‘HAIL SATAN’: Iowa council meeting erupts after bizarre Satanic ‘curse’

An Iowa council meeting has caused uproar after a former council member delivered a Satanic prayer during the opening invocation. Matt Dalbey, a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa, opened the Ottumwa city council meeting with a prayer beginning “Dear dark father”, invoking “the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge”, and ending with “Hail Satan”. He later said the prayer was used by The Satanic Temple of Iowa and “has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity”, according to The Ottumwa Courier. After the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, New Life Center pastor Rick Bick interrupted to object, condemning the invocation as a "curse" on the city. The moment quickly went viral and has caused widespread uproar online. The controversy follows a January city policy allowing any Ottumwa resident to deliver an invocation regardless of religion.