member, himself included, must abide by what he considers the bedrock biblical principle of tithing. And despite being faced with a Senate inquiry, the evangelist who built his ministry with the help of star athletes said he and the church have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.

"I think people feel like you get up to preach for gain," White said, referring to his wealthy lifestyle. "If I were in the ministry for gain I could make a lot more money outside of the ministry."

Faith off the field

Under a spiked crop of blond hair, White, 51, hardly looks the part of an austere preacher. He's fully aware his appearance and lifestyle break the mold, and he chuckles that he's "not Billy Graham, for sure."

White arrived for a recent interview with ESPN before a Thursday night service wearing jeans and a pinstriped jacket over a T-shirt. A beefy bodyguard escorted him from his Mercedes sedan to a private side entrance, then paused to frisk a member of the ESPN camera crew.

White entered the church's VIP waiting room, which is covered with pictures of celebrities, including past and present professional athletes. There's also a photo of Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson.

"I married them," White said. "I don't care how high-profile they may be, how much money they make, at the end of the day, people are people."

But one former church staffer, who was in position to know the large amounts professional athletes donated to the church, said much of the attention White gave to athletes was motivated by money.

Major leaguers Everett and Sheffield gave donation checks as large as $100,000, according to the former employee. Michael Pittman, then a running back with the Arizona Cardinals, and Anthony Telford, a pitcher who played nine seasons in the majors, made donations in the tens of thousands, the former employee said.

"It made a big impact," the former employee said, "because they were large donations. … "The athletes really helped to carry the church."

Hector Gomez, an associate pastor who left Without Walls in 2000 after seven years, said the athletes were "almost lured to there."

"The more athletes that come to the church," Gomez said, "the more notoriety [the Whites] get."

White said he "made a lot of mistakes" in the early years of "ministering to [his] athletes," and has since learned from those mistakes.

"I felt I exploited them," he said. "Looking back, I know that I did."

In the early to mid-1990s, White said, he frequently placed the professional athletes in his church on a pedestal, parading them for the benefit of starstruck members. Athletes were given the option of preferential parking, preferred front- row seating and private time with the Whites, something that became increasingly rare for regular church members as the Whites' collective star rose in the world of Christian televangelism.

"I found out later that they get so much exposure anyway in the community and normal society that when they come to church they certainly don't want to be highlighted," White said.

White said he wouldn't have been able to purchase his current church property had it not been for sizeable donations by athletes, including former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Hardy Nickerson, who declined to comment for this story, and four-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, whose donations to prosperity gospel ministries, like the World Changers Church he regularly attends near Atlanta, run into the millions.

"The last thing I want to do is when they're coming here is say, 'Hey, can you give me a check for $10,000? How about a check for $20,000?' To this day, I don't think I've ever asked an athlete for money," White said of his relationship with the athletes who attended his church.

When told of White's comment, the former employee with knowledge of athletes' donations called White "a bloody liar."

"Whenever he was talking about money or even with the tithes and offering, they targeted the athletes, because they were sitting right up front," the former employee said.

"[Randy White] would look at them directly, let's say for instance, Gary [Sheffield], and he would say, 'Gary, how do spell million? Let me spell million for you.' To me that, that's coming out right and saying, 'Hey, you need to write a million-dollar check to the church,'" the former employee said.

White has partnered with past and present athletes in his church on a number of charitable causes. He said he is close to starting One Less Inc., a charity designed to fight childhood poverty that includes Sheffield on its board of directors, according to paperwork filed with the Florida Secretary of State.

Sheffield declined to comment for this story.

Several former church staffers said the Whites would frequently ask for multiple donations during the same service.

"Sometimes the offering plate is passed three, four or five times," said Gomez, the former Without Walls associate pastor. "And that's wrong."

You reap what you sow

White's flair for the dramatic might never have been more on display than the night in 2003 when Darryl Strawberry sent murmurs through the congregation by placing his World Series ring in an offering plate.

Darryl Strawberry Former major leaguer Darryl Strawberry placed his World Series ring in a church offering plate, according to White and others at the service that night.

"He was laying his fame and his trophies down so that people recognized humanity in his life and his struggles," White said, recalling the moment.

A former staffer, who was in attendance that night, said Strawberry's unique donation came during what was known as a "love offering," a period of giving over and above the normal practice of tithing.

"People would run up and throw jewelry in an offering plate or throw it on the platform," the former employee said.

According to three former Without Walls staffers, all of whom were in attendance that night, when Strawberry donated his World Series ring to the church, Randy White made a surprising announcement. In exchange for the ring, White told the congregation, Strawberry and his wife would be permitted to live in the White's home in Lutz, Fla.

The grand gesture was seen by many members of the congregation as the ultimate validation of White's prosperity message, according to a former church staffer.

"[Strawberry] had his own demons he's fighting with the drug addiction and … I wanted to pull him away so he didn't have that financial pressure," White said of his decision to provide Strawberry housing for nearly two years.

In the summer of 2005, the arrangement abruptly ended. The Whites filed what is known under Florida law as an action for ejectment against Strawberry and his wife in Hillsboro County Civil Court.

"The Whites took the position that the Strawberrys were unlawfully on their property," said David Stamps, an attorney who represented the Strawberrys at the time. Stamps declined to comment on what led the Whites to ask the Strawberrys to leave their home.

White would say only that Strawberry failed in his efforts to resolve his marital differences.

Strawberry did not respond to repeated requests by ESPN for an interview.

When news of the White's court action against the Strawberrys filtered back to the congregation, many who had been so energized by Strawberry's donation and White's reciprocal gesture felt disillusioned.

"When you see stuff like that happen it becomes like a balloon deflating, you know?" said a former church staffer. "Not real, phony."

Ministry money

In November 2007, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, had become concerned enough about possible corruption in prosperity gospel ministries that he sent a letter to Randy and Paula White and five other ministers requesting full financial records. What Grassley is interested in finding out is whether the ministers personally benefitted from their nonprofits.

Paula White Paula White, former senior pastor at Without Walls, continues with her spiritual work, including Paula White Ministries.

As a nonprofit, Without Walls is not obligated to report donations to the Internal Revenue Service. Grassley, leery of the lifestyles of ministers like the Whites, is seeking accountability.

White has provided some, but not all, of the financial records sought by Senate investigators.

"Committee staff is continuing to explore all legal options to get the information they've requested," said Theresa Pattara, a Finance Committee tax lawyer.

In recent months, Without Walls has endured a string of negative press.

Camillo Gargano, a church accountant who worked for 17 months at Without Walls before resigning in August, was asked to use church funds to pay Randy White's personal credit card, according to a report first published in the Tampa Tribune.

Gargano, who did not respond to ESPN's request for an interview, said the ministry was in "turmoil," in his letter of resignation, according to the newspaper report.

Despite being faced with a Senate inquiry and allegations of financial improprieties, White -- the evangelist who built his ministry with the help of star athletes -- is undeterred.

"We have nothing to hide. Zero," White said. "I feel very confident in the fact that nothing has been done wrong."

John Barr is a reporter in ESPN's Enterprise Unit. He can be reached at jbarr- [email protected]. Enterprise Unit producer David Lubbers contributed to this report. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/stor y?id=4076585

Randy White Is In Self Destruct Mode?

It's seems that Pastor Randy White of Church Without Walls, who was recently divorced, has gone into a self destruction mode and has taken up drinking. It was reported on May 16,2008 from Tampa:

Speaking of which. The great Rantini himself was spotted at a nightclub in Ybor city last night. He was as drunk as a fish and in the company of a young man and 3 young girls, probably under the age of 20. The Bentley was on parade with the top down and the young man was driving.

Ok, it’s confirmed. Randy was seen being “helped” into the Bentley. The Bentley had the top down and there were three young women in the back. The “kid” helped Randy into the car and then took the driver’s seat. Not exactly a designated driver. The witness called out Randy’s name and he looked up and smiled.

Tampa televangelists draw Senate scrutiny Wednesday, March 12, 2008 By Lisa Myers and Rich Gardella, NBC News Investigative Unit

Two U.S. Senators sent out a new round of letters today to some of the nation’s most high-profile televangelists, urging them to turn over key financial records. The Senators told the ministries that they want to know how their “non-profit organizations are structured and operate,” amid allegations that some of the televangelists have misused church funds to enrich themselves.

One of the letters was mailed today to televangelists Randy and Paula White, who founded the Without Walls International Church in Tampa 16 years ago, calling it "the perfect church for people who are not."

A half dozen former church employees and insiders told NBC News that they have questions about how millions of dollars in church offerings have been spent. They said that the Whites sometimes urged the flock to make checks out to them personally. A church spreadsheet obtained by NBC News lists $43,129 in so-called "personal offerings" to Paula White in May 2006. NBC News also saw cancelled checks made out to Randy White.

One longtime former church insider, who asked to remain anonymous, said the checks were part of a troubling pattern. “It says to me that they were shearing the sheep,” the former insider said, a charge that the church denies. The insider and five other former staffers say the Whites sometimes took cash from uncounted donations, misused church funds for personal expenses and even pressured the faithful to take equity out of their homes to boost church donations. “They came up with every kind of idea possible to get money, to make money,” the church insider said.

Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Montana) of the Senate Finance Committee said they sent the new letters to the Whites and three other televangelists to remind them that “the committee’s jurisdiction includes the federal tax policy governing the billions of dollars donated to and controlled by the nation’s tax-exempt groups.”

Grassley first wrote to the Whites last November. He also sent letters to: Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church, Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas; David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo.; Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas; Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga., and Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga.

Without Walls:

The Whites’ church, Without Walls, has grown over the years into a multi-media empire, devoted to preaching the “gospel of prosperity.” That’s the belief that God wants parishioners to be wealthy but that, for that to happen, churchgoers must first give money to God.

"God is going to speak to you to sow a one-week's salary. He's going to speak to you to sow one month’s salary,” Paula White has told her followers. “I want you to get up and go to the phone and to obey God!”

Cindy Fleenor was one such follower. “We're taught if we don't pay our tithes and give offering and alms that we're robbing God and we're under a curse," Fleenor told NBC News.

One church board member told NBC News that he was surprised when a 2006 audit reported the church had $25 million in debt, even though it had brought in $35 million that same year.

During the same period, the Whites appear to have prospered with a $2.1 million waterfront home in Tampa, a $3.5 million condo on Park Avenue in New York City and salaries reported to exceed $1 million each. There’s also a costly Bentley convertible, driven by Randy White.

Many of the allegations regarding the Whites were first raised through a series of front-page investigative articles published by the Tampa Tribune newspaper last year.

The Whites divorced last year, and Paula White is now pursuing an increasingly separate career through Paula White Ministries, the Without Walls church's media ministry, as a life coach and host of a syndicated religious program. But both Whites remain active in Without Walls and their organizations' finances remain entwined.

The Whites' church is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) church organization. According to IRS rules, it is not only tax-exempt but also not required to publicly release IRS filings. The church website does not include specific information about its governance - it does not even include a list of church officers or members of its board of directors.

The Whites have claimed their wealth comes from appropriate and legal compensation, comparable to what other non-profit CEOs earn. They also have claimed additional wealth from for-profit business ventures - including a real estate company, a travel agency and sales of a nutritional supplement they themselves promote in an infomercial. But Senate investigators want to know more. “Questions need to be asked and questions need to be answered,” said Sen. Grassley.

So far, the Whites have not provided any answers to the Senate. When Cindy Fleenor heard that, and learned more about the Whites’ lifestyle, she stopped giving money. “I felt like I was deceived and been taken advantage of,” she said.

The Whites declined to be interviewed by NBC or to answer questions. They have denied wrongdoing, stating: "We take our financial responsibilities to our partners very seriously and to the best of our knowledge we comply with all tax laws."

Grassley said that the Whites have now agreed to cooperate with the Senate investigation. The Senate has given them until the end of the month to provide documents, and answers.

http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/12/762204.aspx

Without Walls Says Interest In Properties Spurred Sale Talk By BAIRD HELGESON and MICHELLE BEARDEN The Tampa Tribune Published: March 6, 2008

TAMPA - Interest from potential buyers of Without Walls International Church's campuses here and in Lakeland caused church leaders to put the buildings up for sale, a church representative said in a statement Wednesday.

"The church's two properties are situated in areas of significant development and have appreciated significantly," said the written statement from Tucker/Hall Inc. public relations. "To keep the church's expansion options open, the executive leadership of Without Walls International Church decided that the time was right to list both properties."

Without Walls leaders had declined to comment for a story in Wednesday's Tribune about their hiring real estate agents to sell the 13.3-acre Tampa property near International Plaza and the 75-acre campus in Lakeland.

The statement did not elaborate on what expansion options the church may be considering. Attendance at Without Walls, once touted as the nation's fastest-growing church, has declined in recent months.

Lakeland Campus Bought For $15 Million The church wants $30 million for the Tampa property. It's unclear how much it wants for the Lakeland property, (formerly Carpenter’s Home Church) for which it paid about $15 million in 2005. In May, the Tribune reported about financial troubles at the church and broken promises made by its founders, Randy and Paula White. In August, the Whites announced they were divorcing. In November, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, launched an inquiry into Without Walls and the teleministry it spawned, Paula White Ministries, along with five other multimillion-dollar ministries. The senator is concerned that the ministry leaders could be using money from their tax-exempt organizations to finance lavish lifestyles. The Whites have refused to answer the senator's questions. Without Walls' statement suggested the future could include a smaller church building. "The church could consider using the proceeds on a more focused, functional church facility to meet the needs of its congregation," the statement said. "It could decide to use any excess proceeds to continue and expand its many current community outreach programs."

Board's Approval Not Needed Yet

The fact that the campuses are on the market came as a surprise to some congregants and at least one church board member.

"I had no clue this was on the table," said Alick Clark, a board member from Acton, Calif. "You can't make a decision like that without the board's approval. Right?"

The church statement Wednesday said the decision to list the properties did not require board approval, but a contract to sell would.

Reaction to the potential sale was mixed and fueled speculation about the church's future. Sonja Krout, a former congregant who left the church when she moved to Riverview, said she wasn't bothered by the fact the decision to sell was made quietly.

"The members don't always have to be told everything," she said, adding: "I learned so much while I was there. My heart goes out to" the Whites.

Jill Wells, a private investigator in the Tampa Bay area, started taking an interest in the church about a year ago. She said she thinks the potential sale indicates that Randy White is in the final steps of shutting down the ministry. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/mar/06/me-church-interest-shown-in-property/ http://www2.tbo.com/static/special_reports_news/tbo-special-reports-news-withoutwalls/

Trying To Fill The Void At Without Walls By Michelle Bearden of The Tampa Tribune and Baird Helgeson of The Tampa Tribune Randy White stood before the congregation of Without Walls International Church and fretted about paying the $38,000 power bill, just one of many bills coming due. Speaking at a Sunday service in late October, the co-founder of the embattled megachurch said he would tally the weekend's offerings and decide which to pay. He urged those in the sanctuary to give all they could. These are not the best of times for Without Walls. Damaging revelations, one after another, have stung church faithful in recent months. In May, Tampa Tribune reports revealed financial problems and broken promises at the nondenominational ministry, ranked as one of the fastest-growing in the nation in 2005. Then in August, church founders Randy and Paula White announced they would end their 18-year marriage. The most potentially damaging news came last week when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, challenged the ministry's nonprofit status and the Whites' lavish lifestyle. He requested detailed financial information on their expensive homes, cars, private jet and plastic surgeries. They have until Dec. 6 to comply. The revelations have prompted one Christian radio personality to say the Whites must step down from their ministries. "A divorce is an indication of deeply personal, spiritual struggles that would warrant a minister stepping aside," said Paul Edwards, who hosts a Christian radio program in Detroit that featured Paula White as a guest in October. In the meantime, congregants are leaving and the offering baskets don't overflow like they used to. In church's heyday two years ago, those who didn't come early could expect to watch the 11 a.m. Sunday service from a television monitor in the lobby. Today, latecomers find ample space in the cavernous sanctuary. At recent Sunday morning and evening services, worshippers barely filled half the seats. Many who have followed the church wonder whether it will ever regain its vibrant ministry. "I am waiting for the church to close," said Charles Lucas, a former member who attended for three years and participated in a program to identify leaders in the church. Randy White offered a rosier picture. The slump in attendance after the divorce announcement wasn't as bad as he had feared. "We've lost 21 families, and offerings are down about 11 percent from the same time last year," he said in an interview this month. "Our church is going very strong and will continue to grow." The couple finalized their split about a month ago, he said. He wouldn't say where the legal documents were filed, only that they're not in Hillsborough County. Randy, 49, has no intention of leaving Without Walls, and he has put his plans for a Malibu, Calif., ministry on hold, he said. He also intends to make the church less independent and more involved in the community. This year, for the first time, it's joining several Bay area congregations in partnering with Metropolitan Ministries to provide food and volunteers for the shelter's annual holiday assistance program. "We're still here, focusing on evangelism and restoration," he said. That's not always easy, he acknowledged. On his darkest days, Randy does sometimes think, "I really don't need this in my life." But then, he can't walk away from his calling — or his sheep. "What people don't always realize is that I'm a successful businessman away from the church. You don't get the cars I drive or the houses I've owned with church offerings," he said. "But I wanted to remain faithful to my people, the way they've been faithful to me for 14 years." The church difficulties are only part of it. His private heartbreak is even more consuming, he said. His daughter Kristen, 30, had surgery for a malignant brain tumor. His father had open-heart surgery, and his daughter Angie, 28, was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor. All of that happened this year. But Randy has reason to hope. Kristen's prognosis is good. The surgery removed 90 percent of the tumor, and she's undergoing chemotherapy. Angie just found out she's pregnant with her second child. White's father, a retired minister, is on the mend.

The Loss Of Paula In May, the Tribune published several stories about financial and legal troubles at the church, which reported a revenue of nearly $40 million in 2006. Along with facing at least five lawsuits stemming mostly from unpaid bills since 2000, the Whites borrowed $170,000 from an elderly widow in 1995 and did not keep promises to care for her or pay it back. The church also failed to give a home to a single mother who believed she won it in a 2002 church-sponsored contest. The Whites have since paid back the widow and bought the mother a home. The congregation weathered the allegations of financial mismanagement with minimal fallout, members said. But the Whites' divorce dealt a blow. The split severed the spiritual bond of the pastoral union, Bishop Randy and Pastor Paula. Paula, 41, enjoys enormous success as a televangelist and life coach, selling her story of overcoming childhood sexual abuse. Her powerful preaching and worldwide television ministry drew countless fans and admirers to their home church. With the divorce, she stepped down as church pastor, though Paula White Ministries keeps its headquarters at Without Walls. Randy fashioned himself as the rock-star church CEO. He regularly preaches in jeans and designer shirts, and over the years he has driven a fleet of exotic luxury cars, most recently a Bentley convertible. Some wonder whether the church can survive without Paula, who has a $3.5 million condominium in New York's Trump Tower and recently purchased a $681,000 home in San Antonio, Texas. Several current and former attendees praised Randy for his vision and ideas, but they said he's no Paula. Her preaching filled the seats. "He's a great ringmaster, but as a speaker of the word, well, no, that's not his thing," Lucas said. Randy said it's difficult to compare styles. "I consider myself a local pastor. Paula is a televangelist and life coach," he said. "People who sat under my teaching would probably say I'm the stronger preacher." The proof is in the 4,000-seat sanctuary. At three services the Tribune attended after the announcement of the couple's breakup, Without Walls never came close to filling the auditorium. Seats remained empty even with the arrival of the Rev. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke at two services Oct. 21. Richard Levy, who left Without Walls a couple of years ago to help his father start a church, said the ministry will recover. Without Walls is essentially two churches, Levy and others said. The one Randy represents is showy, caters to high-profile members and is generally focused on money. But the congregation quietly leads what some see as a second ministry. That church is an alliance of fiercely committed members who feed the community's hungry and care for the poor. "The best part of the church has always been the people and the good deeds they do," Levy said. That church, he added, continues to thrive.

$91 A Month Having fewer people has meant less money for the ministry. The church is $22 million in debt, according to a 2006 audit. Randy attributed most of that to the purchase of the Lakeland campus and building Paula's television ministry. Recently, Without Walls launched a fundraising campaign. Associate Pastor Dan Brockman told worshippers God had spoken about the debt to Randy, who was then inspired by a passage in Psalm 91. "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him." Brockman asked every family to pay $91 a month to clear the debt, and he passed out payment booklets. Asked about Brockman's appeal, Randy said he "absolutely" didn't speak with God about paying off the debt. "Danny just gets carried away in the moment. He gets inspirational," he said. That said, Randy isn't shy about merging Scripture with dollars. The church wages similar stewardship campaigns every two years. For those turned off by the church's emphasis on money, he makes no apologies. "If you're unhappy, there are a lot of great churches in the community that don't focus on economic empowerment. We deal with a lot of indigent people who haven't been taught how to balance a checkbook. We're here to empower them and teach them about economics." The troubles extend beyond declining attendance and offerings. The Whites' divorce, the second for both, polarized Christians nationally. Critics in magazines, blogs and on the radio have lambasted the couple for preaching about the importance of marriage, then appearing so casual about the split. The Whites said they underwent counseling for several years but couldn't salvage the union. They said they remain the best of friends. That angered many evangelical Christians who believe divorce is a last resort and justifiable only in the most abusive relationships. Paula wasn't able to dodge the issue when she appeared on a Detroit Christian radio program in October to promote her new book, "You're All That!" Edwards, the host, spent the first few minutes asking her about the breakup and its effect on the congregation. Paula tried to steer the conversation away from the topic. Edwards, an ordained minister, has long taken issue with her preaching of the prosperity gospel, a theology that maintains God wants believers to be "abundantly successful" in every way, including financially. Rather than answering Edwards' questions, Paula criticized him for not asking about the welfare of her stepdaughter Kristen, whom she described as having a "death sentence." The outburst stunned Edwards. In an interview with the Tribune last month, Paula declined to discuss her personal life. She said she preferred not to focus on the negative. "Life is a constant transition," she said. "The challenge is how you handle leaving one thing and go on to another. It can be perceived as a loss, but most of the time, it really is a gain." She said she's amazed by the success she has achieved, but she was quick to give credit to God. "I so trust him," she said. "I am shocked at what Paula has done, but not what God has done." The Whites' supporters remain fiercely loyal and see only good things ahead. "Of course it hurts," said David Ramos, who has attended the church for 14 years. "But that doesn't change the mission of the church. We're still clothing the naked, feeding the poor and reaching out to the community." Nga Robles said she and her husband, Anthony, owe everything to Without Walls. When they came to the church 14 years ago, she was a former stripper and he was a former drug dealer. "They gave us a vision. We got the restoration," she said. Today, the Robles own a house in upscale Cheval and are raising eight children — five of their own, two of Anthony's and another whose parent went to prison. "Pastor Randy and Paula taught us everything we know about God, economics and living right," she said. "He particularly has been a hands-on pastor for us." The sanctuary is starting to fill again, she said, and Randy is getting traction as the sole leader, she said. "He's come back on fire," she said. "He's like the comeback kid." (Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or [email protected]. Reporter Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or [email protected]. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/nov/11/trying-fill-void-without-walls)

Pentecostal Parasites Pimps & Prostitutes

Indeed, beyond the scandal of the moment, Pentecostalism has produced a culture of superstar preachers whose lives are always at risk of being turned into something close to secular entertainment. (Time Magazine)

Juanita Bynum's story may read like soap opera, but her travails are a reminder of the longtime magnetism between celebrity Pentecostal preachers and scandal. The 48-year-old regular on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) made her reputation with a sermon renouncing pre-marital sex to search for a holy partner. She appeared to find one in a minister named Thomas Weeks III, wed him in a $1 million on-air ceremony, and together they went out to preach and teach the perfect Christian marriage. Then, in August she accused him of badly beating her in a parking lot (he has been charged, but claims he "walked away" from the confrontation), and said she planned to seek a divorce — and to become the "new face of domestic violence." A dramatic reversal of fortunes, certainly, but hardly the first in her particular corner of Christianity.

Bynum's misfortune coincided with the divorce by an even more popular Pentecostal figure, Paula White, and her co-pastor husband Randy, of the Without Walls International megachurch in Tampa, Fla. Divorce, once a taboo in evangelical culture, is now a fact of life. But the Whites' apparently no-fault parting appeared so matter-of-fact — few details were offered, and neither partner seemed to take a time out from preaching — that some grumbled about the unchristian notion of marriage as a convenience. Then there was the drugs-and-call-boy-abetted exit of marquee-name Pentecostal pastor Ted Haggard from his leadership of the National Association of Evangelicals. Clearly, Pentecostalism is facing testing times.

Some suggest that the risk of high-profile meltdowns may be in the very nature of Pentecostal leadership roles. "There's a lot of soul searching in our movement right now," says J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, because of the spectacle of highly successful preachers losing their way. "There's a saying, 'Your anointing can take you to a place where your character cannot sustain you.' I'm hearing that a lot more often these days."

"Anointing" refers to the Pentecostal belief not only in the conversion experience, but in a "second anointing in the Holy Spirit" that bestows such gifts such as speaking in tongues, healing and prophesying. From its emergence in Los Angeles exactly a century ago, it has tended to be exuberant, physical and generally more theologically adventurous than its evangelical cousins. And despite thousands of pastors and churches that pursue their joyous vision without taint, scandal has dogged some of its most prominent figures. Among the best-known were the late 1980s downfalls of televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart: Bakker, who was undone by charges of fraud, and Swaggart who was caught with a prostitute, had preached a "theology of prosperity" suggesting that there would be divine rewards in this world for those who donated to the ministry.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1666552,00.html?xid=rss-nation

I love Juanita Bynum because she is a female equivalent of a selfish, greedy, violent, insolent, treacherous, clamorous, tongue speaking TV evangelist- a real wolverine in sheep's clothing who goes around in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. She breaks all the rules in the bible including about divorce, adultery, love of money and deception to build her own empire at all costs including sacrificing her husband to the courts to get what she desires for herself. The only thing that matters in Juanita’s life is Juanita and she will do whatever it takes including using God and his people to achieve her end. She can and does justify whatever she does and it’s completely right no matter what. She is the epitome of selfishness and greed and is really demonized even though she claims to be a prophetess and speak on behalf of God and be able to intercede to God for others. She is nothing but a modern day feminist snake oil saleswoman, Pentecostal parasite, prostitute, pimp, and a Jezebel! Yes the bible tells us:

PROV 9:13 A foolish woman is clamorous; She is simple, and knows nothing.

1TM 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Titus 1:10 For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 1:11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. 1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." 1:13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 1:14 not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. 1:15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. 1:16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

Paula White's Desperate Moment By Paul Edwards Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Church Without Walls International in Tampa, Florida is one of the largest evangelical mega-churches in America. It boasts a weekly attendance in the thousands and a $40 million annual budget. The church and its pastors are firmly rooted in prosperity theology, combined with an emphasis on self- fulfillment psychology. Until recently the church had been co-pastored by Paula White and her husband of 18 years, Randy White. The Whites announced in August that they would be divorcing and yet continue their respective ministries: Randy as the Senior Pastor of Church Without Walls and Paula as a televangelist, author and conference speaker.

Even when repentance and resignation would seem to be the prudent course, it’s perhaps not surprising to see the Whites cling to their powerful, public positions; “ministry” has been very good to Randy and Paula White. According to Tampa Bay Online, the home they own in Tampa is valued at $2.2 million. Paula White recently purchased a Trump Towers condo in New York City valued at $3.5 million. According to the accounting firm that handles the church’s finances, the White’s “were approved to take (an annual salary) up to $3 million collectively” from the church.

Recently, Paula White was a guest on my radio program. The bulk of our conversation was centered on the “me-centered” nature of her latest book, “You’re All That: Understand God’s Design for Your Life.” The main point of the book is to portray God as one who designed you for your own fulfillment and happiness. (This, of course, contradicts Scripture which says in manifold ways that God designed you for His own glory (cf. Isa. 43:7).)

However, given the public nature of White’s divorce, I began the interview by asking her to justify statements made by members of her church, and posted at Tampa Bay Online, that her divorce “wouldn’t weaken the church in any way.” How is that possible, I asked? Beyond the impact on the church, how is it possible that two high-profile ministers could conclude that their own relationship was so damaged that divorce was the only solution, and yet believe themselves spiritually fit to continue their ministries? White had no concrete answers which led her to conclude our conversation rather abruptly in a desperate attempt to shift the focus:

And while we're talking about painful, difficult situations, with all due respect…we've taken 30 minutes on divorce. But I don't understand why an interviewer, or a believer as yourself, has not asked me how my daughter, who has a death sentence, with third and fourth stage cancer—how she's doing now.

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. http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/PaulEdwards/2007/10/16/paula_whites_desperate_moment

Thou Shall Not Divorce! Conservative Protestants continue to insist on biblical standards that forbid divorce, but more and more they are showing a willingness to carve out exceptions. Their churches tend to be centered on the personality of the minister, and if he is particularly beloved or powerful, then a way is found to qualify what the Bible says. Cary McMullen, religion editor for The Ledger The fourth season of Dr. Phil will focus on women's empowerment and will include topics on how to leave an abusive husband and find the right man." -SOURCE Dr. Phil advices women in abusive relationships to "leave and ... find the right man." What horrible advice! Is this what God wants us to do? Here's what the Word of God teaches in Matthew 5:32... "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." Clearly, Dr. Phil does not believe the Bible. There is nothing in the Word of God which permits anyone from breaking their marriage vows. You do remember don't you? ... "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness, as in health, 'til death do us part." But Dr. Phil says move on to greener pastures. Only God knows how many divorces Dr. Phil has caused, and how many millions of people are now living in adultery because of his evil advice. What a sorry attitude ... when the going gets tough, quit! No wonder the Bible forewarned in 2nd Timothy 4:3, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." Dr. Phil is a false prophet! http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/dr_phil.htm Jesus never permitted or taught that Christians could divorce or separate rather he stated: MT 5:23 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother (husband) has something against you, MT 5:24 "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother (husband), and then come and offer your gift.

These hypocritical Pentecostal Ministers, including Benny Hinn, Prophetess Juanita Bynum, and John Arnott of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, talk about agape or unconditional love and then contrary to scriptures take Christians to court even though their own bible tells them : 1COR 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? See http://torontoblessing.tripod.com/lawsuit.htm

Yes, they hypocritical talk about agape or unconditional love and state “Agape is rational, reasonable and strong. It overcomes all the situations and circumstances. If you look at 1st Corinthians 13, it’s the thing that stands when everything else has fallen,” But they don’t practice it at all even though their bible states: And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Amy Grant Divorce Exposed "I'm a singer, not a preacher, I'm not looking to convert anybody" says Christian rock diva Amy Grant. (Los Angeles Times, 5/4/84, pg. 2-c) Grant goes on to demonstrate her spirituality by saying, "I'm not going to say too often that I like a cold beer while watching a football game. That might bother some of my fans." (Greensville News, 5/4/94) UNSCRIPTURAL COUNSEL In an interview with CCM Magazine, Grant notes that she and her husband went through numerous counseling sessions beginning in 1986. Not only did this counseling not save her marriage, some of it apparently contributed to it. She quotes one counselor who gave her the following unscriptural advice: "Amy, God made marriage for people. He didn’t make people for marriage. He didn’t create this institution so He could just plug people into it. He provided this so that people could enjoy each other to the fullest" ("Judging Amy," CCM Magazine, November 1999, p. 36). Grant concluded from this that "if two people are not thriving healthily in a situation, I say remove the marriage [and] let them heal" (Ibid., p. 36). In August 1998, Grant told her husband: "I believe and trust that I’ve been released from this [marriage]" (Ibid., p. 35). She came to this foolish conclusion although she had no biblical grounds for separation or divorce and her husband was committed to the marriage. Only the Lord knows the woman’s heart, but it appears that she had committed herself to marrying another man, to whom she had already given her heart. She admits that she saw in Vince Gill "a true complement" to herself. In contrast to Grant’s delusion about being released from her marriage, the Bible is very clear about God’s will in this matter: "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, LET NOT THE WIFE DEPART FROM HER HUSBAND: But if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife" (1 Corinthians 7:10,11). "The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They said unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, WHOSOEVER SHALL PUT AWAY HIS WIFE, EXCEPT IT BE FOR FORNICATION, AND SHALL MARRY ANOTHER, COMMITTETH ADULTERY: AND WHOSO MARRIETH HER WHICH IS PUT AWAY DOTH COMMIT ADULTERY" (Matthew 19:3-9). Amy Grant's husband did not want the marriage to end and he sought to save it. He told CCM Magazine: "For five years after I was told that I was no longer loved and that she wanted out of the marriage, I refused that because of the kids." He testified of getting down on his knees and begging her not to leave. Contrary to Amy's self-esteem psychobabble about God releasing her from the marriage, Chapman does not believe the divorce is God's will. He says: "It was not God's will that we divorced. It wasn't. That was not His plan. ... Did we allow God to do all He could do? Unquestionably no. No, we did not. 'Irreconcilable differences' [the basis upon which the divorce was sought] is such a lame and hollow phrase. That's what you say when you're afraid to say anything. It's the legalese that allows you to walk away. From my vantage point, we had one irreconcilable difference: I wanted her to stay, and she wanted to leave. Everything else, God could have reconciled" (CCM Magazine, January 2000, pp. 36,37).

Most Evangelical Preachers Are Hypocrites

All Evangelical Preachers should read 1 Corinthians 13 and what Jesus said on love every day before they open their mouths and say anything. They don’t have a right to impose their views on anybody:

13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 13:5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 13:6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 13:10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

JN 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. JN 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. JN 15:17 "These things I command you, that you love one another.

IS EPHESIANS 5 PART OF THE BIBLE AND DO CHRISTIANS HAVE TO DO WHAT PAUL TOLD THEM TO DO? YES!

5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 5:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 5:14 Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." 5:15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 5:16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 5:17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 5:20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5:21 submitting to one another in the fear of God. 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 5:24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 5:27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 5:28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 5:30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 5:31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

Jude 1:16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 1:17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 1:18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 1:19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. 1:20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Check out Signs of a Violent Bynum - "Until death do us part, even if we kill each other ..." Juanita Bynum vows not to leave husband?

Juanita Bynum And The Demon Jezebel?

I've been feeling so sad lately about these unfolding events over our sister, I’ve been asking myself. If Juanita was not beaten on that hotel parking, would she have continued to show a straight face in her congregation??? Because my wonder is, has it been an everyday thing in their home or its just because it happened that day. How come she seems to use what has happened so fast to claim divorce and run off to the media??

I mean guys, they separated earlier on in June, why is it divorce seems to be tagged on the beating rather than what has been happening in that marriage from before. People don't be lied to, if we follow what these Celebs are doing on television and the media, 'WE ARE LOST' This is a clear lack of self-control. The Godly way to sort themselves is reconcile in private and allow God to lead them.

I COMPLETELY OPPOSE THIS MEDIA THING AND ITS DOING SO MUCH DAMAGE TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. I tell Juanita to get out of the media and silently seek Jesus about it. Tell me Do we heal when we run all over the place reminding everyone, 'Look how I've been damaged by my husband!' Jesus is the healer of all broken hearts and not the media or divorces! What does the word of God Promise? Jesus restores all broken relationships! Is Thomas Weeks and Juanita an exception? What Juanita is doing now is juicy for the world, but to the Church of Jesus Christ it will never be acceptable even if Juanita climbs the highest mountain to announce her AFFLICTIONS!!! She is allowing the demon Jezebel to use her. If we do not resist Satan’s Deception, he will shows us how to spend our time and keep us busy, while he sits back and laughs. Ruth - Nairobi, Kenya

Famed Pentecostals Lack Both Theological And Moral Accountability

The media light has fallen upon famed Pentecostal preachers and their less than perfect lives, which, to many, has come as a shock.

National evangelist or prophetess Juanita Bynum, 48, was granted a restraining order last week after filing for divorce from her husband, Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, alleging that he beat her at an Atlanta hotel parking lot in August.

Bynum, considered the most prominent black female television evangelist in the nation, had rose to renown, especially in black communities, empowering women with messages renouncing pre-marital sex and breaking free of sexual promiscuity.

