Man in a Grinch Costume Holds Up an Awesome Sign About Jesus and Santa - Parents Aren't Happy, But He's Not Wrong
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
No one likes a Grinch, but this one isn’t wrong.
A street preacher named David Harold Grisham sparked outrage recently after standing outside Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Amarillo, Texas, dressed as the Grinch, holding a sign telling kids that “Santa is Fake Jesus is Real.”
Grisham claimed he was “assaulted” by an angry parent while demonstrating and that police “showed up in force” to block him from fully exercising his First Amendment rights, the New York Post reported.
According to a video Grisham posted on social media, at least two upset adults confronted him, with one man grabbing his sign, ripping it up, and throwing it on the ground.
WARNING: The following video contains language some readers may find offensive.
Grisham can be heard arguing with the man to “get away from my stuff” before saying he got the man’s license plate number.
According to the Post, Grisham was within his rights to be on the sidewalk and was not arrested.
“It’s very telling for a society to go this far in protecting a LIE. To go that far in trying to protect kids from hearing the truth. It’s no wonder our country is in trouble,” Grisham wrote in a Facebook post.
While some may consider Grisham’s behavior pretty grinchy, he makes a good point about what we have made Christmas into.
Underneath his confrontational delivery lies an inconvenient truth: Santa Claus is a legend stemming from history, morphed into a secular fantasy figure promising gifts in return for good behavior.
He is a fable requiring carefully constructed layers of deception.
Grisham’s goal may have been evangelism, but his methods succeeded in scaring and upsetting kids, which is the last thing any school needs.
He did, however, raise an important question: Why celebrate Christmas at all if it’s not about the person the day is supposed to celebrate?
Why should children believe the truth when we have made a lie the focus of the celebration?
Why propagate myth when the day has a true reason — the greatest reason to celebrate?
The truth of Christmas is this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” John 3:16.
Jesus’ birth offered humanity eternal life and redemption — the greatest gift given freely out of love.
Yet the one Christmas is named for hardly makes an appearance at modern celebrations.
Ironically, the real-life inspiration for Santa Claus likely would have been appalled at becoming the modern face of Christmas.
A humble bishop renowned for quiet acts of service, Nicholas spent his life pointing people to Jesus, not building his own legacy.
The joy over the latest toy will fade in a week, but the joy of knowing the love of Christ lasts through eternity.
Well-meaning parents would give their kids so much more for Christmas if they fought less to keep their kids from discovering a lie and harder to give them the gift of the truth.
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