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Church billboard hammers home Easter message to Donald Trump

AUCKLAND, 9 March 2016 - Donald Trump has made an appearance in Auckland today via a new Easter billboard outside a Remuera church.

The cartoon image depicts the Republican presidential hopeful 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.”

Glynn Cardy, the minister of St Luke’s, says the billboard takes aim at the candidate known for calling a wide variety of people ‘losers’ because Trump’s views are in direct contradiction to the message of Jesus.

“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,” says Cardy.

“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.”

Cardy says Trump’s comments about Muslims, Mexicans and women are offensive to Christianity.

“I hope that voters in the US will see Trump’s message for what it is, and not make him a nominee for their highest office.”

Cardy says the billboard will remain up throughout the Church’s Lenten and Easter season and as long as the issue of Trump’s candidacy remains undecided.

Visit the Community of St Luke online at http://stlukes.org.nz

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