‘Prophets for Profits’: Omaha Televangelist Solicits Donations for Private Flights
by John Gage
OMAHA – Omaha televangelist Hank Kunneman was criticized after a video of him telling his congregation to pitch in to fund private flights for himself surfaced online.
“I’m going to charter a jet because I’m so dedicated to God,” Kunneman said in a clip posted on Twitter Monday. “And I am so dedicated to you, the people, and I am dedicated to the United States of America.”
“Folks, we've got to get a travel fund together,” he added. “Sometimes a minister does have to have, watch this now, a travel plan and a travel vehicle that is dependable.”
The clip of his comment comes from a livestream of his Sunday service on March 15. Kunneman is the senior pastor of Lord of Hosts church in Omaha. His comments were met with swift backlash online, with over a hundred negative responses criticizing Kunneman’s fundraising pitch.
One critic, Brad Duren, a professor of history at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, responded to the clip, calling Kunneman’s fundraising plea “Prophets for Profits.” Other critics called the Omaha pastor’s pitch a “grift” or said he was twisting the Bible.
“It’s a laughable, self-aggrandizing fabrication that mangles history, scripture, and basic logic to rationalize asking followers to bankroll a private-jet lifestyle,” another user added.
Kunneman’s Omaha church has grown quickly in recent years while amassing an estimated $15 million in real estate in the Millard area. The pastor has been a vocal proponent of President Trump, broadcasting prophesies that Trump would return to power in the run-up to the 2024 election.
In 2025, during a “prophetic prayer,” Kunneman said he would reveal the “true list” of Epstein victims that would include powerful figures that would surprise his congregation. “I will reveal the true lists and I will reveal those who have touched the children,” he said. “And it is not whom you think.”
The Plains Sentinel reached out to Kunneman for comment on the criticism he received, but has not heard back at the time of publication.
John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
