Farrakhan Channels the Grinch: Santa Claus Is a Damaging Lie That Teaches Kids 'to Look to White People' (& Christmas Trees Are 'Wicked')

The Minister Louis Farrakhan (Photo Credit: YouTube)

On Tuesday morning, the Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a sermon in front of the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature in St. Thomas.

Farrakhan, who is currently on a tour throughout the Caribbean, had a plethora of messages for his audience. The Nation of Islam leader, who fluctuated between speaking in his own voice and mimicking an Island accent, warned those in attendance about the dangers of lying to their children about Santa Claus, while also taking aim at the supposed "evils" of the traditional Christmas tree.

In addition to claiming that kids end up loving Christmas' most revered character more than they do their own parents, he also proclaimed that teaching belief in Santa causes children "to look to white people for what mommy couldn't give them."

"It's Christmas now. Oh Christmas is coming, you know," Farrakhan said. "He's comin' down the chimney with his big fat self and he gonna leave...Santa comin' and he's gonna leave under a tree gifts for your child and your child wake up the next morning 'Oh! Santa was here last night?!'"

Farrakhan made these comments after deriding the lies that teachers and parents often tell children, going on to say that his own mother taught him to believe in Santa. Farrakhan recalled being young and finding himself looking for signs of the gift-giver in his bathroom and throughout his home, but to no avail (a negative experience that has apparently stuck out in his memory).

"A lie has a negative effect on anyone who is made to believe what is false. There's no such thing as Santa Claus," he continued, urging the audience to embrace the purportedly damaging story about the jolly Christmas staple. "Why don't you tell your children daddy and mommy bought these, cause' what you're doing is -- you are literally educating your children to look to white people for what mommy couldn't give them."

The leader of the Nation of Islam in the United States, Louis Farrakhan (Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Farrakhan says that the result of this notion is that kids end up loving Santa Claus more than they revere their own parents. But Santa wasn't his only target. The Christmas tree, too, was on the minister's list of evil Christmas traditions.

"Now you got a big tree. How does a tree figure in the life of Jesus...go home and open your Bible to the tenth chapter of Jeremiah -- you look and see how the scripture says that the wicked cuts a tree down out of the forest and deck it with silver and gold," he explained. "What you're following is a pagan ritual that was started in Rome and Babylon."

Here, Farrakhan is speaking about Jeremiah 10:1-5, which reads:

“Do not learn the ways of the nations

or be terrified by signs in the heavens,

though the nations are terrified by them.

³ For the practices of the peoples are worthless;

they cut a tree out of the forest,

and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.

⁴ They adorn it with silver and gold;

they fasten it with hammer and nails

so it will not totter.

⁵ Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,

their idols cannot speak;

they must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them;

they can do no harm

nor can they do any good.”

While some have claimed that this verse is speaking about Christmas trees, others reject such a notion. Americans do not worship the trees they bring into their homes -- something that is clearly being done by those mentioned in these verses.

Also, what is being discussed in Jeremiah is an idol and not a decorated tree (there's no indication at all that the people being spoken about in the Bible were worshiping Christmas trees).

Regardless, watch Farrakhan's controversial anti-Santa and anti-Christmas tree message, below: