Overview
- Former council member Matt Dalbey opened the Ottumwa City Council meeting with a Satanic invocation that ended with the words “Hail Satan” on Tuesday.
- The prayer included phrases such as “Dear dark father” and a call to “embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge,” according to local reports.
- Pastor Rick Bick interrupted to condemn the invocation and call to “reverse” the alleged curse, and Mayor Benjamin Foote ordered a 30-second moment of silence while council member Cara Galloway later criticized the policy.
- The reading was allowed under an invocation policy the council approved in January to let any resident offer an invocation, and Dalbey told reporters the text is used by The Satanic Temple of Iowa and that it does not reflect belief in a satanic deity; he is scheduled to give the invocation again on November 3.
- The episode highlights local tensions over whether an open-invocation rule forces the council to choose between protecting free expression, maintaining neutrality and risking public backlash or legal challenges, and it follows earlier state incidents involving the Satanic Temple that have polarized coverage.