Iowa city council opens meeting with a ‘Hail Satan’ satanic prayer

A city council meeting in Iowa came under an intense discussion amongst its council after a satanic prayer was read to open their council meeting this week. 

What we know:

The Ottumwa City Council meeting began like any other meeting with the mayor bringing the meeting into order before calling for the invocation. A former council member stepped up to the podium to deliver the invocation and started with "Dear dark father" before getting into phrases of his prayer to include "embrace the Luciferian impulse" and ending with a "Hail Satan" declaration. 

After the ending, the council seemed ready to resume its ordinary business before only one person stood up to immediately rebuke the invocation as a "curse" that was put on the city that he wanted to reverse. 

A brief debate began to ensue between the city’s mayor, Benjamin Foote and council member Cara Galloway, who implored the mayor and the council to stay on the agenda, only allowing for public comment later in the meeting. 

Galloway interjected, saying public should be done later, but the citizen spoke up and said it "needs to be done now." 

"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, and we need to just stop and reverse it."

Dig deeper:

According to a Fox News Digital report, citing a local report by the Ottumwa Courier, the city has an invocation policy that does not endorse any faith or religious denomination but only intends to "acknowledge and express the City Council's respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations."

Mayor Foote would go on to overrule Galloway’s objection and asked for an immediate 30-second moment of silence to allow for personal prayer or reflection. 

What they're saying:

At the conclusion of the meeting, Galloway gave some remarks as to her objection from earlier in the meeting. "Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own, and responding to someone's invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers and allowing for others to object or respond," Galloway said. 

"And this is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it. And I think I even specifically referenced that having someone from the Church of Satan or a prayer about Satan when we talked about that, that this could happen, and we would need to allow it.

"I just want to remind us that again, sometimes things are said that we may not agree with ... and while you're allowed to do the moment of silence and that kind of thing too, I think we've opened ourselves up for others to object or respond to others' invocations," she continued. 

"And we need to remember that we are up here to be neutral and allow viewpoints because we've opened up invocations."

Mayor Foot later 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, and the invocation read at the start of Tuesday’s meeting does not represent the faith or the values of families who call this city home."

The other side:

According to Fox News Digital, the Ottumwa Courier, received a private message from Matt Dalbey, the former council member who led the controversial invocation, who said he was a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa and said the prayer is commonly used by the temple but it "has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity."