A U.S. museum has been criticised for installing a satanic Christmas tree as part of its festive celebrations. For its ‘Festival of Trees’, the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, invited the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin, alongside 66 other local organisations and clubs, to decorate a tree to be installed amongst the transport exhibits. The satanist tree features red fairy lights, a snakelike decoration, upside-down crosses, pentagrams and a bauble that reads ‘Hail Santa’.
Republican senator and resident of the town Mike Gallagher told Fox News: “It’s impossible to overstate how offensive this is to Christians. It would be, in quite a literal sense, the same thing as waving a Hamas flag inside of a synagogue… It’s just absolutely crazy that we would allow this to happen.”
The politician said he usually takes his own children to the train museum’s annual screening of Polar Express but “I wouldn’t take my kids to it now. I don’t want them to be surrounded by Satanic trees.”
Museum CEO Jacqueline Frank dismissed the outrage, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that ‘Children are going to come across this in other parts of their life, and maybe not with their parents… it’s a good, very neutral way to be able to introduce these concepts and talk about what your personal beliefs are’.
Themed trees have also been contributed by churches and Christian groups, LGBTQ+ rights organisations and local businesses, including radio stations, music stores, pet crematories and those operating in the trucking industry, health insurance and behavioural pediatrics.
One local man complained: ‘The museum should stick to the “train business” and not derail into trending social topics.’