Now as she seeks a divorce based on the argument that her marriage has been "irretrievably broken" and that she is a victim of "cruel treatment," critics are attacking what seemed to be presented as a model marriage, with some accusing the prophetess of exploiting the parking lot attack for publicity.

But Bynum, who says she forgives her husband, struck down the notion that Christians live perfect lives.

"I think the misconception of Christianity is that we are people that don't have any problems," she said on ABC News' Good Morning America. "And that is absolutely not the truth."

"The purpose of spirituality is to assist you and give you the proper wisdom that you would need to handle a situation in a much more different way than a person would handle it had they not known the Lord," she continued. "I think we're tested and we're judged how we come through it."

She found it "ludicrous" that critics accused her of trying to gain more popularity, noting that God has already "favored" her with popularity and that she didn't need another person to know who she was.

The Weeks' divorce come just as another renowned Pentecostal duo, Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International in Tampa, Fla., announced their plans for divorce. In this case, the split is amicable and they blamed it on the two different ministerial directions their lives were going.

Both have been married and divorced before.

"Divorce, once a taboo in evangelical culture, is now a fact of life," writes David Van Biema in Time magazine. A poll by Newsweek showed that the divorce rate among pastors is 50 percent, no different from that of the general public.

Still, divorce is disappointing to many evangelicals. The Whites acknowledged that their divorce would let down their followers and attendance at the Tampa megachurch would "take a hit."

And one pastor cautions against attaching perfection with pastors.

"This expectation of perfection is unrealistic," writes Corey J. Hodges, senior pastor of the New Pilgrim Baptist Church in Taylorsville, in The Salt Lake Tribune, "and pastors who attempt to portray such an image cause serious damage to the church congregation and the community of faith in their times of personal crisis."

On further note, with the latest scandals having occurred within the Pentecostalism, some have raised questions about the movement.

"The Charismatic movement is so driven by emotion and by passion that it sometimes lacks both theological and moral accountability," says respected theologian Dr. R. Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and one of America's preeminent evangelicals, according to Time.

Tim Morgan, an editor at Christianity Today magazine, sees it as a more organizational problem. "Quite a few of these independent churches feel they are beholden to God alone," he says.

Fewer Pentecostals in the United States belong to churches that are part of a Pentecostal denomination than those who identify with independent churches. According to The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 5 percent of the U.S. population are Pentecostals who identify with a denomination and 18 percent are Charismatics – those who describe themselves as charismatic or pentecostal but don't belong to a particular denomination.

Notably, divorce within the Assemblies of God – the largest Pentecostal denomination in the country – can jeopardize a pastor's job. The denomination requires that the pastor provide just cause for the divorce before ministerial credentials can continue, according to Hodges.

While the media has spotlighted Pentecostal figures and their struggles, Anthea Butler, professor of religion at the University of Rochester in New York, says the same sort of thing is happening to other Protestants such as Baptists and Presbyterians. But those other Protestants "are not media figures," she said, according to Time.

Bynum and Weeks married in a private ceremony in 2002 and again in a million-dollar, televised ceremony in 2003. The couple has been estranged since June.

Audrey Barrick Christian Post Reporter

Bynum on Good Morning America: First marriage was 'abusive' too

By MIKE MORRIS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 09/26/07

When GMA's Robin Roberts asked Bynum about an abusive first marriage, and her seperation from her second husband, Thomas Weeks III, she said, "My first marriage is something that, he repented for what he did, and I made a vow that I would not talk about that situation because it was over 20 years ago.

"I think right now my focus lately has been on why have I allowed this kind of behavior for a second time," she said. "I'm really focusing on my own healing rather than looking at the faults of the individuals because I can't do anything

Bynum, 48, filed for divorce earlier this month in Ware County, where she has a ministry. Her complaint for divorce was dismissed, but she plans to refile it in Gwinnett County, where Weeks lives.

"I believe that spirituality needs to be used in a proper manner, to the degree that we forgive and we pray, but by the same token, you have to take the responsibility to remove yourself out of harm's way while you're praying," Bynum said Wednesday.

Weeks' attorney, Randall Kessler, said he was contacted by Good Morning America Tuesday night for a comment on "our position on the current status."

Kessler released a statement saying, "We have suggested private mediation, or even a settlement conference to expedite resolution, and to prevent any unintended miscommunication or leaks to the press. Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more apparent that Rev. Bynum wants to keep this matter public and to expand her career and public persona by doing so."

Meet The US Preacher Who Wants Your Cash 20 September 2007 Katie Davies

ONE of the most controversial religious preachers in the US is coming to the Golders Green Hippodrome.

Juanita Bynum has made millions in America and will preach in London for the first time on October 20 and 21.

Dr Bynum will charge £30 to attend both days of her conference at the former theatre, bought by El Shaddai International Christian Centre earlier this year.

But her visit is not being welcomed by nearby residents' association chairman Barry Alexander.

He said: "A lot of the people who go there will be desperate and can't afford what she wants, but I suppose if they want to give away their money there is nothing you can do to stop them.

"These evangelicals tend to go out to try to convert people and there will be no place for that here."

Ms Bynum has courted controversy across the pond by making millions from the sale of DVDs, books and conference tickets. She also demands donations from her congregation.

The former hairdresser and air stewardess is about to launch a spa, a make up and toiletries range, a magazine and her own TV show.

The introduction on her website says: "In every generation God raises up a revolutionary, a chief commander, a voice who's not afraid to cry loud on behalf of his people.

"We call her a prophetess of the nations who fills stadiums and changes lives...She ushers people into the presence and glory of god...Preacher, teacher, ambassador and entrepreneur Juanita Bynum."

Ms Bynum calls the money she demands from her supporters "sowing a seed". In one video on her site she pleads for $200,000 to build a new prayer room - which she calls a "threshing floor".

She says: "It's a hard thing for me, but I have to pick up everything and move it and there's a piece (of land) on the new Juanita Bynum ministry property God has given me - the 30 acres of land and 12 acres of lakefront.

"I think it is God's wisdom to build a new threshing floor here so I am asking you as my partners.

"The fee and the charge is approx $200,000 I am asking for an emergency seed, any seed you give $300, $500 or $1,000. You have an opportunity to help me build the place where I can go to God on your behalf."

Ms Bynum, known in the USA as a televangelist, rose to fame by preaching against pre-marital sex. She said by sleeping with men before marriage God had punished her by not bringing her a true mate.

She repented and had a televised fairytale wedding with another preacher - Bishop Thomas Wesley Weeks III - which cost more than $500,000.

But last month she became the subject of the gossip columns after her husband was arrested for assaulting her. [email protected]

NOTE Jaunita Bynum is not a Christian, but a modern day snake oil saleswomen

Juanita Bynum Press Release

Juanita Bynum doesn't like being accused of setting the tone and demonstrating a lack of forgiveness by alleging cruel treatment in her Petition for Divorce so she had to give a Press Release

September 12, 2007

This statement is issued as Dr. Bynum’s attorney. Unfortunately Dr. Bynum has been accused of setting the tone and demonstrating a lack of forgiveness by alleging cruel treatment in her Petition for Divorce. This is not an effort to set the tone nor is it posturing. I have advised Dr. Bynum at great length regarding this process. As her counsel, I am obligated to put the opposing party on notice of all allegations in the pleadings. It is clear that domestic violence is an issue as evidenced by the coverage of the brutal attack by the Defendant on August 21, 2007. The matters that have been raised are legal issues. Although the marriage is irretrievably broken, the core issue centers on domestic violence. Dr. Bynum will not issue any further comments at this time on the pending divorce action.

Have you noted how violent and abusive Pentecostal Preacher Jaunita Bynum is, as well as being devoid of the fruit of the Spirit, as reported by no other than J. Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma?

Considering how with her violent attitude and contrary to scripture Jaunita has quickly taken her “beloved husband” to the secular authorities it’s save to assume by her behavior that she is not a Christian at all just like the leadership of TACF for “ love does no harm to its neighbor”.

And love, sacrificial giving love, just like Jesus gave his life for evil wicked sinners, is the trade mark of a true Christian, not false hateful words of an angry person devoid of love even there are signs and wonders!

Her husband Weeks who had to live with this demonized individual said there was another side to the story. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson also said there are two sides to every story and like too many domestic abuse cases the husband is being tried and convicted based on a one-sided account."

But in our feminized society, full of feminized men like Pastor Steve Long, people tend to believe mostly the weeping seemingly abused wife, rather than looking at the global picture which we now see of Jaunita as not being so innocent or without guilt in this relationship at all!

The reality is that Prophetess Bynum didn’t get her $2.5 million dollars mansion, became disillusioned with her husband and sold him to the authorities for personal fortune and fame. Just like Judas she put her own personal interest and welfare first above that of her husband proving she never really loved her husband.

There is nothing in the Word of God which permits anyone from breaking their marriage vows. You do remember don't you? ... "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness, as in health, 'til death do us part."

Jesus never permitted or taught that Christians could divorce or separate rather he stated: MT 5:23 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother (husband) has something against you, MT 5:24 "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother (husband), and then come and offer your gift.

Pentecostal Prophetess Juanita Bynum excuse for divorcing Thomas Weeks as it wasn't meant to be is hogwash. She will not discuss her financial liabilities of their failed marriage. She is now on a new international mission to bring awareness about domestic violence. She is now on a crusade and will use the help of Obama and Oprha Wimprey to bring it out about. Of course this parasite and pimp will need funds from the public to pay off her debts and give her a living but then Oprha has a lot of money see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDefMmuwMNY

And her televised words 'I Forgive My Husband' are meaningless if she doesn’t drop the charges and return back to her husband and honor her million dollar wedding vows made before God and man "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness, as in health, 'til death do us part" and give up temporary personal fortune and fame!

She has become a whore who sold herself to the highest bidder just like Demas (2TM 4:10) who had forsaken Apostle Paul having loved this present world more than the kingdom of God. According to published reports, Bynum has said it is too early to say if she'll stay with Weeks. For now, she said she's concentrating on herself. http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur36505.cfm.

Yes for Juanita what is important is me, myself and I and not the best interests of others!

And unfortunately the reality is that CHARISMA MAGAZINE AND STEPHEN STRANG ARE GREATER HYPOCRITES THAN Bishop Thomas Weeks III and Juanita Bynum, Randy and Paul White or TACF’s John Arnott. They have been reporting lies of fairy tales rather than the truth to get sales and money because the bottom line is increased sales produces increase revenue. If they told the truth about their Pentecostal friends including Karl Strader and family like the secular media has done they would have no readers left! See

Walter Kambulow

Weeks 'Walked Away' From Bynum

"She said," last week. "He said" on Friday afternoon.

Ten days after Evangelist Juanita Bynum proclaimed herself "the face of domestic violence," her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks, told reporters he wanted to speak out to try to set straight "the many discrepencies, dramatizations and untruths." Weeks denied violence toward Bynum, and insisted he walked away from a confrontation with her on August 21, the night he's accused of assaulting her.

"I have always loved my wife and have been nothing but faithful to her," Weeks said in a statement he read to reporters at his church, Global Destiny Ministries, in Duluth. "I want to be clear in saying I do not condone in any way, shape or form, violence of any kind towards women. My role has always been to operate as a protector and not as an aggressor. I have walked away from many situations between the two of us, just like I walked away that night."

Weeks did not answer questions from reporters, on the advice of his attorneys, and did not comment further on the criminal assault charges against him.

Atlanta police say a hotel bellhop saw Weeks kicking, beating and choking Bynum in the parking lot of the hotel that night, and that the bellhop heard Weeks threatening to kill Bynum as the bellhop pulled Weeks off of Bynum.

"I want to share my heart with the people," Weeks said Friday, "to inform all that will listen that there are two sides to every story."

He asked people to keep an open mind while he fights the criminal charges against him.

"I am asking that everyone that has already judged me to take the time to consider other perspectives. I understand that my silence to date has given me the perception of guilt," but he said he does not believe in speaking publicly about what he considers to be private matters between him and his estranged wife.

