For generations, the opening prayer at a city council meeting was one of those quiet, steady traditions that held American civic life together. Nothing fancy. A brief invocation, a moment to ask for wisdom, a humble nod to the reality that self-governance is bigger than anyone sitting at the dais. It was never controversial because it reflected something honest about who we are – a nation whose moral architecture was built on faith.

But across the country, those traditions have become targets. Slowly, methodically, the rituals that once anchored public life are being hollowed out and weaponized. And the latest front in that campaign didn’t open in San Francisco or Portland. It opened in Ottumwa, Iowa – deep in the heartland – and what happened there this week should stop every person of faith dead in their tracks.

From The Post Millennial:

An Ottumwa, Iowa, city council meeting was opened with a Satanic prayer delivered by a member of The Satanic Temple. The incident prompted a local pastor to interrupt the meeting and condemn the prayer.

Former council member Matt Dalbey delivered the Satanic prayer during the invocation at the beginning of the meeting. He started the prayer by saying, “Dear dark father,” before saying, “let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge.” After reciting the rest of the prayer, Dalbey ended by saying, “Hail Satan.”

“Dear dark father.” “Hail Satan.” Not scrawled on some teenager’s notebook. Not muttered in a basement. Spoken aloud, into a microphone, at an official meeting of the Ottumwa City Council – a governing body that represents families, small business owners, and churchgoing neighbors. The sheer gall of it is staggering. This wasn’t worship. It was a performance, designed to mock and degrade.

Mayor Benjamin Foote told Fox News Digital that “this is not a reflection of our community.” Fair enough, Mr. Mayor. But here’s the uncomfortable follow-up: your community’s own elected leaders made it possible.

Council member Bill Hoffman, at least, had the backbone to walk out. “I’m a Christian man with Christian values,” Hoffman said. “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.” Respect to Hoffman for that. But one man’s quiet protest doesn’t undo the institutional failure that invited this spectacle in the first place.

A policy practically begging to be exploited

Here’s how Ottumwa ended up with “Hail Satan” echoing through its council chamber. Earlier this year, the city adopted an invocation policy allowing any resident to deliver a prayer “regardless of religious affiliation.” The stated goal was to express “respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof.”

Sounds noble on paper. In practice, they rolled out a red carpet for every provocateur with a grudge against Christianity.

Council member Cara Galloway actually warned her colleagues this would happen. She specifically flagged the possibility of a Satanic prayer when the policy was being debated. They passed it anyway. Galloway now calls the situation “a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers.” Prophetic – and entirely preventable.

But here’s the detail that really crystallizes the whole charade. Dalbey himself admitted to the Ottumwa Courier that his prayer “has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity.” So it was never about sincere religious expression. It was a stunt – a calculated provocation exploiting religious liberty protections to humiliate the very faith traditions those protections were written to safeguard.

The pastor who refused to play along

After the prayer, the council launched into the Pledge of Allegiance and tried to proceed with business as usual. Pastor Rick Bick of New Life Center wasn’t having it. He interrupted the meeting – protocol be damned – and demanded an immediate response.

“It needs to be done now,” Bick told the council. “That was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it.”

Galloway told him to save it for public comment. Bick refused. Good for him. Some moments don’t wait for a spot on the agenda.

Mayor Foote, to his partial credit, overruled Galloway and called for thirty seconds of silence. A small gesture – but at least someone at that dais recognized the gravity of the moment.

This isn’t Iowa’s first encounter with this brand of provocation, either. In December 2023, members of the Satanic Temple erected an altar inside the Iowa Capitol building. A Christian veteran took it upon himself to destroy it. When the institutions fail, ordinary citizens fill the gap. That pattern should trouble us all.

This council needs to go

The members of the Ottumwa City Council who championed and defended this invocation policy have demonstrated a fundamental lack of moral seriousness. They were warned. They ignored the warning. And now “Hail Satan” is part of their city’s public record.

They should resign. Every member who voted for this policy owes the citizens of Ottumwa a direct apology – and then a letter of resignation. If you lack the discernment to see how an open-door invocation policy would be weaponized against your own constituents, you have no business holding public office.

The people of Ottumwa didn’t pick this fight. But their leaders handed the battlefield to the other side without firing a shot. It’s time for citizens of faith to step into that void – attend the meetings, challenge the policies, run for the seats. Because when good people disengage from local government, the vacuum doesn’t stay empty for long. Someone always fills it. This week in Iowa, we saw exactly who.

Key Takeaways

• A former Iowa council member opened an official government meeting with a Satanic prayer ending in “Hail Satan.”
• The council’s own invocation policy enabled this provocation despite explicit warnings it would happen.
• The prayer’s author admitted it has nothing to do with genuine religious belief – exposing it as a deliberate anti-Christian stunt.
• Every council member who voted for this reckless policy should resign and answer to their constituents.

Sources: The Post Millennial, Fox News