Dr. John White has received his share of criticism as a prolific evangelical author through the years. He has incurred the criticism of his peers most often when he writes on topics of money, power and sex in a strong prophetic voice that threatens unrepentant evangelicals.

One of the books criticized as straying off the evangelical track or perhaps tending towards biting the hand that feeds many ministries is The Golden Cow (revised as Money Isn’t God), a book about materialism in the western church. The message offended many who thought White stretched the point a bit far - a style that is vintage John White, the style of an Old Testament prophet calling out sin among God’s people with such drama that even the dullest listener may grasp the point. Andy Le Peau, his editor at InterVarsity Press had this to say about the Golden Cow, "[It] raised a lot of eyebrows. When John gets into his prophetic mode he can be rather strong." According to Le Peau, people who criticized the book thought he was overgeneralizing and "painting the picture with wide brush strokes." Both books are currently out of print.

His recent though unpublished book tentatively titled Control, reveals the way control and manipulation dominates individuals in evangelical and charismatic ministries. In true prophetic voice he cries out against this "witchcraft" or abuse of power and advocates a humility and dependency on God to further the work of His kingdom. The book also focuses on the other side of the witchcraft coin, that of the extreme abuse of power exhibited by non-Christians who blatantly collude with evil through the practice of witchcraft and Satanism.

His opening chapter offers an apologetic for his force of conviction where he writes, "I also believe that the Christian Church is corrupt, and I know it only too well, because I share in that same corruption." He offers his subjective experience of being a controller, conartist, and manipulator (or, as he calls it, "practicing witchcraft") as the log he believes God revealed and removed from his eye so that he may remove the mote in the church’s eye. In doing this he risks crossing the fine line between Evangelicalism and Subjectivism - a characteristic which theologian J.I. Packer associates with "experiential Biblicism" and which he says tends to underemphasize the historical, contemplative, mediating, and complex expressions of the faith.

White’s recent writings and lectures cause many to wonder if hauling his boat ashore on Wimberland actually shipwrecked the hull of his once-solid evangelicalism as he took on the subjective Biblicism of Southern Californian pop-theology. Several prospective evangelical publishers fear their audiences are not ready for such blatant pietism, nor are they ready for such a strong word as witchcraft infiltrating the church and to date, have declined to publish the book. It promises to be his most controversial book ever. 

More Sex Please

It seems that White broaches the subject of sexual sin in every one of his non-fiction books and readers even detect hints of sexual content in his children’s stories. This leaves him open to speculation that his interest in sex stems from one of two sources; his training in Freudian psychology while undergoing a residency in psychiatry and subsequent listening to a variety of pastors’ sexual struggles, or the pain of his own sexual development and struggles. Eros Defiled, one of the most solid of evangelical attempts to approach sexuality, arose from the former basis of interest during in his work as a psychiatrist. It has since been criticized for its failure to provide hope for those struggling with the complex and deep-seated issues of homosexuality. Much of the book focused on varieties of sexual sin and, critics say, stressed the need for behavioral changes despite a lack of inner renewal, a necessary foundation for lasting change. White apparently took this criticism to heart.

After encountering John Wimber’s ministry of power healing, becoming influenced by Leanne Payne’s theology and observing Andy Comisky’s Living Waters ministry to homosexuals, he wrote another book on sexuality blending the best of both ministries with his psychiatric insights. In this, readers can also glimpse a more personal account of White’s sexual development and struggles. This subsequent work, Eros Redeemed, focused on what he saw as the root of sexual difficulties - gender identity confusion - and stressed that the work of inner renewal comes through accountability, confession, counseling and prayer for inner healing.

Images in his children’s series The Archives of Anthropos, conjure up Freudian interpretations of White’s symbolism as phallic images abound. These symbols intuit what lies deep in the psyche off some readers. According to White, one woman wrote to him and said that while reading The Tower of Geburah she experienced a catharsis and subsequent emotional healing of past sexual abuse in her life.

Others have written scathing reviews such as "You don’t know what a real princess looks like." To this White replies that a princess is always subject to one’s own imagination. Kathryn Lindskoog (author of C. S. Lewis: Mere Christian, The C.S. Lewis Hoax, and others) reviewed a pre-published copy of one of the Archives and commented that he was copying C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. White agrees. "My children came to me and said, ‘You are always writing books for adults. Now we want you to write a book for us and it must be exactly like the Chronicles of Narnia.’" While similar to the Chronicles, White retains his own style and imagery while emphasizing the values of courage, loyalty, caring, responsibility, truthfulness, and trust that God will win out over the powers of darkness that settle on the land.