Evangelical preacher claims God backed Trump’s invasion of Venezuela

Hank Kunneman's sermon shows how Christian Nationalism can turn greed and war into extensions of God’s will

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One of the questions I ask myself all the time is how so many white evangelical Christians can blindly support Donald Trump given that damn near everything he does goes against everything they supposedly stand for. Sure, they love the anti-LGBTQ bigotry and the anti-abortion cruelty and the right-wing judges, but at what cost. Is there anything—the Epstein files, the support of genocide, the way he terrorizes immigrants—that will break whatever spell he’s cast over them?

Here’s a perfect example of what I mean: Last week, the Trump administration illegally invaded Venezuela and proclaimed that it was now under U.S. control. For what reason? Who knows, though Trump himself has made it clear it’s about stealing that nation’s oil.

On the surface, this has nothing to do with Christianity, and it ought to be easy for white evangelicals to condemn a hostile takeover of another country to seize their resources. Even if you agree that Nicolás Maduro was an illegitimate leader, the idea that this invasion is going to benefit the U.S. in the long-term is a pipe dream.

Now look at how one preacher attempted to convince his congregation that all of this was part of some biblical plan.

Preacher Hank Kunneman (screenshot via YouTube)

On Sunday, Nebraska preacher and self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman told his followers at Lord of Hosts Church that God fully supported Trump’s Venezuelan takeover:

They say you have seized Venezuela for the oil. Yes, this is true, that there is that which has been brought to the forefront of this earthly battle.

But the enemy has sought and was seeking to bring war and to bring conflict through Venezuela and to control the oil of the Earth. But the spiritual oil and the natural oil does not belong to the forces of darkness or to those who thought that they could bring a One World Order. This is my reset and the oil of the natural and the oil of the spirit is mine, says the Lord.

Therefore, I have said I will shake the Earth that the gold and silver is mine. And you will see through the natural oil that gold and silver. And there will be a revaluing of currency. And there will be a flow, not only of oil in the Earth, that will cause the pressure and cause that which has suppressed the people of nations.

I will lift it through the oil of the natural, but this is the work of the oil of my spirit, says the living God, that is destroying yokes and undoing heavy burdens through the oil of my spirit, and it will be seen in the signs of the natural oil and its refineries.

And I will do this, says the Lord, and watch as the prices of oil go down, down, down, down, down, and a… surge of acceleration shall come unto the economies of the Earth. But I speak to you, America, because you have cried out to me. I will show the Earth what a nation looks like when they have called on God to come, for blessed is the nation who the Lord is their God, and I will show the Earth!

Don’t spend too much time trying to make sense of any of that, because it’s just Christian gibberish. At best, Kunneman linked spiritual oil with gas and insisted God wants us to have as much of it as we want because Americans are True Christians™ while Venezuelans—who are almost entirely Catholic—are apparently all heathens.

There’s nothing Trump does that people like Kunneman won’t defend as part of some higher order spiritual battle. And when you frame it that way, no amount of logic or evidence can ever persuade believers that something obviously immoral should be condemned.

They don’t realize Kunneman is a grifter because they’re fooled by the guy whose entire life is an homage to The Righteous Gemstones. He’s white, male, confident, and seems put-together, and for so many Christians, that’s pretty much all it takes to convince them to believe the most absurd lies imaginable (See: Rogan, Joe).

But this isn’t just an insane fringe preacher saying something ridiculous. This is a man justifying the whims of a wannabe dictator by acting like it’s part of some divine plan. When a preacher can turn fossil fuel into “spiritual oil” and military aggression into a “reset” ordained by God, the brakes on this car are effectively broken. There’s nothing he won’t be able to justify. That’s why this kind of rhetoric is so dangerous. It’s bad enough that Kunneman is excusing an injustice, but even worse that he’s making it sound like any criticism of Trump is inherently an attack on God.

In Kunneman’s mind, the Venezuelan people are nothing more than props in his prophetic fantasy. History has shown us repeatedly that wars based on one side’s interpretations of God’s will never end well—and never prevent the worst kinds of atrocities. Anything bad that happens will always be dismissed as “God’s will.”

The tragedy here isn’t that someone like Kunneman will say anything to defend Trump and maintain his own authority—charlatans like him have always existed. It’s that many Americans are primed to believe him even after years of hypocrisy and cruelty. These people have been conditioned at this point—by right-wing propaganda, by their churches, by their isolation—to accept spiritualized lies over uncomfortable truths. Guys like Kunneman are more than happy to take advantage of their gullibility.

(via Right Wing Watch)

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