Iowa city council meeting erupts after opening with ‘Hail Satan’ prayer 

A pastor challenged an Iowa city council Tuesday after a former member opened its meeting with a prayer to Satan, leading to a brief standoff.

Matt Dalbey delivered the prayer at the Oct. 6 Ottumwa City Council meeting. The city of about 25,000 people is in southeastern Iowa.

Dalbey is a member of the Satanic Temple of Iowa. He addressed Satan as a dark father and urged people to embrace Lucifer.

“It is done. Hail Satan,” he said.

New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick objected after the council finished the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call. He called the prayer a curse on Ottumwa and urged officials to reverse it.

Council member Cara Galloway told Bick to wait until the public comment period.

“It needs to be done now,” he responded.

Mayor Benjamin Foote called for 30 seconds of prayer, then changed his wording to a moment of silence. Galloway urged him to move on with the meeting, but Foote insisted on the silence. Those present could use the time to pray or reflect before the council returned to city business.

Prayer policy changed this year

The council began opening meetings with prayers earlier this year. City staff proposed the practice to let local churches ask God to bless Ottumwa and guide the council’s decisions.

Galloway cast the lone vote against the prayer policy, which passed in January.

Residents of any faith or no faith can give the opening prayer. Speakers must apply and receive approval before choosing a meeting date. Dalbey was approved in January.

Officials can’t review a speaker’s words beforehand. The rules ask speakers to stay within two minutes. They also bar speakers from attacking other faiths or trying to get people to join their own. People can choose whether to take part.

Galloway said she had warned that the policy would let someone deliver a satanic prayer. She also warned that responding to a speaker’s prayer could leave the city facing a lawsuit.

The city defended its decision Wednesday in a statement published by the Ottumwa Post.

“We cannot discriminate against a denomination and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol,” the city said.

City Administrator Philip Rath told KYOU that Dalbey followed the policy. The city told the station it didn’t yet know whether the council would revisit the rules.

Dalbey could return next month. The city’s schedule lists him as the speaker for Nov. 3.

Dalbey told the Ottumwa Courier that his group uses the prayer but does not believe in a satanic deity.

A different satanic group tried to perform a Black Mass inside the Kansas Capitol last year.

Christian protesters gathered to oppose the ritual, which mocked the Catholic Mass. Michael Stewart, leader of the Satanic Grotto, was arrested after a protestor tried to disrupt his ritual and Stewart threw two punches. 

Shawnee County prosecutors declined to pursue charges against Stewart and two other group members, as Heartlander News reported.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/KCCI)