A Republican congressman wasnβt happy that a Wisconsin event featuring dozens of uniquely decorated Christmas trees included one with a Satan theme.
βI wouldnβt take my kids to it now, I donβt want them to be surrounded by satanic trees,β Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) griped on Fox News during a discussion of the National Railroad Museumβs Festival of Trees in Green Bay.
The event features more than 70 trees, each decorated by a different group or local business.
βWe have everything from a tree with hardware on it, a tea tree, we have a Lego tree,β museum CEO Jacqueline Frank told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. βItβs a lot of different organizations promoting their business.β
She said the goal is to be inclusive and βprovide dignity for everybody.β
But Gallagher slammed it as βwoke,β βoffensiveβ and βupside-down cultural propaganda.β
βI 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,β he said on Fox News.
Satan is not actually the point of the tree.
In fact, the Satanic Templeβs Wisconsin chapter β like many modern satanist groups β says it doesnβt actually believe in the devil, much less worship him. The organization wrote on Facebook that they consider Satan βmore of a literary character we admire and a mascot.β
βTree decorating is a fun and rewarding holiday tradition with roots in paganism,β a message from the group read. βWe decorated the tree to celebrate our own winter holiday, Sol Invictus, and in the spirit of religious plurality and togetherness with other world religions that have holidays around this time of year.β
Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves took it a step further, taunting Gallagher as βteary-eyed, quivering & confusedβ in a post on X, the former Twitter.
βA tree made him cry and ruined his entire Christmas. And liberals are supposedly the snowflakes?β Satanic minister Tommy Lavin replied.
Others also mocked Gallagher: