Iowa city council meeting opens with prayer to SATAN

An Ottumwa, Iowa, city council meeting was opened with a Satanic prayer delivered by a member of The Satanic Temple. The incident prompted a local pastor to interrupt the meeting and condemn the prayer.

Former council member Matt Dalbey delivered the Satanic prayer during the invocation at the beginning of the meeting. He started the prayer by saying, “Dear dark father,” before saying, “let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge.”

After reciting the rest of the prayer, Dalbey ended by saying, “Hail Satan.”

According to The Ottumwa Courier, Dalbey said in a private meeting that the prayer is used by The Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, though he said it “has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity."

After Dalbey left the podium and the council recited the Pledge of Allegiance, New Life Center pastor Rick Bick spoke out of turn to comment on the prayer.

"Let's just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That 'Hail Satan' is not welcome here," Bick said.

Council member Cara Galloway told Bick that he should speak during the portion of the meeting that is designated for citizens to raise concerns.

"It needs to be done now," he said. "I appreciate what Ms. Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it."

The contention prompted Mayor Benjamin Foote to call for a 30-second moment of silence to “reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time.” Galloway attempted to say that “it was time to move forward,” but Foote overruled her and proceeded with the moment of silence.

The incident comes after the city approved its invocation policy in January, which allows any resident to voluntarily deliver a prayer regardless of religious affiliation. The policy states that the invocation is intended to “acknowledge and express the City Council's respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Ottumwa."

Galloway returned to the issue at the end of the meeting, criticizing the policy.

"Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own, and responding to someone's invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers and allowing for others to object or respond," Galloway said. "And this is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it, and I think I specifically referenced that having someone from the church of Satan or a prayer about Satan when we talked about that, that this could happen and we would need to allow it."

"I think we've opened ourselves up for others to object or respond to others' invocations, and we need to remember that we are up here to be neutral,” she added.

In December of 2023, a Satanic altar was erected in the Iowa Capitol building by members of the Satanic Temple of Iowa. The display was subsequently destroyed by a Christian veteran.