Texas Pastor's Mission: Ruin Santa for Kids

After a minute preaching, several parents say enough and ask him to leave
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2016 4:00 AM CST

A pastor in Texas angry at parents for "bearing false witness" when they lie to their children about Santa Claus decided to unleash his views on kids, too. In a 3-minute video that has gone viral, Amarillo pastor David Grisham, who leads religious fundamentalist group "Repent Amarillo," yells at families waiting to see Santa at the Westgate Mall: "The man you're going to see today is just a man in a suit dressed up like Santa, but Santa does not exist." He tells the Dallas Morning News his life has since been threatened, but he just sees that as proof that he did indeed manage to make Christmas more about Jesus.

Grisham has taken his sermons to gay pride parades, Catholics visiting the Pope, and strip clubs. In fact he tells the Washington Post that he's been "street preaching" most weekends since God spoke to him a decade ago while on vacation in Mexico. (The Morning News says his awakening came during a viewing of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs.) He's also attempted to burn the Koran in public and executed a Santa piñata by firing squad, which cost him his job as a security guard at a nuclear power plant. Grisham says he plans to hit other malls soon. (A dying boy just passed away in Santa's arms.)

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