On Tuesday, October 6, Matt Dalbey, a former council member, opened the Ottumwa, Iowa, city council meeting with an invocation that began "Dear dark father" and ended "Hail Satan." He's a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa. He spoke under a policy the council adopted in January that lets any resident give the invocation. A local pastor, Rick Bick, then demanded the council "reverse this curse." Mayor Benjamin Foote called a moment of silence. On Thursday, Foote told The Christian Post he intends to tell Dalbey he can't give another invocation. He says he'll first document where it broke city policy. Dalbey is on the schedule again for November 3. On Friday, a national church-state group asked the council to stop opening meetings with prayer at all.

The Mayor Says the Prayer Crossed a Line

He wants to keep council prayer but block this speaker.

He says the prayer doesn't speak for Ottumwa. Foote told Fox News Digital the invocation "does not represent the faith or the values of families who call this city home." He calls himself "a born-again Christian, a prayer warrior."

He plans to block Dalbey's next turn. "When those are documented, it is my intention to inform Mr. Dalbey that he is not allowed to give another invocation," Foote told The Christian Post. He's also reviewing the policy so the city can "continue to have prayer and safeguard against statements like what we saw on Tuesday." For now the policy is unchanged, and the council hasn't set a date to discuss it. He told KTVO that free speech has limits when "you're manipulating someone else."

The pastor who objected calls it a curse. Bick told the council "that was a curse put on the city" and demanded the council reverse it right away. He later told the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, "I probably was out of order." Councilman Bill Hoffman Jr. stepped into the hallway during the prayer because he's "a Christian man with Christian values."

The Satanic Temple Says This Is Religious Liberty

Its members say an open policy means Satanists get a turn too.

An open policy means Satanists get a turn too, the Temple says. "This is not an abuse of religious liberty. This is what religious liberty looks like," Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves told KYOU. He said that if the city can't accept the occasional Satanist, "they should discard the policy entirely."

The speaker says he wasn't cursing the city. Dalbey told the Ottumwa Courier the text "has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity." The Satanic Temple of Iowa calls itself "resolutely non-theistic." Dalbey told KTVO the town tends to "jump to conclusions." The Satanic Temple is already suing the state over a Capitol event it was denied. The ACLU of Iowa is bringing that case.

And City Officials Say the Policy Lets Him Speak

They warn that changing the rules could invite a lawsuit.

He broke no rules, city leaders say, KYOU reported. "We cannot discriminate against a denomination," the city posted on Facebook. But the mayor says he's reviewing it anyway. The policy bars the mayor, council and city staff from reviewing an invocation's content in advance.

A council member says she warned them before the vote. Council member Cara Galloway cast the only vote against the policy. "This is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it," she said at the end of Tuesday's meeting. She warned that responding to an invocation risks "putting a financial liability on the taxpayers."

The city administrator warns a policy change could bring a lawsuit. City Administrator Philip Rath said on KBIZ radio that an open policy means "you have to be open to allow people to express their different beliefs." He warned that revising it "could open it up for a potential suit down the road." In 2014, the Supreme Court upheld prayers at town board meetings in Town of Greece v. Galloway. It did so partly because the town welcomed speakers of different religious views, including atheists.

But Church-State Watchdogs Say Stop Praying at Meetings

They say the fix is no invocations for anyone.

The city can't let one faith veto another, they argue. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent Foote and the council a letter Friday. "Government officials cannot invite citizens of diverse religious and nonreligious perspectives to deliver invocations and then permit one religious group to effectively veto or 'correct' an invocation," wrote FFRF Legal Counsel Christopher Line.

They want the council to drop invocations entirely. FFRF asked the council to end the practice and send a written response. "City council members who feel the need to pray about liquor licenses, sewers and variances can pray on their own time and dime," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Where This Lands

Foote says he'll keep council prayer, and he intends to bar Dalbey once he documents where the invocation broke the policy. The Satanic Temple says the city has to let everyone speak or drop the policy. The city's own administrator warns that rewriting the rules could draw a lawsuit. FFRF wants the invocations gone. The policy gives a disqualified speaker 10 days to file an appeal. As of Saturday, Dalbey is still on the schedule for the November 3 meeting.

Sources