“An invocation at the beginning of Tuesday’s Ottumwa City Council meeting overshadowed everything else that took place over the course of 80 minutes.
Resident and former council member Matt Dalbey read a satanic prayer - capped off by ‘Hail Satan’ to kick off the meeting at City Hall, leading to a reaction from New Life Center pastor Rick Bick during a contentious opening few minutes of the meeting.
In a private message, Dalbey said the prayer is used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, ‘but has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity.’
The Satanic Temple of Iowa is ‘a resolutely non-theistic’ religious organization that follows seven core, according to its website.
Soon after Dalbey left the podium and after the council, staff and audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Bick had his turn, and was out of turn with the meetings protocol of speaking on agenda items.
’Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That “Hail Satan” is not welcome here,’ Beck said.
Council member Cara Galloway, who has never stood for an invocation, said that Bick should speak during the portion of the meeting where citizens can speak on either agenda or non-agenda items; Bick spoke after the roll call was taken and as the council was to discuss the consent agenda.
’It needs to be done now,’ he said. ‘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.’
Mayor Benjamin Foote then called for a 30-second moment of silence ‘to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time,’ but again, Galloway said ‘it was time to move forward’ before being overruled by the mayor. …
The city released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding the prayer, and said ‘we’ve been fielding calls all day … some calls have been cordial, while many have been rude and full of profanities.’
’We cannot discriminate against a denomination, and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol,’ the city said on its Facebook page. ‘We are not informed ahead of time what will be said for an invocation nor do we automatically endorse what the speaker is saying. We encourage everyone to review the policy.’
At the end of the meeting, Galloway reiterated her concern about the policy, just as she did months ago before the council approved it.
’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,’ she said. ‘This is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it. 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.’ …
Dalbey is also scheduled to provide the invocation at the Nov. 3 city council meeting.”
www.ottumwacourier.com
Resident and former council member Matt Dalbey read a satanic prayer - capped off by ‘Hail Satan’ to kick off the meeting at City Hall, leading to a reaction from New Life Center pastor Rick Bick during a contentious opening few minutes of the meeting.
In a private message, Dalbey said the prayer is used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa, of which he is a member, ‘but has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity.’
The Satanic Temple of Iowa is ‘a resolutely non-theistic’ religious organization that follows seven core, according to its website.
Soon after Dalbey left the podium and after the council, staff and audience recited the Pledge of Allegiance, Bick had his turn, and was out of turn with the meetings protocol of speaking on agenda items.
’Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That “Hail Satan” is not welcome here,’ Beck said.
Council member Cara Galloway, who has never stood for an invocation, said that Bick should speak during the portion of the meeting where citizens can speak on either agenda or non-agenda items; Bick spoke after the roll call was taken and as the council was to discuss the consent agenda.
’It needs to be done now,’ he said. ‘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.’
Mayor Benjamin Foote then called for a 30-second moment of silence ‘to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time,’ but again, Galloway said ‘it was time to move forward’ before being overruled by the mayor. …
The city released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding the prayer, and said ‘we’ve been fielding calls all day … some calls have been cordial, while many have been rude and full of profanities.’
’We cannot discriminate against a denomination, and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol,’ the city said on its Facebook page. ‘We are not informed ahead of time what will be said for an invocation nor do we automatically endorse what the speaker is saying. We encourage everyone to review the policy.’
At the end of the meeting, Galloway reiterated her concern about the policy, just as she did months ago before the council approved it.
’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,’ she said. ‘This is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it. 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.’ …
Dalbey is also scheduled to provide the invocation at the Nov. 3 city council meeting.”
Satanic prayer causes uproar at city council meeting
OTTUMWA — An invocation at the beginning of Tuesday's Ottumwa City Council meeting overshadowed everything else that took place over the course of 80 minutes.