Weeks said their current troubles began on June 3, when, he said, Bynum suddenly announced to their congregation that she was quitting the church, the church that she and Weeks had founded together, "never to return. It was the first time I knew she felt this way about our church family," Weeks said. Bynum has always maintained her own, separate ministry that she founded and led prior to their marriage in 2002.

"The shock to the congregation was the start of many rumors," Weeks said of Bynums' surprise announcement.

Two days later, he said, her office sent a fax to his staff, "cancelling a major, international event and noted the reason was due to our marital separation. I was then informed by my staff about the fax. It was the first time that I was made aware of our separation."

Thenn on June 14th, Weeks said, Bynum's attorney mailed him a "cease and desist" letter ordering him to stop using Bynum's name, face image, sound or likeness in anything related to the church.

"We were not legally allowed to mention her name even in prayer," Weeks said. "Many people were offended by my removal of her image, as it appeared that it was of my own doing.... I did not share her letter from her lawyers to the church family in an effort to cover and protect her from negativity and perceptions, as I have done countless times over the past five years."

Weeks said he still hoped he and Bynum could work out a reconciliation, and on August 16 he said she showed up at his office saying she, too, wanted to reconcile. "It was that day that I first began to believe that our marriage was moving in a positive direction. It was my understanding that the relationship was salvageable," Weeks said.

On August 20, he said, "I was with my wife the entire night... and felt that our love for each other was going to get us through these hard times."

Weeks emphasized that, contrary to earlier statements and reports, the reason he met with his wife on August 21 was not that he was seeking a reconciliation. He thought that their previous night together meant that they were already reconciling.

On August 21, he said, she called him asking to meet with him at a hotel, saying to him that, as he described it Friday, "Juanita Bynum Ministries was in need of our church facility and members' support in order to raise monies" for one of Bynum's projects. "She shared her urgency that we meet that night," Weeks said.

Weeks did not describe, in his statement Friday, his August 21 meeting with Bynum, what led to their confrontation or anything else about it, and he did not discuss the indictment against him. He has pleaded Not Guilty.

"I would like for Juanita to know that I respect but regret her decision for a divorce. My church family is fully aware that I have always supported her in every endeavor. I have never hindered her from pursuiing her ministry vision or personal goals in life.... I want her to know that I am praying God's best for her."

Weeks' divorce attorney, Randy Kessler, told reporters after Weeks read his statement that "he can't stop the divorce from happening." Kessler said Weeks just wants it to be settled as soon as possible, in private.

"The Bishop is not interested in money, this is not a case about money," Kessler said. "We'd like all offers to remain private" as the two negotiate a financial settlement.

"Everybody, all of us, have blemishes, have flaws, that we do not want exposed" in a public courtroom, Kessler said, and Weeks is hoping to settle both the divorce and the criminal charges against him out of court.

There was no pre-nuptual agreement, Kessler said.

"The truth will eventually be known by all," Weeks said. "In the end, God will always get the glory."

Wife Beaters and Abusive Preachers: Let’s Arrest the Violence By J. Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma.

What happened last month between Bishop Thomas Weeks III and Juanita Bynum raises serious concerns about both domestic and spiritual abuse.

I’ve been holding my tongue for a few weeks since I learned that Bishop Thomas Weeks III was arrested after being accused of kicking, choking and hitting his wife, prominent preacher Juanita Bynum, in a hotel parking lot in Atlanta on Aug. 22. We did not need another embarrassing display of religious hypocrisy played out in the national media.

The incident gave the whole church a black eye and bruised our reputation. When I first heard that Weeks excused his actions (the devil made him do it, he claims) and that his congregation cheered his return to the pulpit (after he fled from police and then posted $40,000 bail), I was riled. What was this guy thinking?

“We are not going to release God’s healing to a broken world with threats, hateful speech and a loveless gospel.”

It’s outrageous. A Pentecostal bishop beat his wife so badly she had to go to the hospital. Weeks, of course, says there is another side to the story. I guess we’ll hear his version in the courtroom, where he will face the possibility of jail time.

Meanwhile, Bynum has announced she will divorce her husband, whom she married in 2003. The romance between Weeks and “Prophetess Bynum” was compared to a fairy tale: A poor girl from the projects who was once on welfare becomes one of the most popular—and wealthiest—women preachers in America.

When Bynum walked down the aisle with Weeks, she wore a 7.7-carat diamond ring in a ceremony that cost more than $1 million. The couple then started Global Destiny Church in suburban Atlanta and later hosted marriage conferences. Weeks even wrote a book called Teach Me How to Love You, in which he offered advice on sex and resolving conflicts.

It was not supposed to end like this.

At a press conference Bynum convened a few days after the assault, she announced confidently that she is moving on. She said she would rebound and use her experience to galvanize awareness of abuse. “Today, domestic violence has a face and a name, and it is Juanita Bynum,” she said.

That probably means she’ll write a book about her ordeal, and perhaps launch a speaking tour. No doubt this will appeal to the throngs of women who share her pain.

There’s no question that we need more advocates for battered women. Domestic violence is an ugly issue that has been ignored by the church, mostly because so many pastors don’t know how to counsel abused women or how to confront the men who hurt them.

But I have another concern. Before Bynum starts her campaign, I hope she will examine her own spitfire preaching style. I’m all for rousing sermons, but what Bynum often offers her audiences is downright mean.

Eleven days before the Atlanta incident, Bynum told women at a large conference that they needed to learn to become harsh. Shocking clips of her comments were then posted on YouTube. Bynum told of how she corrected an unnamed assistant for being too nice when carrying out her orders. “I’m trying to teach you to be a bulldog!” she declared with gritted teeth and a hateful expression.

When women did not shout loud enough after her comments, Bynum threatened them too. “If somebody don’t start praising God right here, I’m gonna have to hit somebody with this microphone,” she said. She also implied that women who treat others with polite restraint are “too suburb” and need to learn the street-wise tactics of the ghetto.

Is this the new face of domestic violence? An angry woman preacher who threatens to hit people? A “bulldog” who barks orders and treats subordinates rudely? Please. I agree that people need to learn to be assertive, but Bynum seems to think the fruit of the Holy Spirit is no longer necessary.

We need to declare a timeout and demand some sanity before the American church is hijacked by carnality. Bynum’s angry rhetoric is out of bounds. Her behavior behind the pulpit is not a good example for women or men. Somebody needs to lovingly but firmly challenge it before this turns into something even uglier.

I’m not defending Weeks, who should spend time behind bars and be removed from church leadership if it is proven that he assaulted his wife. But before Bynum launches her anti-violence crusade, she needs to cool her heels and adjust her attitude. You can’t fight fire with fire, and you can’t heal a battered woman by training her to become vindictive.

We should have zero tolerance of any form of domestic violence. But while we learn to address this huge social problem, let’s also crack down on verbal abuse in the pulpit. We are not going to release God’s healing to a broken world with threats, hateful speech and a loveless gospel. http://www.charismamag.com/fireinmybones/

But did Charisma rebuke Weeks, Jaunita or T.D. Jakes for their real sins in this matter? Of course not!

The American Church Is Hijacked By Carnality.

From: Dale McElroy Subject: Re: Fire In My Bones: Wife Beaters and Abusive Preachers: Let’s Arrest the Violence To: [email protected], jlee Grady , Stephen P McElroy

J. Lee Grady, 9-15-07

You wrote: We need to declare a timeout and demand some sanity before the American church is hijacked by carnality.

Wake up and smell the coffee. Carnality owns America's church. We have preachers that manipulate people for money to preach a gospel they never do. (Mike Murdoch) We have prophetic movement selling prophecies. We have showmen, entertainers, always on TBN. We have Baptists leaders that fight over speaking in tongues and these people even claim the Bible is true. We have editors as yourself that will not acknowledge they are wrong when shown scripture. Even though you do report scandals at times. Earl Paulk being one in a long line. We had Toronto that was only carnal. Vineyard leaders renounced Toronto but not America's "prophetic movement".

Wake up man. Read your own letters. The western church lives in carnality. Some of the Charismatic movement is border-line apostasy. Apostasy is warned about in scripture in 2 Thes 2:1-3. It may be too late to rescue some.

Sincerely,

Dale McElroy

Evangelist Juanita Bynum is Exploiting her Marital Problems for Personal Gain and Publicity says Rev. Peterson

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- Evangelist Juanita Bynum is coming under fire for her public conduct after her domestic abuse incident, where she alleges that her estranged husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks III attacked her. Bynum has since filed for divorce. She's also gone public about the incident calling herself "the new face of domestic violence." Outspoken conservative minister and radio talk show host, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is asking: how can Juanita Bynum be the poster child for domestic abuse before we know the truth about her role in this altercation?

"Domestic violence is wrong whether the victim is a woman or man," said Rev. Peterson. "Juanita Bynum, however, is not called by God and she's hardly the 'new face of domestic abuse.' It's impossible for a God-fearing woman to exploit her marital problems for personal gain and publicity. There are two sides to every story and like too many domestic abuse cases the husband is being tried and convicted based on a one-sided account."

Bynum, 48, is a national televangelist whose loud and aggressive style has become increasingly popular among black female churchgoers. At her press conference this week, Bynum stated, "My focus is not the marriage. My focus is me repositioning myself mentally to accomplish a new purpose [domestic violence cause] that God has given me."

"Juanita Bynum's comments and actions prove that she's an angry, out-of-control woman. God wouldn't have her discard her marriage in order to promote the domestic abuse issue or any other phony cause," Rev. Peterson said.

Bynum reportedly attended a fundraising event for Barack Obama this past Saturday where she planned to talk with Obama about national domestic violence concerns. Oprah Winfrey was hosting the event.

YES JUANITA BYNUM IS DEMONIZED BY FEAR AND ANGER AND NEEDS DELIVERANCE

PASTOR REBUKES JUANITA BYNUM, BISHOP WEEKS AND PAULA WHITE: Apostle Brian S. Lewis warns you can't sow a seed to get out of your problems. August 29, 2007

Apostle Brian S. Lewis, senior pastor of All Nations Church of Los Angeles, did what few, if any, pastors are willing to do publicly. He spoke out on Paula White's imminent divorce and Bishop Thomas Weeks attack on his wife, Juanita Bynum.

In "The Pressure of the Press (Part 3)," a sermon posted on YouTube, Pastor Lewis said, "… Why do you think what happened with Bishop Weeks and Juanita Bynum? That's the rod of God's correction. You can't lie to God. Don't be deceived for God is not marked. For whatever you sow, you shall reap."

He acknowledged that he knew the sermon was going to be on TV.

"You know what I feel like telling them … and this is me being sarcastic," he said, "…Bishop you wanna get out of jail, you don't wanna have to go to jail and to have to experience a trial and you don't want your ministry to fail, why don't you sow a seed? Why don't you sow a seed for the next 12 months? Why don't you sow $100,000 a month for the next 12 months and watch your deliverance?"

"Juanita Bynum, you don't like what you went through? You don't like being stomped in the groin? You don't like being beat by a man, why don't you just sow a seed?" he asked. "You know why God is judging you because you can't sow a seed to get out of your problems…"

Paula White didn't escape the pastor's path either.

"Paula White, who are you to divorce your husband," he asked. "Who are you to step out of the authority and the anointing that your husband has over your life? Who knows what you did but divorce is not of God unless there was some type of infidelity, unless there was somebody that was unfaithful and none of you better ever marry again because you'll be in an adulterous marriage…"

Last week, Paula and Randy White announced their decision to divorce after 17 years of marriage.

On August 21, a bellman stopped Bishop Weeks from beating Juanita Bynum in an Atlanta hotel parking lot. The Bishop fled the scene but later turned himself in to authorities.

On Sunday, August 26, Weeks stood before his Global Destiny congregation and blamed the devil for the accusations. He faces charges of aggravated assault and terroristic threats.

Pastor Lewis wrote in his email newsletter, "I am sensitive to Juanita Bynum and I am praying for her recovery spiritually, emotionally, and physically, as well as, for the members of the White family; notwithstanding, I am dealing with the spirits of greed, compromise, corruption, and divorce in the church."

