{"id":2181,"date":"2007-12-23T09:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-23T09:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa.html"},"modified":"2007-12-23T09:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-23T09:54:00","slug":"man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa.html","title":{"rendered":"Man protests commercialism by crucifying Santa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I think I&#8217;ve seen everything, someone comes along to prove me wrong.  <\/p>\n<p>Such is the case with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/news\/us_world\/2007\/12\/22\/2007-12-22_man_protests_commercialized_christmas_by.html\">this unbelievable display<\/a> in Washington State: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R253T4mEC1I\/AAAAAAAABuU\/afAmijK0NNA\/s1600-h\/amd_santa.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R253T4mEC1I\/AAAAAAAABuU\/afAmijK0NNA\/s320\/amd_santa.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> If you&#8217;ve stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred spirit in Art Conrad.<\/p>\n<p>The Bremerton, Wash., resident is fed up with the commercial aspects of Christmas, and he&#8217;s voicing his protest in the form of some unorthodox holiday decorating: Santa on the cross.<\/p>\n<p>Conrad has nailed jolly old St. Nick to a 15-foot crucifix in front of his home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be,&#8221; Conrad said. &#8220;Now he&#8217;s the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For his far flung friends who may not be able to see the holiday decor up close, Conrad used a photo of his crucified Santa for his Christmas cards, along with the message &#8220;Santa died for your MasterCard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While some might be offended by the display, that&#8217;s part of the plan. Conrad says he&#8217;s also making a comment on political correctness and people&#8217;s fears of saying what they really think.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbors&#8217; reactions ranged from anger to curiosity to confusion.<\/p>\n<p>The Santa got a chuckle out of one passerby, who told the Kitsap Sun newspaper, &#8220;I don&#8217;t really know what to think. I know it&#8217;s about God but Santa has nothing to do with it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever I think I&#8217;ve seen everything, someone comes along to prove me wrong. Such is the case with this unbelievable display in Washington State: If you&#8217;ve stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ripped-from-the-headlines","category-this-and-that"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Man protests commercialism by crucifying Santa - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man protests commercialism by crucifying Santa - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whenever I think I&#8217;ve seen everything, someone comes along to prove me wrong. Such is the case with this unbelievable display in Washington State: If you&#8217;ve stood in one line too many at the mall as you watched your bank account dwindle and your credit debt rise this holiday season, you might find a kindred&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-23T09:54:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R253T4mEC1I\/AAAAAAAABuU\/afAmijK0NNA\/s320\/amd_santa.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Man protests commercialism by crucifying Santa - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/12\/man-protests-commercialism-by-crucifying-santa.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Man protests commercialism by crucifying Santa - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"Whenever I think I&#8217;ve seen everything, someone comes along to prove me wrong. 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