Omaha televangelist: A pastor allied with Trump. His church is booming – and buying serious real estate
Big names in the evangelical Christian world had descended upon Millard for FlashPoint Next Level, a worship service with a panel of pastors. From the stage, they expressed their gratitude for Donald Trump’s second term.
They’d prophesied Trump’s victory for years, decried the 2020 election as stolen, and pushed for Nebraska to adopt a winner-take-all electoral system – a change that Kunneman’s Lord of Hosts Church is still advocating.
And Kunneman’s Millard-based church has quickly amassed real estate, money and power in the Omaha area, too, building a sprawling multi-million dollar church and buying up an estimated $14.9 million of nearby commercial real estate.
“They are driving the conversation within American evangelicalism, and they have accumulated a great deal of political capital,” Taylor said. “I think that they’re gonna wield that sword … against their enemies.”
In the year leading up to the 2024 election, Kunneman called Trump “appointed and anointed” by God. He broadcasted prophecies of Trump’s success across social media and his own One Voice Television.
This type of talk draws in both local congregants and online viewers fueling the church’s growth.
Brittany Shaw, a church member, said she saw videos of Kunneman preaching online as she was preparing to move to Omaha from Colorado. Feeling oppressed by strict COVID-19 restrictions at the time, she said it was life changing to see the pastor speaking out.
“Evangelicals have really gravitated into these churches because they’re more political, they’re more Trumpy,” Taylor said. “They’re more ecstatic, exciting and they’re preaching the pro-Trump message that a lot of people wanted to hear during COVID.”
One Voice Ministries, Kunneman and his wife’s outreach nonprofit, reported massive gains in revenue in its IRS 990 filings, from about $648,000 in 2019 to $1 million in 2020 and $3 million in 2021.
Even as that revenue increased, the church received government support.
In 2020, Lord of Hosts World Outreach Inc. took out a Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loan. Including interest, a total of $175,344 was forgiven.
As a church, Lord of Hosts isn’t required to file 990s with the IRS, and is exempt from paying income and property taxes.
Though Lord of Hosts operates independent of any denomination, Kunneman often works within a network of megachurch pastors who appear well connected to Trump.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump brought in his friend Paula White, an independent charismatic like Kunneman, Taylor said. White then introduced Trump to the televangelist pastors then willing to meet him.
Prophecies about Trump grew by the hundreds in the lead-up to the 2020 election, with pastors often comparing him to Biblical figures.
FlashPoint served as a mobilizing force in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Taylor said. While Kunneman himself didn’t appear to be there, Taylor said he identified more than 60 independent charismatic leaders in the D.C. crowd that day.
Violent right-wing rhetoric has blended with spiritual warfare, Taylor said, its messengers promoting a struggle to take back American culture and government from opponents they call demonic.
“I don’t think it’s too far to call it propagandizing Trump,” Taylor said.
That pond isn’t expected to stay small, though. With White in charge of the Trump administration’s faith office, experts expect to see pastors like Kunneman’s power expand.
“This is the fastest growing part of American Christianity, as far as we can tell, and it is growing leaps and bounds in terms of its political influence,” Taylor said.
https://flatwaterfreepress.org/hometown-...al-estate/
Big names in the evangelical Christian world had descended upon Millard for FlashPoint Next Level, a worship service with a panel of pastors. From the stage, they expressed their gratitude for Donald Trump’s second term.
They’d prophesied Trump’s victory for years, decried the 2020 election as stolen, and pushed for Nebraska to adopt a winner-take-all electoral system – a change that Kunneman’s Lord of Hosts Church is still advocating.
And Kunneman’s Millard-based church has quickly amassed real estate, money and power in the Omaha area, too, building a sprawling multi-million dollar church and buying up an estimated $14.9 million of nearby commercial real estate.
“They are driving the conversation within American evangelicalism, and they have accumulated a great deal of political capital,” Taylor said. “I think that they’re gonna wield that sword … against their enemies.”
In the year leading up to the 2024 election, Kunneman called Trump “appointed and anointed” by God. He broadcasted prophecies of Trump’s success across social media and his own One Voice Television.
This type of talk draws in both local congregants and online viewers fueling the church’s growth.
Brittany Shaw, a church member, said she saw videos of Kunneman preaching online as she was preparing to move to Omaha from Colorado. Feeling oppressed by strict COVID-19 restrictions at the time, she said it was life changing to see the pastor speaking out.
“Evangelicals have really gravitated into these churches because they’re more political, they’re more Trumpy,” Taylor said. “They’re more ecstatic, exciting and they’re preaching the pro-Trump message that a lot of people wanted to hear during COVID.”
One Voice Ministries, Kunneman and his wife’s outreach nonprofit, reported massive gains in revenue in its IRS 990 filings, from about $648,000 in 2019 to $1 million in 2020 and $3 million in 2021.
Even as that revenue increased, the church received government support.
In 2020, Lord of Hosts World Outreach Inc. took out a Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loan. Including interest, a total of $175,344 was forgiven.
As a church, Lord of Hosts isn’t required to file 990s with the IRS, and is exempt from paying income and property taxes.
Though Lord of Hosts operates independent of any denomination, Kunneman often works within a network of megachurch pastors who appear well connected to Trump.
During his 2016 campaign, Trump brought in his friend Paula White, an independent charismatic like Kunneman, Taylor said. White then introduced Trump to the televangelist pastors then willing to meet him.
Prophecies about Trump grew by the hundreds in the lead-up to the 2020 election, with pastors often comparing him to Biblical figures.
FlashPoint served as a mobilizing force in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Taylor said. While Kunneman himself didn’t appear to be there, Taylor said he identified more than 60 independent charismatic leaders in the D.C. crowd that day.
Violent right-wing rhetoric has blended with spiritual warfare, Taylor said, its messengers promoting a struggle to take back American culture and government from opponents they call demonic.
“I don’t think it’s too far to call it propagandizing Trump,” Taylor said.
That pond isn’t expected to stay small, though. With White in charge of the Trump administration’s faith office, experts expect to see pastors like Kunneman’s power expand.
“This is the fastest growing part of American Christianity, as far as we can tell, and it is growing leaps and bounds in terms of its political influence,” Taylor said.
https://flatwaterfreepress.org/hometown-...al-estate/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
