Trump, Body Theology, And Justice

Body justice is being able to live as a human being in your own body and have it treated with respect. No groping, no sexual assault, no 'stop and frisk,' no throwing your body out because we just don't like your religion or national origin, and no shooting.

This is a concept unknown to presidential candidate, Donald Trump, not only in his recorded admission to sexually assaulting women but also in commending stop and frisk for reducing murder rates in New York (it didn't), pushing law and order as the buzzword response to the killing of unarmed and innocent African Americans, and demeaning some bodies as illegals. There is no such thing as an illegal body. There are just human beings who may or may not be in violation of certain laws.

Never have we needed body theology as much as in this election. It is astonishing how much this election is about the integrity of some bodies versus the right to assault, denigrate and kill other bodies. This is body theology on display.

As I wrote in March of this year, Hands, Fingers, Knees and Toes: Feminist Body Theology and the #GOPDebate for the Huffington Post about Trump's defending his tiny fingers and rejecting the idea that his male genitalia were similarly, shall we say, diminished, feminist body theology looks at how the human body has been religiously and culturally symbolized over history. It is no surprise to anyone that the male member, as Augustine of Hippo phrases it, symbolizes power and control and it certainly does for Trump.

Let's flip this script to justice-making, however. My body, your body and the bodies of all human beings are ourselves. Our Bodies, Our Selves was a ground-breaking text that helped women understand their own bodies and make good choices for health and sexuality. It has become a movement.

Justice-making for bodies means that and much more. It means being able to be transgender and have a restroom available for your own bodily needs, for example.

Why is it that bathroom hysteria about having restrooms adequate for the full range of human bodies is framed as the fear of male predictors in women's bathrooms.

This push back against justice and equity for transgender persons in public spaces is even more astonishing these days as an admitted predator on women, Donald Trump, is seeking the presidency. There is no evidence of male predation in regard to restroom use, however.

"The anxiety isn't men in women's bathrooms, it's about masculinity in the wrong place," said Katherine Franke, director of Columbia Law School's Center for Gender and Sexuality Law. "It's portrayed as a threat to women, but on a much deeper level, it's about what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman."

Body theology and justice can be summed up in the same way. For millennia, males have insisted on access to female bodies, and the laws that were made restricted only some men from sexual access to the bodies of women who "belonged" to other men. I have documented this extensively in Women's Bodies as Battlefield: Christian Theology and the Global War on Women.

But this needs to be extended and complexified even further. Who gets to walk down the street in his or her African American skin and be an equal citizen under the law, free from unreasonable search and seizure? Who gets to live and work and not be a designated scapegoat for the billionaires who send jobs overseas (I'm talking to you, Trump)? Who gets to pee and who doesn't?

Donald Trump and his own body theology problems reveal the deep reason why some bodies are rendered available for "use" in law, culture and religion, and some bodies are rendered powerful, inviolable, and permitted unfettered access to other bodies, bodies of different races, sexuality or national origin.

Trump is a huge problem, it is true. But the problem is not Trump. The problem is justice for bodies has not yet been achieved.

But justice will prevail.