Visit the pastor's Web site at www.ancla.info. See his YouTube sermons here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AllNationsChurch Juanita Bynum Uncovered

1TM 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

CHECK OUT http://youtube.com/watch?v=uzIkMY2JEHQ&mode=related&search JUANITA BELIEVES THAT THE GIVING OF MONEY $ 1,000.00 SOLVES LIFE’S PROBLEM AND THAT IS FOOLISH AND IS NOTHING BUT A TYPICAL ROBERT TILTON FAITH SCAM.

DON’T FORGET ALL THEIR PROBLEMS STARTED WHEN JUANITA BYNUM AND HER HUSBAND BISHOP MEEK BOUGHT A $2.5 MILLION DOLLAR EXCLUSIVE HOME ON A MONTHLY $55,000 MORTGAGE.

SINCE WHEN DO PREACHERS GET PAID SO MUCH?

THEIR GREED AND LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT PROBLEM OF ALL THEIR PRESENT TROUBLES! SEE http://youtube.com/watch?v=zpsOHj-OZas&mode=user&search=

Fox 5 Atlanta investigated the debauchery of Thomas Weeks and this is what they found. First, they found his leased home is in the name of "Thomas Weeks Jr.", but he goes by the name "Thomas Weeks III". A $2.5 Million home in a gated (with guard at the front) country club in Forsyth County, GA (St. Marlo), THAT HE HAS BEEN EVICTED FROM FOR NOT KEEPING UP THE PAYMENTS. He's worked a new deal to try and outright purchase the home by April 2008.

Here's what else they found. Several COURT JUDGMENTS AGAINST HIM FOR OUTSTANDING BILLS: $63,000+ Xerox $22,000+ Tiffany & Co. $13,000+ (a credit card company) $6,000+ Ford Motor Credit

OVER $100,000 IN CIVIL COURT JUDGMENTS AGAINST HIM!!!

3 creditors say he still has not paid them.

Preachers Juanita Bynum/Paula White Are Hypocrites

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

What Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III did allegedly beating his wife, popular televangelist Juanita Bynum was very wrong in every sense of the word! But what Juanita Bynum who hated, not loved her husband, did was also wrong. She didn’t forgive him for the act but wanted vengeance and to see him and his ministry destroyed. This is not something a Christian loving wife does to her husband?

In her article NURTURE GENUINE AFFECTION - Sister Stella Dhinakaran writes

The Lord will fill your heart with love. You will be able to forgive and forget the bad habits and wrong doings of your spouse and children. The virtue of unconditional affection for each other will step into your heart (1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:11). Love one another in Christ Jesus.

There lived a certain Christian couple in a foreign land. The husband became angry quite often over trivial matters. One day he fought with his wife and yelled, “Get away from this house now!” His wife wept but he would not be moved. He pushed her out and closed the entrance of the house. He comfortably closed the door went inside and had a peaceful slumber. Check your life. This is not the love of God but that, which comes from Satan.

The following day, early in the morning, that man got up from sleep and hurried so as to reach the office on time. At that time, he heard a noise in the kitchen. Not only the noise but also a delicious smell came wafting in the air piercing through his nostrils. He thought, “Who could that be?” To his surprise, he found his wife standing there fixing up the breakfast with all delicious stuff that he loves. He asked, “How did you get inside?” She answered, “My dear! You remembered to close the front door but kept the back door open. I gained entry through the back door. Further she continued, “I thought, you might be very hungry since you were in the top of your temper tantrums and that you would be very tired after screaming last night. Therefore I decided to fix the breakfast that you love very much.” This is the genuine love and this should be seen between every husband and wife.

Nowadays many women reach their parent’s place even for small issues that crop up between the husband and wife. Today’s women think, “why should I live with this man while I work and earn a handsome salary?” This attitude leads to separation and separation is not from God. Separation is from the devil. Perhaps if you are a person planning to separate from your spouse please think. God desires to grant you a beautiful home and blessed family life. On the contrary, Satan operates in the opposite direction trying to destroy the love between you and your spouse. Beware! Check whether your love is from God or from satan.

Prayer

Loving Lord,

Give me the grace to love my spouse as myself. Remove every form of hatred, disobedience, misunderstandings, pride and instill the genuine love in my heart. Help me to forgive and forget all the wrong doings and hurt caused knowingly or unknowingly. May I always analyze my life in the light of the Scriptures and never give room for the word ‘separation’ in my family. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Randy and Paula White: Divorce shakes evangelical empire FOX News, MyFoxTambaBay.com, USA Aug. 24, 2007 www.myfoxtampabay.com

TAMPA - As a team, pastors Randy and Paula White attracted tens of thousands to Without Walls International Church. But behind the picture perfect image, the couple’s 18-year marriage was in trouble.

At Thursday night’s service, they announced plans to divorce. Both have been divorced before.

“I believe the leadership establishes some principles when it comes to fidelity and marriage, and when it comes to the fiber of a family,” says Pastor Donald Lott of True Worship Christian Center in Temple Terrace.

Lott is familiar with the church, and both pastors. He has family who attend Without Walls.

“By all means, a pastor should at all times be able to recognize when he is in crisis and his hope is in the word of God, and should all be able to rise above our circumstances in situations such as this,” Lott said

Randy and Paula White built their multi-million dollar evangelical empire by offering what they called “the perfect church, for those who aren’t.” That message catapulted Paula White to international stardom as a televangelist and author. Her husband has been less high profile, mostly leading the church at home.

The couple shares a $2 million dollar home on Bayshore Boulevard, along with a private jet. Some say the pastors have been spending more time apart as they buy property and pursue ministries elsewhere. Paula White owns a Trump Towers condo in New York City and a home in San Antonio. Randy White is reportedly leasing property in Malibu.

“The scripture says the love of money is the root of all evil, and you have to evaluate your priorities,” Pastor Lott says. “And without us knowing what their priorities are, I would hope they’d be on the Kingdom.”

But with their lavish lifestyle on display, critics say what the Whites were preaching was a message of prosperity at the expense of humility and family values.

Now with its leadership split, the church faces its own test of survival.

Paula married her husband Randy, and they lead Without Walls in Tampa, Florida. “There’s so many things that God has given me,” she says. “I have a wonderful husband, wonderful children, wonderful friends, a great church. My life is so satisfied and fulfilled in so many other areas that I focus on what God has given me and what I do have instead of what I don’t have.” Paula White – A Real Hypocrite

Randy White and Paula White are Off The Wall

Randy White and his wife Paula White, Co-Pastors of Without Walls Church in Tampa, FL told congregants in Thursday night's church service August 24,2007 that they are getting a divorce.

The well known preacher/conference speaker, Paula appeared to be choked up as she approached the podium, the Tampa Tribune reports.

They'd avoided speculation about their deteriorating relationship for months, but last night they acknowledged the unfortunate reality of their relationship before an audience of thousands.

This revelation comes after years of counseling and a day after the highly publicized separation and beating of Prophetess Juanita Bynum by her husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks, III.

Randy White responded to rumors about a possible divorce in an expose' reported by the Tampa Tribune in May. Asked whether they were contemplating divorce, he replied, "No one can predict the future."

Through personal challenges (Randy's 29-year-old daughter reportedly was diagnosed with a mature brain tumor) and their callings taking them in obtuse directions (Paula, an evangelist, conference host, T.V. host and author is away frequently), the glue in their marriage dissolved.

Lauding Pastor Paula for being an exceptional woman, preacher and mother, Randy White said he takes 100% of the responsibility for the split.

Both say there were no third parties involved and they are parting amicably, although Pastor Randy admits that "innocently" being in public with other women was wrong.

Pentecostal Pastor Randy White is a liar because he is not a Bishop nor has he graduated from any seminary or university contrary to his claims! He fails the biblical test of a Bishop found in 1 Timothy 3:2-5 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);

There is no reason why anybody should listen to whatever he says or preaches because he is full of hot air! He is a deceiver and nothing more and nothing else! He is a son of disobedience! Sons of Disobedience

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. 2 Peter 2:1-3 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:14-18 It’s a fact that Evangelical (demonized) Christians of any sort today are not Christians at all. They are not loving, compassionate, kind, forgiving, giving, truthful, honest and don’t lay down their lives for the brethren. They think they alone are the brethren and could judge who is and isn’t a brethren! They are not at all like the good Samaritan that Jesus talked about who spent his own money and resources to help the poor and needy victim left at the roadside to die by the thieves.

They don’t bring their words or deeds out in the open but do things in secret. They behave and act just like the world. They lie, divorce, cheat, steal, covet, etc just like the world. They don’t display the character of Christ and are not different that the pagans they live amongst. And then they think they are the brethren? Hogwash!

Many of them believe in the doctrine of demons of “once saved always saved.” Many follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth is blasphemed. And by covetousness they exploit us with deceptive words. In reality they are not sons of God but sons of disobedience who are going to hell because they are full of destructive heresies. And that is what Peter and Paul told us about them: For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5:5-6

Dr. Paul Dhinakaran of Jesus Calls Ministries in his article about Eternal life stated: He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward (Proverbs 11:18) In this life on earth we sow good into our lives and others’ lives. But God says we need to sow for the other world. The “other world” signifies Heaven. The Bible tells us that those who sow to the flesh will reap of the flesh and those who sow to the Spirit will reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:8). Our life on earth determines our eternity. We should pursue to spend eternity with God. For that we should live a righteous life on earth. The Bible says, "He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward" (Proverbs 11:18). The sure reward is the everlasting life with Jesus Christ our Lord. "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy" (Psalm 126:5) A well known pastor of a church was struck with a terrible disease. His wife contacted me over the telephone and said, "Brother, please come to see my husband who is sick. He wants to see you urgently." Immediately we left for his place as a family. We thought he would ask us to pray for his healing. Instead, he held my father's hands and said, "Brother, I have spoken a lot of evil things about you. But now I am going to die and I am gripped by fear. I know you are a man of God and I have spoken evil about you. I know what I had done is sin. If I die in my sin, I would go to hell and never see Lord Jesus in Heaven". Then he asked for my father’s forgiveness. My father was moved and forgave him. He happily breathed his last. Dear friend, we need to live a righteous life and keep ourselves away from sin. God shall enable us to live a righteous life and spend our eternal life with Him. You cannot hate or speak evil about a true man of God or another Christian and then assume that you are going to heaven! It will never happen! God’s word is unchanging: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:1-17 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire. "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Matthew 5:20-25 "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

Without Walls Founders Divorcing By MICHELLE BEARDEN and BAIRD HELGESON The Tampa Tribune Published: Aug 24, 2007

TAMPA - Randy and Paula White, the founders and co-pastors of what has been one of the nation's biggest and fastest-growing churches, plan to divorce. Members of Without Walls International Church reacted with tears and a chorus of 'Oh, no's' after the Whites' announcement at Thursday night's service. Randy White called Paula White to the podium about an hour into the service. He was somber; she appeared choked up. 'It's the most difficult decision I've ever had to make in my entire life,' he told the congregation, describing her as an exceptional woman, mother and preacher. She pledged to return frequently to preach. Viewers who tuned in to a live webcast of the service missed the announcement; the video and audio were cut off for about 10 minutes. The most shaken members left the service and went into the entryway to cry or call loved ones. Most said the news came as a shock, but it didn't shake their faith in the ministry. 'It's like hearing the news from your parents,' said Frank Murillo, who has attended the church for 10 years. 'They are great people. We all go through stuff. Pastor Randy will be here, and I will be here.' Kerran Fuller has attended the church on and off since the beginning of the year. The announcement 'didn't weaken the church in anyway,' he said after the service. 'I'll definitely keep going.' The Whites, who've been married nearly 18 years, said in interviews that the split is amicable and comes after visits to counselors over several years. They blame two lives going in different directions. Randy White, however, said he takes '100 percent responsibility' for the breakup. 'I want to apologize for the poor decisions I've made in my life, to my congregation and to the body of Christ,' he told The Tampa Tribune. 'I think I've let a lot of people down.' Those regrets, he said, include how he has treated some people, lifestyle changes and being seen in public with women other than his wife, even if it was innocent. They both said the split involves no third party on either side. He will stay at Without Walls as senior pastor while she concentrates on her ministry, which includes a TV show broadcast on several national networks including Black Entertainment Television, conferences, and book and video sales. She'll remain based in Tampa, with satellite operations in California, New York City and San Antonio. Church attendance 'will take a hit' from the news, he predicted. Without Walls reports having 23,000 members. Its finances also will be affected: her ministry brings in about $50,000 to $80,000 a week, he said. An audit put total church revenues at nearly $40 million last year. Individual Pursuits Although she will continue to financially support the church, the Whites are in the process of separating operations. The couple have pursued individual goals in recent months, rarely preaching together at the church on North Grady Avenue near Raymond James Stadium. They've also had to deal with the illness of Randy White's adult daughter, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December. Paula White 41, is frequently on the road for her for-profit and nonprofit ventures. One of those, Paula White Enterprises, changed earlier this year when Randy White was removed as a director, according to Department of State records. In February, she created a new nonprofit, PWM Lifecenter, listing as directors herself, church CFO Norva Carrington, and Rick Hawkins, founding pastor of the Family Praise Center in San Antonio. She has made many speaking trips recently to San Antonio and this month purchased a $681,000 home there. She serves as 'oversight pastor' to Hawkins' son Dustin, who now leads the church. She also frequently travels to New York, where she has a Trump Tower condo and leads monthly services at her new Life by Design Empowerment Center. Randy White, 49, has spent several months commuting to Malibu, Calif., where he signed a one-year lease on a beachfront dwelling. He had told his congregation he planned to start another church there, but now says those plans are on hold. This is the second marriage each for the Whites, who came to Tampa after marrying in Maryland in March 1990. They have four adult children - three from his previous marriage, one from hers. Without Walls church board member Alick Clarke of Acton, Calif., a longtime friend, said the impending divorce is sad news. 'They were like my heroes. I really love them,' he said. 'But I'm also a little pissed off. I didn't help them build their dream to have them throw it all away.' An Australian-born businessman, Clarke said he's given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the church since it was founded by the Whites in 1991 as the South Tampa Christian Center. He partially blamed the couple's breakup on their devotion to preaching a prosperity message, exhorting followers to give more money to the church in order to be blessed with greater wealth. 'Too many ministries have become big business. That message is desecrating the church today,' said Clarke, adding that he was disturbed to learn that with revenue at $40 million last year, the church was $22 million in debt. 'That's just not right.' Other questions about the Whites' financial dealings arose in stories published by the Tribune in May. Those included the couple's failure to repay a $170,000 loan from an elderly widow, money borrowed in 1995 as a down payment on a house. The couple sold the house in 2006, but still had not repaid the loan to Ruth McGinnis by May. This week, McGinnis told the Tribune that 'everything's been settled financially between Pastor Randy and me.' Also in May, The Tribune wrote about a young mother who said she never received the home she won in a widely publicized church contest in 2002. On Aug. 15 she reported she and her four children had just moved in to a new home purchased by the church. Money Matters The Whites have declined to say what the church pays them. Michael Chitwood, whose financial services company devised their compensation package, said he recalled they have taken an annual salary as high as $1.5 million collectively, though most years it's closer to $600,000. They were approved to take up to $3 million collectively, said the president of Chitwood & Chitwood of Tennessee. Perhaps the most complex part of their divorce, being handled by Holland & Knight law firm, will be dividing up the assets, debts and business interests. The couple's home on Bayshore Boulevard has an assessed value of $2.22 million. They have a land trust that includes two Tampa houses with assessed values of $144,800 and $257,835. The New York condo is valued at about $3.5 million. Their multimillion-dollar ministry includes a private jet. Randy White has said much of their wealth comes from more than 23 successful business ventures, including real estate and his role as a pitchman for Great HealthWorks' Omega XL fatty acid pills. His main company, RAW Realty, is listed on his company Web site as being housed at 100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 1180, in Tampa, but a law firm occupies that space. The state lists the company as being located at 2511 Grady Ave. in Tampa, which is the church address. The phone number on the Web site and listed with the state is disconnected. E-mails sent to the Web address were not returned. White said this week the company is 'very much active' in real estate, residential acquisitions and other ventures, but he's pared it down to himself and one assistant.

The role that women play in fathers leaving the home is never discussed on Oprah or written about in any notable publications. This is because women are viewed as innocent and harmless creatures. On the other hand, feminists have long perpetuated the myth that the straight, traditional American male is a Neanderthal. Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Paula White: I'm Not Going to Draw Back

Loud applause greeted famed life coach and female televangelist Paula White at her first public interview since the announcement of her divorce.

White appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network this week as both a guest and preacher, touching on the highly public divorce she's going through while encouraging others not to be swayed by life's trials.

"I embrace the concept that I would not let my trial be wasted in life," said White on a show hosted by contemporary Christian music artist Carman that aired Wednesday and Thursday. "I often say 'I didn't write the script, but I'm learning to live it out with the best of my ability for the honor of God, with dignity, with grace, with favor, embracing His word."

Paula and Randy White, co-founders and former co-pastors of Without Walls International in Tampa, Fla. – one of the fastest growing churches in the nation – announced their decision to split at a Thursday evening service late last month. Married nearly 18 years, the couple blamed the two different directions their lives were going. Both have been divorced before.

Quoting what Jan Crouch, co-founder of TBN, had once told her, Paula White said, "You know who you are and you know whose you are."

"I say this for Randy ... my former husband," she continued. "And Randy is a man of God. No one sets their life out and says, 'Boy, this is what I think I'm going to go through.' And people look at things as failure, why didn't this work. But I see 18 years of the rock that I was healed from and I'm grateful for the seasons in my life because I wouldn't be who I am without all the people that God has used to help me, to develop me, to cultivate me.

"Some of the greatest development in the men and women of God ... were those in adverse situation, those in opposition," White added. "But it pulled out because you had that decision. You can either gravitate and put your hand to the plow and say, 'Okay, God, I don't get this one; I don't even like this one. But still what do You have to say to me? I will not be moved.'"

White is releasing a new book in October that she says contains contents from her personal journals and that it exposes "the inner most of my being." In You're All That!: Understand God's Design for Your Life, White talks about discovering "who you are in Christ."

"Because when you know who you are and whose you are, I believe it gives you that inner fortitude and that strength to face whatever life situation you may have to go through," said White on the show.

"When I don't understand life, I'm not going to draw back. I have decided to do one thing even my mind doesn't comprehend it – draw nigh," she said.

"I believe when people can find out who they are, then you can be equipped to handle life's situations."

News of the trouble in the Whites' marriage was first picked up by The Tampa Tribune in May. The two were rarely seen preaching together anymore as Paula's own ministry works were keeping her busy and growing her renown while Randy was pursuing another church start in Malibu, Calif.

Criticism broke out from former Without Walls staff who said the Whites have shifted their focus to money and fame. Paula White earlier said she knows followers will feel disappointed by the announcement given that evangelical Christians hold marriage as a sacred institution.

Randy White, who took "100 percent responsibility" for the split, will continue to lead Without Walls as senior pastor.

Aware of the critics, Christian artist Carman said people who don't have the "wherewithal" to assess the situation should not judge or "open that person up to look," as he stated it. He told Paula White that she is at the top of her game right now.

Still, with her divorce taking place in the public eye, White said, "Everything God brings me through ... I promise Him, I will hold my hand out to someone else and allow myself to say 'He lifted me through this, He'll life you through this.'

"That's what I think it's about. It wasn't simply for me."

Preaching to the television audience, White said, "Life events will not define who you are. God says who you are. You are somebody."

Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter http://www.christianpost.com/

Is It Ok To Divorce An Abusive Spouse?

Interestingly, and sadly, all we see on the internet and in society today is talk about domestic violence; but NEVER do we hear anything about statistics on wives who refuse to obey their husbands. It is evil. It is just as sinful for a wife to frustrate her husband through insubordination and disobedience as it is for a man to commit domestic violence. I am not lessening the sin of domestic violence, I am emphasizing the sin of wives who rebel against their husbands by not being obedient. I realize this is ancient mentality to feminists today; but it is 100% Biblical doctrine. A wife is expected by God to obey her husband. Feminists are eagerly willing to crucify abusive husbands; BUT they won't even address the issue of wives who disobey, mistreat, and frustrate their husbands. It takes two to tango.

Please understand that I believe a wife who is being physically abused should leave if she feels threatened; but not divorce. Such a wife needs to sincerely ask herself "why" her husband is being abusive--there's ALWAYS a reason. Some husbands are abusive; but 90% of all divorces are needlessly caused by a sinfully proud wife who causes grief for her husband, and he gets mad. A wife who refuses to be submissive causes the marriage to become a two-headed monster. Someone's got to be in charge, or there will be continual conflict. Ideally, a husband and wife should work together on everything; however, in those situations where there is a conflict, the wife is commanded by God to submit to her husband. In fact, Ephesians 5:22 commands a wife to obey her husband as unto Jesus Christ, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." How many wives today obey this Biblical command? It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find such a woman today in America. No wonder Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:28, "One man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found." Solomon couldn't find one woman, out of all his wives and the women he had known, whom he could trust with all his heart. There were many feminists in Solomon's time, just as there are today. Listen to what Solomon had to say about the rebellious feminists of his own time ... "And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her." What a contrast from the virtuous wife of Proverb 31:28 ... "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Which type of woman are you? What does your husband (or X-husband) have to say about you? God knows, and He does care, and you will have to give account for your laziness, carelessness, lies, deceitfulness, maliciousness, etc. You will give full account to God for all your words and actions. Matthew 12:36 warns, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."

I look at society today, and all I see is the two-headed monster of feminism. Feminism rejects the Biblical teaching that a wife is to OBEY her husband. I get many letters from people who have divorced, looking for sympathy. I won't sugarcoat the truth--divorce is a sin. Jesus endured the cross for us, because He loves us. Christ sets the example for us to follow. I'm not saying that someone has a right to abuse us; I am saying that we will put up with someone if we love them, and will work to find a better way to reconcile the situation then to take the easy way out through a divorce. To the feminist, divorce is no big deal (just as they think murderously aborting children is no big deal). As a Christian, I don't understand that mentality. I thought marriage was supposed to be about LOVE, between two people, forever. I'll tell you right now, I love my wife and wouldn't divorce her in a million years. She may one day divorce me; but it will be her doing and not mine. I love my wife, despite her faults and shortcomings. If Jesus was willing to suffer and endure the cross for my sins, then I should be willing to do the same for my own wife. Is this not what Ephesians 4:31-32 teaches? ... "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Feminism teaches the exact opposite ... "Get out now honey, while you still can! God never intended for us to live in misery with an abusive spouse. The Bible says a husband is supposed to love his wife. If your husband loved you, he would treat you better. You would be a fool to go back home again- -divorce! divorce! divorce!" I know exactly what those monsters say, and how deceitful they are! Please read this article concerning the divorce rate, because it is so true concerning America today.

Either you love your husband or you don't. If you don't, then you need to get right with God yourself. If you do love him, then you'll stay with him and HONOR your wedding vows ... "'Til death do us part." We are living in a nation of liars. LOVE finds a way to make a relationship work, it doesn't look for EXCUSES to get out and move on. America is without a doubt the most SELFISH nation on earth. The chump change we give to the poor is nothing compared to what we spend on ourselves. Americans spend $50,000,000,000 a year on gambling alone, and even more than that on pornography. America has NO right to ask for God's blessing. We are a nation of baby murderers, liars, cheats, gossipers, and quitters! I'm not being unkind; but divorce is a quitters way out. If you want to get mad at me, go ahead; but the next man (or woman) you meet won't be perfect either.

The Sin of Divorce The fact that such people continually seek to find peace from their guilt proves that they've sinned. The same is true of mothers who abort their babies. What they thought was right at the time, because some monster talked them into getting an abortion, now haunts them (and likely will for the rest of their life). Notice carefully that Moses said in Numbers 32:23, "YOUR sin will find YOU out." It is the sins we commit today that will one day haunt us in the future. Sin always leads to misery and regret. No mother who aborts her own precious baby can honestly say when she is old that she is glad she murdered her child. Sin always brings regret, bitterness, guilt, and resentment down the road. I have spoken with countless people throughout my life, who have shared with me their regrets over sins committed when they were younger. The same is true concerning the sin of divorce. Divorce always brings guilt and remorse. Only a hardhearted heathen would say that a divorce is the best thing that ever happened to them.

