Satanic Temple display in Iowa Capital building<\/p>\n
An invocation at the beginning of Tuesday’s Ottumwa City Council meeting overshadowed everything else that took place over the course of 80 minutes.<\/p>\n
Resident and former council member Matt Dalbey read a satanic prayer \u2014 capped off by “Hail Satan” \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
The Satanic Temple of Iowa is “a resolutely non-theistic” religious organization that follows seven core tenants, according to its website.<\/p>\n
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 meeting’s protocol of speaking on agenda items.<\/p>\n
“Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city. That ‘Hail Satan’ is not welcome here,” Bick said.<\/p>\n
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 the council was to discuss the consent agenda.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Dalbey’s invocation was within the scope of the city’s invocation policy, which was approved Jan. 20, with Galloway the only council member to vote against it. In part, the policy says:<\/p>\n
“This policy is intended to acknowledge and express the City Council’s respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Ottumwa.”<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
“We cannot discriminate against a denomination, and everyone that is invited to peform 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.”<\/p>\n
At the end of the meeting, Galloway reiterated her concern about the policy, just as she did months ago before the council approved it.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
City administrator Philip Rath, in addressing the issue on KBIZ’s “Dialogue” show Wednesday morning, said the openness of the policy creates a bit of vacuum.<\/p>\n
“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. “You have to be open to allow people to express their different beliefs.”<\/p>\n
Rath did say a policy could be revisited, but that the openness currently protects the city from legal challenges.<\/p>\n
“If it gets amended or revised in any way, that could open it up for a potential suit down the road,” he said.<\/p>\n
The meeting had been viewed over 11,000 times on YouTube in the 24 hours since the video first went live on the city’s channel.<\/p>\n
Dalbey is also scheduled to provide the invocation at the Nov. 3 city council meeting.<\/p>\n
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