Cartoon Trump Calling Jesus on Cross 'Loser' Billboard Stolen While Pastor Conducting Funeral
A Presbyterian church in New Zealand that installed a controversial Easter billboard with a cartoon of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump calling Jesus a "loser" at the crucifixion, says the sign has been stolen.
Calling it a "minister's public message to Donald Trump," the Community of Saint Luke in Remuera says the thieves took the whole board, including the corflute sign and its wooden backing, leaving only two poles in the ground.
"What's more, they made off with it in broad daylight while the minister, Rev Glynn Cardy, was inside church conducting a funeral service," the church says in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
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The cartoon image on the billboard depicted Trump looking across a scene of Jesus Christ nailed to a cross, while holding a hammer in his hand and declaring "I don't like losers."
"Some people don't like the billboard because they like Donald Trump. Some don't like the billboard because it infers Jesus was a loser. Whereas others, like myself and those here at the Community of St Luke, see the cartoon as showing that the values and views of people like Mr Trump are completely at odds with those of Jesus," Cardy says.
"It is disappointing that someone decided to break the law and steal something that was stimulating a meaningful discussion in our community about the meaning of Easter," he adds.
The church will not give up. A new billboard will be erected after the church's Easter Sunday celebrations of the resurrection of Jesus, the statement says. The church "intends to keep the billboard up as long as the issue of Trump's candidacy remains undecided."
At the time of the installation of the billboard, Cardy said, "For those of us at St Luke's, the cross is about politics. Jesus was killed – violently, publically and shamefully – because he spoke truth to power and confronted the leaders of his day about their treatment of the outcasts. To the Trumps of his day, and to those who see winners as having money and power, the Jesus of the Bible was a loser who associated with those rejected by society. And he died broke. Jesus had an alternative vision of reality, however. He was a person who sided with minorities and those who were most vulnerable, and it was this that got him killed."
Trump has insisted that he is a Christian and part of the Presbyterian denomination on a number of occasions. He has called many people "losers" throughout his business and campaigns career, including his election rivals, such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who dropped out.
In January, Trump attended service at a Presbyterian church in Iowa, where the preacher gave a sermon about taking care of Syrian and Mexican migrants. "Jesus is teaching us today that he has come for those who are outside of the church," said the Rev. Dr. Pamela Saturnia of Muscataine's First Presbyterian Churchat.
Saturnia called for healing and acceptance for "those who are the most unloved, the most discriminated against, the most forgotten in our community and in our world."
After the service, Trump admitted that part of the sermon may have indeed been aimed at him. "I don't know if that was aimed at me … perhaps."
