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A heated moment unfolded at an Ottumwa City Council meeting in Iowa after former council member Matt Dalbey delivered a satanic-themed invocation before Tuesday’s session.

Dalbey’s prayer referenced the “dark father,” Luciferian ideas and ended with “Hail Satan,” prompting Pastor Rick Bick to interrupt the meeting. Bick called the invocation a “curse” and urged the council to immediately reverse it.

Mayor Benjamin Foote then paused the proceedings and called for 30 seconds of silence, allowing people to pray or reflect. Foote later said the invocation did not represent the faith or values of Ottumwa families.

Council member Cara Galloway defended the need for neutrality, noting that allowing invocations could also mean accepting viewpoints that some residents strongly oppose. She said the controversy reflected concerns she had raised when the city introduced its invocation policy.

Dalbey, a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa, said the prayer does not represent belief in a literal Satanic deity. Another council member also defended his First Amendment right while choosing not to participate.

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Transcript
00:00It's 530.
00:01I'm calling this meeting to order.
00:02We will start with the invocation and the pledge.
00:04So those that would like to participate in the invocation, please stand.
00:16Thank you, Mayor and Council.
00:17Let us pray.
00:19Dear Dark Father, let us stand now unbowed and unfed by arcane doctrines born of fearful
00:23minds in darkened times.
00:25Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate
00:29our blissful and comforting delusions of old.
00:32Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not their fealty to
00:36arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations.
00:41Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which
00:46is demonstrably true.
00:47Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty
00:51of one or all.
00:52That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never
00:57be spared its demise.
00:58It is done.
00:59Hail Satan.
01:06I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for
01:13which it stands, one nation, another God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
01:21I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and I pledge allegiance to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the United States of America, and to the flag of
01:22the United States of America, and to the flag of the flag of the United States of America, and to
01:22the flag

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