Why Naked Donald Trump Is Not Okay

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I am about to defend Donald Drumpf.

Okay, not Drumpf, so much. I still despise his methods, pretty much everything he stands for, and the way he has riled some of this country’s citizens into a rabid mob of racist xenophobes with a dash of misogyny thrown in.

He is catering to the worst of humanity — our basest fears and foibles and he is capitalizing on them. And the thought of how deep in over his head he’ll be if he ever gets to the White House is terrifying for me. Having that man with his finger on the nuclear trigger, in charge of our diplomatic affairs, and representing us to the world gives me heart palpitations, and not in a good way.

But naked statues of Donald Drumpf — in all his glory, and lack thereof, as the case may be — is not okay. The statues were commissioned by an anarchist group called INDECLINE, according to various news outlets. When Drumpf made his infamous asshat comment about all Mexicans being rapists, INDECLINE painted a picture of him — I won’t describe — and the words “Rape Drumpf.”

Let me be clear: Encouraging the rape of anybody is NOT okay.  Not even as a political statement. Insinuating that the NRA should shoot Hilary is not okay — and it’s not okay to publicly humiliate Drumpf or encourage anyone to attempt sodomize him. Period.

This is the sort of dehumanization that women have had to endure for years. It infuriates me when it happens to women, and it’s no less infuriating when it happens to someone I don’t like, and when that person is a man. It is NOT okay to shame people like this.

It doesn’t matter that Drumpf is the King of Dehumanization. It doesn’t matter that a part of me even wanted to snicker at the stunt. That part of me is wrong, is not Godly, is not loving Donald Drumpf like Jesus. Which is all really annoying, but unfortunately true.

Jesus never said, Blessed are the dehumanized, because they will then get to dehumanize others. 

I don’t like Donald Drumpf. In fact, I am disgusted by Donald Drumpf. But Jesus died for Donald Drumpf. God loves Donald Drumpf. God created Donald Drumpf, and as a result, I need to show him basic (the most basic possible, trust me) modicum of respect and dignity as a human being. And that means looking at him with his clothes on.

I was listening yesterday to an episode of Kurt Willem’s The Paul Cast (it’s brilliant, you should listen!) featuring Greg Boyd talking about spiritual warfare, and it sort of messed with my world view a little bit. As someone who works hard to be an ally instead of an asshole when it comes to issues surrounding race, LGBTQI issues, and the xenophobia that seems to be running rampant these days, this single podcast helped me to see things in a new light.

You should really go and listen to it for yourself, but essentially what the Mr.’s Willems and Boyd helped me realize is that this big shit-ball we call the world right now — with its racial discord, police brutality, terrorism, misogyny, Islamaphobia, — all of it is Satan’s ploy to get us to annihilate each other. And we’re playing right into it.

When we agree to hate each other rather than love each other, we’re taking the devil’s way, not the way of Jesus. Choosing to love intentionally — even when we disagree with ideology and action — is a form of the kind of spiritual warfare that Jesus participated in during his time on earth.

It doesn’t mean you don’t speak out against injustice or that you approve of what’s wrong. Case in point — to love Donald Drumpf like Jesus loves him means that I need to speak out and say that dehumanizing him, publicly shaming him with a naked statue of him in cities all over the country is wrong.

Now I will confess this: The statement that the New York Parks Department put out? Now that was funny. But I stand by my basic thesis:

When we begin to dehumanize Drumpf as he has dehumanized others, we simply become more like him, and less like Jesus. That’s not something to which I aspire.