Many mall patrons in Texas are expressing their outrage after an evangelical preacher stormed a line of children waiting to speak to Santa and proclaimed that Kris Kringle was “made up”.
“Kids, I want to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus,” evangelical pastor David Grisham is heard hollering while walking alongside the line of children and their parents.
“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 continues. “Santa’s not real. And parents you all need to stop lying to your children and telling them that Santa Claus is real when in fact he’s not.”
Grisham filmed the encounter for his Facebook page and while most parents attempted to ignore his tirade, eventually some of the parents became agitated.
In the video, a man can be seen confronting Grisham, who later claimed that he was assaulted by one of the angry parents.
After the video began to spread, upset citizens began to complain on the Westgate Mall in Amarillo’s Facebook page.
Eventually, the mall did release a statement:
“We want everyone at our shopping center to have an enjoyable experience,” it said. “All of the shoppers are expected to follow our code of conduct and will be asked to leave our premises if they don’t follow these rules.”
Many shoppers were calling for the pastor to be permanently banned from the mall.
You can watch the video for yourself below: