Iowa City Council Meeting Opens With "Hail Satan" Invocation

A former city council member opened Tuesday's Ottumwa, Iowa, council meeting with a satanic prayer that ended in "Hail Satan," and the city says it had no legal way to stop him. The invocation fell within a policy the council itself adopted on Jan. 20, according to the Ottumwa Courier. In other news, Ottumwa residents had a Satanist on their city council.

Matt Dalbey, a resident and former council member, delivered the prayer at City Hall. Dalbey told the paper in a private message that the prayer is used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, and that it "has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity."

The invocation, from the city's official recording of the Oct. 6 meeting:

Soon after the Pledge of Allegiance, New Life Center pastor Rick Bick spoke out of turn, asking the room to "reverse this curse that was put on our city." Council member Cara Galloway told him to wait for the public-comment portion of the meeting. Mayor Benjamin Foote instead called a 30-second moment of silence, and Galloway objected that it was time to move forward before the mayor overruled her.

The council approved the invocation policy on Jan. 20, with Galloway the only vote against. It says the city respects the diversity of religious denominations and beliefs, including the lack of them, among its residents.

The city said on Facebook that it "cannot discriminate against a denomination," that it is not told ahead of time what an invocation will say, and that it does not automatically endorse what a speaker says. It added that it had been fielding calls all day, some cordial and many "rude and full of profanities."

Galloway, who has never stood for an invocation, restated her objection at the end of the meeting. She said opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect the council's own, and warned of "a financial liability on the taxpayers" if the city responds to one.

City Administrator Philip Rath said on KBIZ that the policy's openness leaves the city in a vacuum. "You have to be open to allow people to express their different beliefs," he said. Rath said the policy could be revisited, but that its openness currently protects the city from legal challenges, and that amending it "could open it up for a potential suit down the road."

The meeting video had been viewed more than 9,500 times on YouTube in the 24 hours after it went live on the city's channel. Dalbey is also scheduled to give the invocation at the Nov. 3 council meeting.