Iowa mayor reviewing prayer policy after satanic invocation delivered at city council meeting
An Iowa mayor and self-identified born-again Christian says he plans to review his city’s invocation policy after a satanic prayer at a city council meeting went viral.
On Tuesday, the Ottumwa City Council opened its meeting with a scheduled invocation from Matthew Dalbey, a former council member who is now a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa.
Calling Satan his “dear dark father,” Dalbey prayed for the city to “embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge,” a reference to the Garden of Eden account in Genesis 3.
He also prayed that those gathered would “reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things” and “stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all.”
“Hail Satan,” he concluded.
Pastor Rick Bick of New Life Center objected immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance.
“Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That ‘Hail Satan’ is not welcome here,” Bick said.
When a council member told him to wait for the citizen comment period, he replied, “It needs to be done now … that was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it.” Mayor Benjamin Foote responded by calling for a 30-second time of silence.
Ottumwa, a city of more than 25,000 residents, has more than 50 churches and other places of worship. The city’s invocation policy allows any volunteer, including residents like Dalbey, to sign up to give the invocation.
According to the Ottumwa city website, organizations or individuals must be approved before requesting to give an invocation. The city’s invocation policy, approved in January, “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.”
Foote said sign-ups are open to people of any religious affiliation, in keeping with the U.S. Constitution.
“The reason our policy is outlined to allow any volunteer to sign up for an invocation is a First Amendment issue,” Foote told The Christian Post Thursday. “I do feel that we need to defend our freedom of religion and speech, as that allows us the ability to worship and speak without the government overseeing our lives.”
Still, Foote said that, as a born-again Christian, he was “shocked” by the invocation, though he noted that his views “do not necessarily represent all the beliefs of the City of Ottumwa.”
“I am a born-again Christian, a prayer warrior and place all my faith in Jesus Christ,” he said. “Personally, I of course do not believe or condone worship to Satan or any other god, but to the one true God Almighty.”
Councilman Bill Hoffman Jr. confirmed that the invocation was approved under city policy but said the mayor and council members “are not aware of the content beforehand.”
Hoffman said he refused to stay in the council chambers for the invocation and stepped out to pray instead.
“I am a Christian man with Christian values, so I chose not to participate,” he told CP. “I stepped into the hallway and did a personal prayer to God for strength and wisdom for myself and to watch over our city.”
In a post Wednesday on the City of Ottumwa’s official Facebook page, officials said they had been fielding calls all day from people upset by the invocation, but stressed the city “cannot discriminate against a denomination and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol." The city is not "informed ahead of time what will be said for an invocation nor do we automatically endorse what the speaker is saying.”
Dalbey is scheduled to give another invocation Nov. 3, according to the city’s website. But Foote said that invocation is now under review.
“I am reviewing the policy and the invocation that was given, to show the areas that it does not meet with the City of Ottumwa Policy,” he said. “When those are documented, it is my intention to inform Mr. Dalbey that he is not allowed to give another invocation.”
Foote added that he is also “reviewing our invocation policy to see if any revisions need to be made so we can continue to have prayer and safeguard against statements like what we saw on Tuesday.”
Despite the backlash over the now-viral video, Foote expressed hope that even a satanic invocation could be used for a divine purpose.
“My prayer is that this will be used by God to awaken the Church in Ottumwa and we will fight against the evil that is constantly trying to destroy us,” he said.
In an interview with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins on Thursday, Bick said that he goes to every city council meeting and praised the mayor for being a "man of prayer." When he heard Dalbey give his invocation, he felt called to object.
"Everything in me went, like, 'No, he just cursed our city, we are not going to do that,'" Bick said, adding that by the time he got up to speak Dalbey had already left the building.
"We have been praying for our city for blessings and for good things to happen. ... I just walked up. I probably was out of order. The mayor acknowledged me, and I said ... 'We need to stop and break that curse right now because that is not welcome here."
