A House Republican is not feeling jolly about a “Satanic Christmas tree” that is generating holiday buzz around his home district in the Green Bay area.
In an interview that aired on Sunday, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) criticized the National Railroad Museum’s embrace of the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin‘s tree adorned in red lights and Satanic ornaments.
“Thus far, the Railroad Museum’s response has been insufficient,” Gallagher told Fox News guest-host Sean Duffy, who pressed the congressman on what he described as the “Satanic Christmas tree” in the museum’s seasonal Christmas display.
“When parents and concerned citizens have contacted the railroad museum, they have said, well, this is an educational opportunity for kids, which is completely ridiculous, right? I think it’s impossible to overstate how offensive this is to Christians. It would be, in quite a little sense, the same thing as waving a Hamas flag inside of a synagogue,” he added on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The Satanic Temple of Wisconsin tree, along with a Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity tree, have received “some pushback” from visitors to this year’s 66-tree display, but Museum CEO Jacqueline Frank said they are within the proper guidelines because they do not promote hate, violence, or drug use, according to local NBC affiliate WGBA.
“We believe that everybody should be included regardless of their religious group, regardless of any business or organization that they’re a part of. So we don’t discriminate, since we’re not a religious group ourselves, we’re going to allow anyone who wants to take place to take part,” Frank said.
To Gallagher, “it’s just absolutely crazy that we would allow this to happen” for a museum that “does something very interesting and cool and fun for kids” every year.
“I wouldn’t take my kids to it now. I don’t want them to be surrounded by Satanic trees. The local reporting has been insufficient, so the whole thing is absurd. And I would say one final thing. Conservatives are often accused of launching a culture war or focusing or fixating on cultural issues, but here is a perfect example of how that’s not what’s happening,” Gallagher said.
“What’s happening is, we’re just trying to defend basic traditions or defend our children in the midst of these basic traditions from the encroachment of woke ideology or offensive, upside-down cultural propaganda,” he added. “And so the whole thing is a shame. I thought that Northeast Wisconsin was at least immune to something that you might see in New York or California. But we need to be vigilant as parents.”