A US pastor has urged his followers to vote in the midterm elections by warning that “uncircumcised” people are trying to “steal” the country — before directing his sermon towards transgender people, Muslims and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Hank Kunneman, senior pastor of Lord of Hosts Church in Nebraska and founder of One Voice Ministries, made the remarks during a worship service on 6 September.
Kunneman, whose ministry promotes what it describes as prophetic teaching, declared that he would not allow “uncircumcised, uncovenanted people” to take control of a nation he believes was dedicated to Jesus Christ.
He then told his congregation to “show up in force” at the midterms.
Trans People Quickly Became The Target
Kunneman’s sermon then moved from biblical language into familiar culture-war territory.
He complained about transgender people using bathrooms consistent with their gender and told transgender women to stay out of women’s sport, referring to them as “uncircumcised philistines”.
He also singled out Islam, declaring that the United States belongs to the God with whom he believes the country is “in covenant”.
The speech offered no evidence that transgender people, Muslims or anyone else mentioned by Kunneman is attempting to “steal” the country.
Instead, the message framed the upcoming election as a battle over who Kunneman believes properly belongs in America.
So, What Does Circumcision Have To Do With Any Of This?
Not much in any literal sense.
Kunneman appears to be drawing on biblical language in which “uncircumcised” could be used to describe people regarded as outside the covenant between God and his followers.
By applying that language to modern American politics, he turned a religious metaphor into a dividing line between those he considers part of the nation’s rightful Christian identity and those he casts as outsiders.
The rhetoric also becomes muddled when Islam enters the picture.
Circumcision is widely practised among Muslim communities, meaning the physical characteristic Kunneman invoked does not neatly align with the religious group he subsequently attacked.
The broader political message, however, is considerably clearer: vote against the people and ideas he presents as threats to a Christian America.
A Familiar Pattern
This is not Kunneman’s first attack on LGBTQ+ people.
He has previously repeated the debunked claim that schools provide litter boxes for students who identify as cats — a long-running rumour that has repeatedly been rejected by schools and fact-checkers.
He has also argued that Jesus effectively used an anti-gay slur, basing the claim on Jesus referring to Herod Antipas as a “fox”.
That interpretation is not supported by established biblical scholarship.
Kunneman has also been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump for years and has frequently blended electoral politics with claims about prophecy, Christianity and America’s supposed divine destiny.
When Religion Becomes An Election Boundary
The most significant part of Kunneman’s latest sermon is not really the circumcision reference.
It is the way transgender people, Muslims and other groups are positioned as outsiders whose political influence must be defeated.
That framing closely reflects Christian nationalism — the belief that American identity and political power should be explicitly tied to a particular understanding of Christianity.
It is important to distinguish that ideology from Christianity itself. Many Christian denominations, clergy and individual believers reject Christian nationalism and support LGBTQ+ equality and religious pluralism.
Kunneman’s version instead presents political disagreement as a struggle between people who supposedly belong to a divine covenant and those who do not.
For queer and trans people, that rhetoric matters because it transforms ordinary participation in public life — using a bathroom, playing sport, voting or simply existing openly — into evidence that someone is threatening the country.
And apparently, in Kunneman’s latest version of the culture war, foreskins have somehow made the list too.
