‘Hail, Satan’ Invocation Opens Iowa City Council Meeting

An invocation beginning an Iowa city council meeting Tuesday began with “Dear dark father” and ended with “Hail, Satan,” prompting a pastor to speak up and call to “reverse” the curse on his city.

“An invocation at the beginning of Tuesday's Ottumwa City Council meeting overshadowed everything else that took place over the course of 80 minutes,” The Ottumwa Courier reported Wednesday:

“Resident and former council member Matt Dalbey read a satanic prayer — capped off by ‘Hail Satan’ — to kick off the meeting at City Hall, leading to a reaction from New Life Center pastor Rick Bick during a contentious opening few minutes of the meeting.”

"Let's just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That 'Hail Satan' is not welcome here," Pastor Bick said, before being told he had to wait until a comment period later in the meeting.

"It needs to be done now," the pastor replied. "I appreciate what (Councilwoman Cara 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."

Ultimately, Mayor Benjamin Foote called for a 30-second moment of silence to “reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time.”

Galloway objected, but the mayor overruled her and the moment of silence was observed.

Dalbey was able to deliver a Satanic invocation due to a policy approved by the city earlier in the year, as The Post Millennial explains:

“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.’”

Dalbey is scheduled to provide the invocation again at the November 3 city council meeting.