Ottumwa City Council Meeting Disrupted by Controversial Invocation

<p>A city council in Iowa experienced disruption after a resident opened a meeting with a satanic prayer on Tuesday. Before the meeting of the Ottumwa City Council began, former council member Matt Dalbey delivered an invocation to the "dark father" to "embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge" and concluded with a "Hail Satan" declaration.</p><p>After the council recited the Pledge of Allegiance and took roll, New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick interrupted the meeting, calling for a response to Dalbey's invocation. Bick stated, "Let's just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That ending with 'Hail Satan' or 'Hail dark god,' that's not welcome here."</p><p>City Council member Cara Galloway told Bick to save his comments for public discussion, but Bick insisted on immediate action, saying, "It needs to be done now. I appreciate what Ms. Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on the city. When he said 'Hail Satan' ... most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it."</p><p>In response, Ottumwa Mayor Benjamin Foote requested 30 seconds of silence for prayer or reflection, overruling Galloway's efforts to proceed with the meeting. Foote later stated, "This is not a reflection of our community. As the mayor of my hometown in Iowa, I know the people of Ottumwa, and the invocation read at the start of Tuesday’s meeting does not represent the faith or the values of families who call this city home."</p><p>After the meeting, Galloway expressed concerns about the invocation policy at city council meetings, stating, "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."</p><p>Galloway noted that she had previously raised concerns about the potential for controversial invocations, saying, "I think I even 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."</p><p>According to a report by The Ottumwa Courier, the city adopted an invocation policy in January, which states that it does not endorse any faith or religious denomination but aims to acknowledge the diversity of religious beliefs among the citizens of Ottumwa.</p><p>Dalbey, a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa, mentioned in a private message that the prayer is commonly used by the temple but does not involve belief in a satanic deity. Council member Bill Hoffman described leaving the room during the prayer but defended Dalbey's right to express his beliefs, stating, "I'm a Christian man with Christian values. That doesn't mean I don't want to observe his First Amendment right. It just means that I want to use my rights not to observe that." Hoffman also noted that the invocation policy would likely be discussed in the future and emphasized that the council did not condone the content of the prayer.