This story is infuriating. Jeremy Morris is a Christian fanatic and zealous Republican — he named his dog Ronald Reagan — who claims to love Christmas. When you read the story, though, it’s clear that he’s far more interested in bullying and antagonizing his neighbors with an overwrought Christmas display, and throwing his weight around, than he is in actually practicing Christian charity. He is “owning the libs” personified. So he puts on an extravagant Christmas display involving hundreds of thousands of lights, paid actors, and a camel, and basically dares his neighbors to complain. And when they do, he declares that they must be anti-Christian.
Be prepared. There are no good guys in this story. He gets into a legal battle with his Home Owners Association, and HOAs are intrinsically evil — they accuse him of attracting riff-raff from a nearby Walmart to their pristine real estate. The Three Percenters offered to help Morris out. Everyone is claiming the precious sanctity of their religion, and when he goes to court, he wins, with a jury of North Idahoan Christians all agreeing that forcing a rich lawyer to tone down his kitschy display of blaring Christmas carols and blinking lights and prancing Santa Clauses is discriminating against Christianity.
Lovely country out there in North Idaho. It’s too bad it’s full of assholes.
IMO the homeowners association fucked up big time. My understanding is that the entire case hinged on just one stupid line stuck into a letter filled with mostly legitimate grievances:
“I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith, and I don’t even want to think of the problems that could bring up.”
You weren’t hesitant enough, you little goose. Of all the complaints to make, dragging up “nonchristians might not like to be reminded of Christianity when they look at your house” is dead last on the list. It’s possible that, had I been on the jury, I might have been forced to grant the plaintiff their “religious discrimination “ case because of this one itsy bitsy measly little addition. Jesus Christ on a Pogo Stick.
I have to wonder if that was a case of someone inserting that line deliberately to sabotage their case.
Also, I hope that there’s a short somewhere in all those miles of wire and that a-hole’s house burns down.
I want to tell him his lights looked nicer last year…You fight assholes by being one. fire with fire.
OMG, Jeremy Morris fancies himself “a martyr.”
Also, the holiday decorations are off-putting.
Is he observing Advent Sunday? (There are four of them.) How about Saint Nicolas day on the 15th? Christmas Eve? The Feast of the Three King, also known as Epiphany day? (12 days after Christmas.) I am certain I am missing a few Christmas days of observation.
That he is ‘defending’ Christmas is somewhat lacking.
It seems he must believe that it’s easier for a total arsehole to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for Dolly the camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
Has nobody ever heard of Candy Cane Lanes? Nearly every community has one or two.
So let me get this straight. He did this in his house in 2014. The response was mostly positive but one complained about permits. So he sold his house and did research about neighborhoods where it wouldn’t require permits. Fine. But he did ZERO research into HOA and HOA rules. And the HOA complained before he bought the house. And he didn’t have any concern about that.
He didn’t even try to find a Candy Cane Lane which would love to have him and if he were sane and not cruising for a confrontation he would love to live in. And for all the price of security and actors he could rent out a storefront or a farm field. People would love it. But no, he is simply cruising for a conflict. Asshole.
The article says he’s looking for a place with more space outside the town where he can have a village and stuff like that. More power to him! That’s what he should have done in the first place. I like Christmas shit like that, well maybe with a little less Christianity involved than it seemed he had, but I would absolutely hate what he did. The visitors to his “show” destroyed a culvert and drove over other people’s property. He’s a public nuisance who should live where he doesn’t have neighbors to inconvenience.
There are multiple families who have similar things around Halloween or Christmas (themed to the proper holiday) that are on farms or other properties where they will bother nobody except the people throwing the party. He should have done the same for his ministry.
Yeah, well, it’s Idaho, where the death rate for religious children is 17 million times the sub-Saharan average…
I’d do that just to boss him around.
He renames his dog Clarence for Christmas.
Ergo, asshole.