White Lotus creator Mike White reveals his gay father’s wild past with Christian televangelists
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Even by Hollywood standards, Mike White is quite the character. Born Michael Christopher White, the award-winning actor, producer, director, and screenwriter has been active in the industry for over 25 years. He’s penned screenplays for films like School of Rock and Nacho Libre, while also writing and producing shows including Dawson’s Creek and Freaks and Geeks.
He’s proven to be a reality TV savant, too—White reached second place on Survivor: David vs. Goliath and competed twice on The Amazing Race (season 14 and The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business) alongside his father, Mel. But if you’ve heard anything about Mike White lately, it’s likely due to the gargantuan success of his HBO Max series, The White Lotus, which has earned him three Primetime Emmy Awards and is now in its third season. During a recent appearance on Andrew Sullivan’s The Dishcast podcast, White revealed an intriguing piece of family history. Before becoming an LGBTQ+ activist, his father, Mel, was a prominent ghostwriter for America’s televangelist movement.
For 25 years, James Melville “Mel” White was a “pillar” of the evangelical community. He lived in Pasadena, CA with Lyla, his wife and childhood sweetheart, and their two children. He held a master’s degree in divinity and a doctorate in ministry, then later led his own church, Pasadena Covenant. Mel White taught at Fuller Theological Seminary, the largest nondenominational evangelical school in the country.
According to a 1993 profile by the Los Angeles Times, White had become an accomplished author and documentarian. His inspirational books sold millions of copies, and he produced over 50 Christian-themed film documentaries that were shown throughout the country.
But beneath this thriving public life, he carried a profound secret: he was gay.
“I found out around middle school, when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old,” recounts Mike on The Dishcast. “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m gay, hello!’” he adds. “It was not on his agenda to be gay; it was a very long, drawn-out process. It was probably the worst time in my life.”
During this period, another shocking twist was unveiled: throughout the late 70s and 80s, while Reverend Mel White privately struggled with his sexuality (in his bestselling autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America, Mel describes enduring two decades of counseling, exorcisms, and electric shock therapy due to the church’s condemnation of homosexuality—an ordeal so taxing, it led him to attempt suicide), he paradoxically became the most sought-after ghostwriter among the televangelist movement’s elite. By the time he came out as gay in the early 90s, Mel White had penned books including Jerry Falwell’s 1987 autobiography, Strength for the Journey, Pat Robertson’s America’s Dates With Destiny, and Billy Graham’s Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. These weren’t just well-known religious figures—they were televangelism’s superstars.
Flooded with work, yet grappling with the weight of his suppressed sexuality, Mel White found himself between a rock and a hard place. Should he come out and live his best, true life? Or, could he force himself to ride this cash cow—in silence—for just a little bit longer? He chose the latter. “[Ghostwriting books for televangelists] was lucrative because his books were given away. Like, if you donated something to the church, you would get his book, so there was a built-in royalty factor,” says Mike White. “My dad actually made pretty good money doing that and got me through private school and college.” He adds, “My parents separated, but because all of his income came from these books—and he couldn’t have been an out, gay man and remained associated with these people—he stayed closeted until my sister and I got through college.” On a personal level, Mel White was put through hell and was living in a world of chaos. But professionally, he’d never been more successful. “I can say I did it to put my kids through college, to pay the bills for my wife and family,” he said in 1993. “I can say I did it because it was fun, traveling around the world on private jets, staying in nice places.” And he was well-compensated for his work: for Jerry Falwell’s autobiography, he was paid $125,000 for about five months of work, the equivalent of $547,719 today.
Starting in the 1960s, evangelicals began to dominate the airwaves. While other religions were wary of television, a relatively new technology, or couldn’t afford to purchase airtime, evangelicals, on the other hand, saw TV as the perfect conduit for getting in touch with the masses. They happily dedicated large portions of their shows to raising money from listeners. In a way, televangelism (a portmanteau between “television” and “evangelism”) was a product of its time: an American phenomenon, found at the crossroads between freshly deregulated mass media and a large Christian population with even larger pockets.
In 1961, Pat Robertson founded the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and launched its flagship show, The 700 Club, a few years later. Part talk show, part news reporting, Robertson paved the way for a generation of televangelists to follow. Jerry Falwell rose to prominence in the 1980s, “instantly” becoming a celebrity on TV, while fellow evangelists Paul Crouch and Jim Bakker followed with their own networks soon after.
According to Jeffrey K. Hadden, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, between the late 1960s and the mid-80s, the number of Americans watching religious TV ballooned from 5 million to 25 million. Not only was televangelism growing at a rapid rate, but so was its influence. Soon, the movement began to dip its toes into the political sphere, culminating in Falwell’s Moral Majority coalition endorsing Ronald Reagan in his 1980 presidential election bid.
However, the aggressive tactics and harmful rhetoric employed by televangelism began to rub people the wrong way. In 1990, Steve Bruce, a professor of sociology at the University of Aberdeen, wrote:
Content retrieved from: https://www.upworthy.com/mike-white-mel-white-christian-past.
