Nebraska "prophet" says God needs him to have access to a private jet
Hank Kunneman said "even Jesus was concerned about going to certain ports and airports"
This newsletter is free and goes out to over 23,000 subscribers, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe or use my usual Patreon page!
On Sunday, Nebraska preacher and self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman told his followers at Lord of Hosts Church that he needed everyone to contribute to a brand new “travel fund” so that he can fly to various cities on a private jet.
Because commercial flight is just too damn difficult for people like him.
After making his usual requests for tithes, Kunneman launched into a separate request for a special “travel-the-world fund.” You see, recently, he was flying to Idaho, but his flight was delayed 10 hours. The problem, he concluded, wasn’t the weather or the specific airline. It was flying commercial in general.
“The difference [between me and the rest of you] is I can’t afford, with my schedule and what I’m doing, to be your pastor here… to be stuck in an airport somewhere and be gone for three [or] four days. Or not get back for Sunday.”
So he told his wife he had made an “executive decision”: “I’m gonna charter a jet. Because I am so dedicated to God, and I am so dedicated to you, the people, and I am dedicated to the United States of America…”
It was a sacrifice he was willing to make for the sake of the cause.
Why did he need access to a private jet?
“Because I gotta be ready at anytime.”
To that end, he asked people to donate to his fund—or take an envelope home and “pray over it and see if God would speak to you during the week.” And to hammer home his point, he even cited a Bible verse explaining how important it was to have a “travel plan” and a “travel vehicle.”
It was Mark 3:9: “Jesus instructed his disciples to have a boat ready so the crowd would not crush him.” It’s from a passage in which Jesus was healing the sick and so many people wanted to come see him, he requested a getaway vehicle. Though the implication from Kunneman is that he needs to get away from the very people he’s trying to minister to… as if there are so many it’s impossible to meet the demand.
(Also, to state the obvious, notice that Kunneman is not asking for a simple boat. It’s also bizarre he’s not asking about trains given his lifelong obsession with them.)
After citing that verse, Kunneman told the crowd, “Even Jesus was concerned about going to certain ports and airports.”
Jesus. Was. Concerned. About. Airports.
Shocking if true. And huge news for anyone who understands chronological time.
It’s not the first time Kunneman has asked his congregation—including the one online—for millions of dollars to expand his ministry for the sake of convenience while pretending it’s a matter of necessity.
What’s important to remember, though, is that there’s never any public accountability for any of this. No one outside Kunneman’s inner circle knows how much money is coming in or where it’s going out. It’s entirely possible that Kunneman raises crazy amounts of money to charter a private jet, but not quite enough to use a plane as a personal Uber, so he just gives up on the project after a few months. How would anyone know when he’s raised enough? How much is enough? (Kunneman didn’t say.)
A couple of years ago, after trying to raise a few million dollars to expand his physical presence in Omaha, he raised well over a million dollars, then told the congregation he had second thoughts about acquiring the land.
He’s also not the first pastor to ask his followers to send him enough money for a jet. In 2015, the aptly-named preacher Creflo Dollar asked people to give him $65 million to buy his own private plane. (It didn’t go over well. The backlash caused him to back down.)
In March, his website asked the faithful to help buy him something else -- a $65 million Gulfstream G-650 jet -- the top of the line in luxury air travel.
One church member, Mary Jones, plans on answering the pastor’s call even though she rides a bus 20 miles every Sunday to Dollar’s church.
“We support our pastor. That’s what we’re here for. The work that he’s doing, where the Lord has him traveling, he doesn’t need a cheap airplane. He needs the best,” Jones said.
Not long after that, scamvangelists Jesse Duplantis and Kenneth Copeland said on Christian TV that private jets were absolutely necessary for their ministries in part because it was the only way they could have conversations with God without looking weird to outsiders. And because they were too famous to be seen in public. And also because what else were they going to do? Get in a “long tube with a bunch of demons”?
Duplantis got even more backlash in 2018 when he asked his supporters to buy him a $54 million private jet—his fourth one.
(One powerful evangelical defended their requests by saying commercial flights were dangerous because they “serve alcohol.”)
In 2020, Pastor Marcus Lamb was called out by Inside Edition for taking out a nearly $4 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the government during COVID… then purchasing a private jet shortly after—a jet that was used, apparently, to go on family vacations. (Inside Edition said that after they inquired about all this, “the church paid back the entire $3.9 million it received from the government, with interest.”)
In 2021, Copeland said that private planes were more necessary for his ministry than ever before because commercial planes required passengers to be vaccinated and “to me, that's the Mark of the Beast.”
It never occurs to any of these pastors that if you’re so famous that you can’t fly everywhere without people stopping you, you can wear a disguise. Or fly First Class. Or not stand up in the aisle to talk to God like a crazy person when I’m sure God can read your mind just fine even if you’re seated and silent. Or reduce the workload. Or pool your money together with all the other rich pastors and invest in a scheduler who can find the closest Man of God for a particular event.
But those are logical approaches to an illogical problem. These guys are so arrogant, they’re convinced the only way to spread God’s message is through them. The reality is Christianity as a brand would be a hell of a lot better off if this kind was money was used to feed the hungry or shelter the unhoused.
By the way, after Kunneman made his pitch, his wife Brenda came on stage to tell a story of how a man recently looked at Kunneman and told him “Your days of flying commercial are over!”
That man? Kenneth Copeland.
(via Right Wing Watch)
I can’t bring myself to have any sympathy for people who give their money to preachers. It’s their own damned fault for delegating an important part of their thinking to a fool who claims to be speaking for the almighty. Religion was born when the first con-artist met the first fool.
I am reminded of Janis Joplin's words, "Oh, Lord, won'tcha buy me a Mercedes Benz..."