Matt Dalbey, himself a former Ottumwa City Council member, was permitted to lead the invocation at the Oct. 6 meeting. He did so by reading from a written prayer that asked for help from the “dark father” and ended with a “Hail, Satan” declaration.
“Dear dark father,” Dalbey began, “let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times.”
Dalbey has been identified in news reports as a member of the Satanic Temple of Iowa.
"Yeah, they call themselves Satanist," Dalbey told KTVO, a TV News station. "But I understand their metaphor there, but that's no big deal. I like what they stand for.”
His prayer appeared to be a standard one Satanists read from that claims they cherish reason and science above religious beliefs. They also deny any belief in spirituality, including in Satan himself, hence the Satanists claim – at least publicly – their prayer is not spiritual in nature.
Former Satanists, however, especially ones who find Christ, often describe being pulled into a dark spiritual world of the occult.
Christa Pike, the Tennessee inmate who recently survived a botched execution, also denied being a Satanist despite the heinous nature of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
Authorities reported they found a Satanic altar in the home of Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Shipp carved a Pentagram into Slemmer's chest, and Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull as a trophy.
Ottumwa adopted invocation policy
Satanists also use their prayer to push First Amendment boundaries and to challenge the legal limits of biblical invocations.
Dalbey's appearance came after the City of Ottumwa adopted an invocation policy in January, according to The Ottumwa Courier.
The policy states the city government 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."
What followed Dalbey’s appearance was a plea from an Ottumwa church pastor, Rick Bick, to not let a prayer to Satan go unchallenged. Alarmed by the Satanic prayer, he urged the city council to not allow it to happen without a spiritual counterattack.
“Let's just reverse this curse that was put on our city,” Bick, pastor of New Life Center, implored Mayor Benjamin Foote and the city council.
Over the objections of a city council member, Cara Galloway, Mayor Foote permitted a 30-second moment of silence.
Pastor recalls confrontation with Satanist
Invited to recount his story on “Washington Watch,” Pastor Bick said he attends the city council meetings on a regular basis. He told show host Tony Perkins he was sitting on the front row when Dalby, who had been seated behind him, shocked everyone with his “dark father” prayer.
“Everything in me went like, no, we're not cursing — he just cursed our city. We’re not going to do that,” Bick recalled.
Bick acknowledged he was out of order, meaning he interrupted the agenda schedule to plead with Mayor Foote to take action.
“Your heart is for your city,” Perkins told the church pastor. “You’re what I call a watchman, a spiritual watchman.”
Pastor Bick also shared that he and Dalbey exchanged words after the Satanic prayer. When he walked past, the shocked pastor asked the former city council member if he really said “Hail, Satan” in the city invocation.
“And he said, ‘Yeah, if you can say in the name of Jesus, I can say Hail Satan,’” Bick recalled.
Asked about the spiritual climate of the city, the church pastor told Perkins that Ottumwa has confronted witchcraft, the Wiccan religion, and mystical Native American beliefs, in the past.
“We believe it's to be a city where the light of God shines forth,” the pastor declared, “and touches and changes the nation.”
