Iowa City Council Kicks Off Meeting With Satanic Invocation

on Tuesday night, prompting a pastor to interrupt the proceedings and call for the prayer to be reversed as visibly uncomfortable reactions unfolded in the audience.

Matt Dalbey, a former Ottumwa City Council member and current resident, delivered the invocation at the beginning of the Ottumwa City Council meeting after Mayor Benjamin Foote called the meeting to order and invited those who wished to participate to stand.

“Let us pray, dear Dark Father,” Dalbey began. Dalbey went on to call for attendees to “embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge” and reject what he described as “arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times.”

He also called for individuals to be judged according to their “concrete actions” rather than “arbitrary social norms,” urged the council to approach problems with “agnosticism in all things,” and called for opposition to “any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all.” The invocation concluded: “That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise. It is done. Hail Satan!”

Video of the meeting shows at least one person in the room sitting down during the invocation. Other people visible on the video feed appeared visibly uncomfortable as Dalbey delivered the satanic prayer. The council then ironically proceeded to the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “one nation under God.”

The invocation prompted an immediate confrontation once the pledge was finished, according to the Ottumwa Courier. Rick Bick, pastor of the New Life Center in Ottumwa, spoke out of turn, saying, “Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That ‘Hail Satan’ is not welcome here.”

Council member Cara Galloway, who doesn’t stand during any invocations, told Bick that he should wait until the portion of the meeting designated for public comment. “It needs to be done now,” Bick replied. “I appreciate what Ms. Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it.” Foote subsequently called for a 30-second moment of silence “to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time.” Galloway objected that it was time to move forward with the meeting, but the mayor proceeded with the moment of silence.

Dalbey later explained in a private message obtained by the Courier that the prayer is used by The Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, but said it “has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity.” The Satanic Temple describes itself as a non-theistic religious organization.

The invocation was permitted under Ottumwa’s invocation policy, which the city council approved in January. The policy explicitly says the city intends to respect “organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof” represented among Ottumwa residents, on the town’s website Dalbey is listed as having no religious organization.

The policy also prohibits speakers from proselytizing or disparaging other religions or beliefs, while specifically stating that city officials and staff may not conduct prior review or restriction of the content of an invocation. Galloway was the lone council member to vote against the policy when it was adopted.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Galloway returned to the issue and argued that the evening’s events illustrated precisely the concern she had raised when the invocation policy was considered.

“Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own,” Galloway said. “And this is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it, and I think I 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 think we’ve opened ourselves up for others to object or respond to others’ invocations, and we need to remember that we are up here to be neutral,” she added.

City Administrator Philip Rath similarly acknowledged Wednesday that the policy’s broad language creates the possibility of precisely the kind of invocation that occurred Tuesday.

“I don’t know what’s on Mr. Dalbey’s heart, but that’s part of what happens when you have an open policy like this,” Rath said on a local radio program. “You have to be open to allow people to express their different beliefs.” Rath said the city could revisit the policy but warned that restricting it could expose Ottumwa to legal challenges.

Dalbey is also scheduled to deliver the invocation at the council’s November 3 meeting.

The episode is not the first time The Satanic Temple of Iowa has drawn national attention in the state. In December 2023, the group placed a Satanic display featuring a Baphomet statue inside the Iowa State Capitol. The display was permitted as part of the Capitol’s policy allowing private groups to put up holiday displays. Gov. Kim Reynolds said at the time that she found the display “absolutely objectionable,” but argued that “the best response to objectionable speech is more speech.” The display was later destroyed by a Christian man.

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