(RNS) — A religious row has erupted among conservative Christians over President Donald Trump’s decision to re-appoint Paula White-Cain to run the White House Faith Office, with theological fissures erupting within Trump’s Christian coalition as leaders stake out different positions on the Florida pastor.
The debate escalated on Tuesday (Feb. 19), when Doug Wilson, an influential Reformed pastor who has emerged as an oft-cited religious thinker in conservative circles, derided White-Cain, a Pentecostal pastor, on his podcast. While responding to others on his show who were critiquing White-Cain, the Idaho pastor referred to her appointment as “a bad pick for all kinds of reasons.”
In a separate interview with Religion News Service on Thursday, Wilson said he hails from a “conservative Christian quadrant that objects to women preachers in the first place,” and described White-Cain as an “erratic woman preacher who has been all over the map.”
He went on to describe White-Cain, long regarded as Trump’s closest religious adviser, as “the kind of person that embarrassing video footage can be rolled out almost at will.
“It’s not the greatest pick in the world,” he added.
The remarks are the latest in a back-and-forth that began shortly after Trump announced earlier this month that White-Cain would once again be …