I have received several letters from people who mentioned other pastors and ministries who told them it was OK to divorce. This clearly shows the apostasy of the times we're living in. How dare any professed "Christian" or "pastor" advise anyone to file for divorce. It is evil. I won't be an accomplice to the sin of divorce. Divorce is a sin. My article on Divorce is a Sin is a monkey-wrench in the gears of their divorce. They are sinfully divorcing their spouse, and have gained the emotional support of several neoevangelical deadbeat ministries; BUT, now they've found my article exposing the sin of divorce and are upset. They write me in an attempt to convince me why they're doing the right thing. Folks, divorce is never right. What if God quit on us? ... the same way so many people quit on their spouse? Hebrews 13:5 promises that God will never leave nor forsake us, "...for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." This is the standard for us to follow. I cannot understand how anyone could ever file for divorce from someone they love, no matter how abusive that person might be. I am NOT condoning abuse, I am simply saying that love will never fail if it is true love (1st Corinthians 13:8). All marriages have problems; but divorce is never an answer. We are living in an extremely selfish generation of heathens. Sadly, this includes MOST professed "Christians" as well. It is our SINFUL PRIDE which causes us to think we are entitled to a "better life" through divorce. It is not surprising in a society that permits baby-murdering, feminism, witchcraft, homosexuality, fornication, booze, gambling, pornography, lasciviousness, etc--that divorce is also greatly encouraged and committed.

If you filed for divorce, then you have sinned. If you've remarried, then you have also commit adultery. If your spouse remarried, then you caused even more adultery. You may find idiots out there who will tell you it's ok to divorce; but, I am not going to help make you feel better about something you refuse to admit is wrong. If you have divorced, then you need to confess it to God as a sin, make reconciliation with your spouse as much as possible, and then move on in the Lord. If at all possible, the best thing would be for you to return to your spouse rather than remarry another (1st Corinthians 7:11). Only you know your own unique situation, and what needs to be done. God will hold YOU accountable for what YOU have done, and do (Romans 14:12).

I'm a hell-deserving sinner just like anyone else. I am just as guilty of messing up sometimes as anyone else. BUT, right is right and wrong is wrong, and we must never allow our own personal feelings to confuse the two. I did not write this article to deliberately hurt anyone's feelings, and I certainly have no right to tell you your business; BUT, I am taking a stand for God against the sin of divorce. The Bible tells us in Malachi 2:16 that God hates divorce, "For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away." In nearly all divorces, the husband and wife BOTH have their own side of the story as to who's to blame. Usually, they blame each other. God will weigh the matter on judgment day, and the truth will come out. The wife who accuses her husband of "abuse" will be held accountable for all the things she did to provoke her husband, and she will be judged accordingly. It's the same morons who call spanking a child "abuse" who are attacking and labeling husbands as being "abusive." The term "abuse" has been greatly twisted nowadays. Every God-hating feminist in the country is still trying to use the O.J. Simpson case to demonize men. Men who track their wife's time are now considered "abusive." Biblically, a husband has every right to tract his wife's time and whereabouts. God told Eve that Adam would RULE OVER her (Genesis 3:16). This does not justify abuse, it just means that the wife is to submit to her husband's control and authority. Feminists hate the very concept of obeying any man, and have consequently labeled such Biblically authoritative husbands as "abusive." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Italy has one of the LOWEST divorce rates in the world. Do you know why? It's because there's a 3-year required wait period before you can get divorced. Sadly, their laws are about to change to 1-year, and the divorce rate will skyrocket. My point here is that it is TOO EASY for couples to get divorced in America. It's big bucks for the judges, lawyers, bankers, etc. I always marvel that a couple can get married in a boat, on a mountain, in a church, under water, on a rollercoaster, in a park, even at the south pole; BUT, you can only be divorced IN A COURT OF LAW! Increasingly, for many men, marriage is becoming a deadly trap. The American court system is unjust, and corrupted by feminism.

Conclusion It is wrong to divorce an abusive spouse (wife or husband). You may need to leave, and be apart for a while; but divorce is no answer. I am NOT condoning abuse of any kind; but the term "abuse" has been greatly misconstrued to include such ridiculous things as a husband wanting to know where his wife is going, and when she's coming back. I agree wholeheartedly with Mrs. John R. Rice (wife of the great evangelist Dr. John R. Rice), who said that 90% of all divorces is the wife's fault, because God created the wife to be a HELP MEET for her husband (Genesis 2:18). The wife's ministry IS her husband! Many woman pluck their marriages down to the ground (Proverb 14:1). A husband has a Biblical God-given RIGHT to RULE OVER his wife (Genesis 3:16). I find that in many cases when a wife leaves her husband, she involves all sorts of strangers in the marriage, and they are quick to give heathen advice (such as encouraging a divorce). Very few husbands will compromise with a wife who tries to force him to do things her way.

So instead of the wife calling her husband, and giving him a chance to work things out, she instead just files for divorce. This is wickedness. Most women who file for divorce don't give their husband an honest chance to make things right. It's always some lame excuse like, "He's had plenty of chances." That is sinful pride! What if God said that about you? You'd be in Hell. You CANNOT show me even one Scripture in the Word of God that gives anyone permission to divorce because of abuse. And may I say, the Bible does not permit divorce for adultery either. So let us be forgiving, and humble ourselves before God, and be willing to follow in Christ's footsteps ... "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows ... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:3-5). In Jesus' name, David J. Stewart http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Family/Marriage/divorce_not_ok.htm

Church Star Has Mounting Concerns

The Ledger, Lakeland Florida/July 16, 2007 By Sherri Day http://www.rickross.com/groups/wwic.html

Atlanta -- From the moment Paula White steps into the World Congress Center, she's on: camera-ready makeup, designer suit, black stilettos and pocketfuls of pithy sound bites.

In town to promote her forthcoming book at the International Christian Retail Show last week, White meets no strangers. She introduces herself to gawkers, cameramen, interviewers and fans with hugs, including a waiter who passes along his admiration as he serves her lunch.

As host of the "Paula White Today" show, White broadcasts to millions of homes a day. An author, she also is a life coach on "The Tyra Banks Show" and hobnobs with celebrities. Her 22,000-member Tampa church, Without Walls, has been dubbed one of the fastest-growing churches in America. In Lakeland, Without Walls International purchased Carpenter's Home church and now has a satellite church at that location, Without Walls Central.

White will cross another milestone today when she opens a center in Manhattan to host life-coaching seminars.

But as White enjoys a meteoric rise to the top of Christian evangelism, she must juggle mounting concerns at home.

In the last few months, Without Walls, which White leads with her husband, Randy, has been embroiled in controversy over allegations of a lack of integrity and questionable business dealings.

The accusations, brought to light by the media, former church members and disgruntled former employees, touched off a maelstrom of debate about Without Walls and its leaders.

While the Whites have been reticent, their supporters and detractors square off on Internet blogs and message boards. The church's board of directors eventually issued a statement trying to bat down the allegations.

"Everything she does is a total act," said Ole Anthony, president of the Trinity Foundation, a Dallas nonprofit watchdog group that monitors televangelists. "… She's on this ride now that's just going hot guns and big celebrity, and she's going to fail miserably because the things that they're doing are so outlandish," noting her lavish lifestyle.

In keeping with her teachings that trials and tribulations make Christians strong, White responds in an e-mail to the Times: "My focus is the assignment and work of ministry that we have always done and continue to do with the fruit of that good work reflected across the nation and all over the world."

Demerits into merits

As she sits with interviewers at the retail show July 9, White captivates them with the story of her troubled youth involving abuse, neglect and low self-esteem.

As White tells it, she was born Paula Michelle Furr in Tupelo, Miss. In her 1998 semiautobiography, she details an early life of country clubs and privilege. Her parents' marriage, she said, began to unravel when she was 5, with her mother fleeing to Memphis. Her father followed with an ultimatum: Give him Paula or he would kill himself. White's mother refused, and later that night Donald Furr wrapped his car around a tree, ending his life, White says.

Her mother, Myra Joanelle Furr, sought refuge in alcohol. While Furr worked, White was looked after by caregivers, whom she said sexually and physically abused her for seven years.

White says she found God when she was 18 and living in Maryland. A stranger saw that she was broken and offered her the Christian plan of salvation.

At the time, White was a new mother to a baby she had out of wedlock. She had a brief marriage with the baby's father, a member of a rock band. Eventually, she wound up at a local church sweeping floors and teaching Sunday school. That's where she met a young visiting preacher. Randy White was pudgy and not her type, she says, but the two grew in love and married in 1990.

Some church members frowned upon the relationship, surmising that Randy, who came from five generations of preachers, should find a more suitable bride.

The couple moved to Tampa in 1990 and soon after started South Tampa Christian Center. They renamed it Without Walls in 1997 and set about building one of the fastest-growing congregations in the nation.

It wasn't long before White's popularity began to eclipse her husband's. Though they lead the church together, she is sought after and travels around the country preaching.

"Clearly, they have branded her," said Scott Thumma, professor of religion and sociology at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut. "Her look, her products. They're branding her face, her style, and it resonates in a lot of ways with folks."

Obscurity to stardom

White says she received a vision of her future as a preacher shortly after her salvation. Her career got a megaboost when she met Bishop T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Dallas megachurch, the Potter's House.

Jakes, who is black, helped catapult White to superstardom - particularly among black women - when he invited her to speak at his Woman Thou Art Loosed Conference in 2000. She launched her television ministry a year later.

Today, White is one of the most popular preachers on Black Entertainment Television and appears on several other networks including Spike TV and Trinity Broadcasting.

Her folksy, down-home delivery ranges from that of reserved theological teacher to charismatic, foot-stomping, finger-pointing preacher fluent in the call-and- response worship style of the traditional black church. On a recent Sunday at Without Walls, White preached from John 2, where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding.

"Slap somebody right upside their weave and say 'Get in the Flow,' " White told the audience, her voice rising as she introduced her sermon title. "Are you ready? Somebody say 'Bring it on. Bring it on.' "

Tonya Jones was mesmerized.

"She speaks to me," said Jones, 39, a Tampa homemaker. "I like the way she brings the message in a way that I can understand."

White also has been dubbed a prosperity preacher, a proponent of the "name-it and claim-it" gospel, which purports that people can receive financial, emotional and spiritual blessings if they donate. That message and her penchant for designer clothing and flashy cars have added to the cacophony of criticism.

White drives a Mercedes-Benz and flies around the country in a private jet. She lives in a $2.1 million mansion on Tampa's Bayshore Boulevard and has a Fifth Avenue condo in Trump Tower in New York City.

The ministries took in $39.9 million in 2006, according to an audit of Without Walls and Paula White Ministries released in June by an independent Clearwater accounting firm. About $28.6 million helped promote the church's programs, conferences and outreach efforts, the audit said. Other expenses covered management and fundraising.

White's salary was not detailed, but her publicist says she has multiple streams of income outside the ministry. She donates to causes and individuals both inside and outside of Without Walls, her publicist said.

At the Christian retail show, for example, White told one of her assistants to send gospel artist CeCe Winans "another check" for her planned conference for girls. Winans beamed. White said she already had given the effort $25,000.

And for his 50th birthday in June, White sent Jakes a black convertible Bentley. It was intended to be quiet gift, White said, but an overzealous member of Jakes' ministry shouted out the news at the retail show.

"Some people thought 'Why would you do that?' " White later explained, saying that Jakes is her spiritual father. "I thought, 'Well, why wouldn't I?' That's not even an option."

Overwhelmed

For all of her successes, White still describes herself as the messed-up Mississippi girl whose life God turned around. At times, she appears enchanted by her own stature.

White insists she has a message to give a public that is eager to receive. "The key is balance. But I do what I do because, quite honestly, I am committed to our mission to transform lives, heal hearts and win souls."

“allegations of a lack of integrity and questionable business dealings” Sherri Day

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i http://www.theledger.com/article/20060715/NEWS/607150322?Title=The-Strader- Family-Talks-About-the-Future-of-Congregations ii http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul/24/240921/can-paula-be-savior-without- walls/news-metro/ iii http://www.tbo.com/news/nationworld/MGBA6S84Q5F.html. iv http://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/article1017585.ece v http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_White