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An Iowa city council meeting opened Tuesday night with an invocation that began by addressing a “dark father” and ended with the words “Hail Satan.”
This was not a rumor, a parody clip, or a doctored video.
The official City of Ottumwa recording shows resident and former councilman Matt Dalbey delivering the invocation at the October 6 meeting before the Pledge of Allegiance.
The moment that set off the controversy is captured here:
Dalbey’s prayer called on those present to stand “unbowed” by religious doctrine, embrace what he called the “Luciferian impulse,” rely on reason, and resist arbitrary authority.
Then came the closing words that stunned the room: “It is done. Hail Satan.”
The meeting moved directly into the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “one nation under God.” Country singer John Rich zeroed in on that jarring sequence:
Wait a minute…they pray to satan, then say the Pledge of Allegiance? What??
— John Rich(@johnrich) October 7, 2026
Pastor Rick Bick of New Life Center did not let the moment pass quietly.
Just after the roll call began, Bick stood and said the city needed to “reverse that curse” immediately. Mayor Benjamin Foote paused the proceedings for roughly 30 seconds of silent reflection before the council continued with its agenda.
Bick’s full objection shows how forcefully he challenged the prayer in the room:
That immediate pushback was one reason the story spread so quickly Wednesday. Conservative commentator Gunther Eagleman said Ottumwa residents deserved answers about how the invocation landed on the schedule:
A CITY COUNCIL IN IOWA JUST OPENED ITS MEETING WITH A PRAYER TO SATAN, AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I EVEN HAVE TO TYPE THAT.
The invocation at the Ottumwa city council meeting reportedly ended with the words "Hail Satan."
This is a small town in the heartland, not some coastal college campus.
When a community starts letting the devil lead off its public meetings, something has gone badly wrong with the people running the show.
Ottumwa residents deserve answers about how this got on the agenda and who signed off on it.
Pray for that town today, because they clearly need it more than ever
— Gunther Eagleman(@GuntherEagleman) October 7, 2026
The answer lies in a policy the council adopted in January.
The City of Ottumwa invocation policy says any city resident may volunteer to deliver a prayer or invocation of up to two minutes. The mayor keeps the volunteer list, and applicants are placed on the meeting schedule on a first-come, first-served basis.
The policy expressly says the city is not endorsing any faith. It was written to include organized religions, unorganized religions, other belief systems, and people with no religious belief at all.
It also bars the mayor from reviewing or censoring an invocation before it is delivered to the council and citizens.
In other words, the very rules meant to keep the government from choosing a favored religion also opened the door to Tuesday night’s Satanic prayer.
Councilwoman Cara Galloway was the only member to vote against that policy when it was adopted.
Near the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Galloway said the controversy was exactly why she had raised concerns. Once the city opened its meetings to invocations, she argued, officials had to remain neutral toward viewpoints they did not share or risk legal trouble for taxpayers.
Ottumwa Radio independently confirmed Wednesday that Dalbey delivered the invocation and that the city permits people from different religious and philosophical backgrounds to participate. Its local report points readers directly to the complete council recording instead of relying on a social-media excerpt.
The local outlet also confirms the basic sequence: the invocation came first, then the council proceeded with the rest of its scheduled business. That matters because it rules out the idea that the prayer was merely an unscheduled public comment spliced onto a meeting clip.
Dalbey was the council’s scheduled invocation speaker, and the prayer was part of the official opening of the meeting.
The report was published the morning after the meeting, making it a same-day local confirmation of the event now exploding across X.
The City of Ottumwa’s full meeting video leaves no doubt about what happened—or about how quickly a local pastor pushed back. The prayer begins less than half a minute into the city’s official recording and ends with “Hail Satan” shortly after the one-minute mark.
The council then recites the Pledge of Allegiance. Minutes later, Bick objects, calls the invocation a curse on the city, and insists that it be answered immediately.
Mayor Foote responds by pausing for silent reflection before the council resumes its agenda.
At the end of the meeting, Galloway returns to the issue and says officials must remain neutral because they chose to open the chamber to competing viewpoints.
A policy sold as a way to honor religious diversity just produced a Satanic invocation in the heart of Iowa. The city may have a constitutional reason for treating applicants equally, but residents are fully entitled to decide whether opening council meetings this way was wise in the first place.
And after Tuesday night, that debate is no longer theoretical.
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
