An Iowa city council opened with "Hail Satan". The reason it was allowed surprises people

"Let us pray. Dear dark father."

That is how the Ottumwa City Council meeting in Iowa began on Tuesday, 6 October 2026. It was the invocation, the short prayer some councils say before the Pledge of Allegiance.

The man at the lectern talked about a "Luciferian impulse". He finished with four words that have now spread across America: "It is done. Hail Satan."

A clip of the moment was posted online the next day with the words "WTF is wrong with these people???" It passed 5.2 million views. The replies called it a "spiritual war". Many asked how a city could let this happen.

The answer is in the city's own rule book. And in a Supreme Court case from 2014.

Who gave the Satanic prayer in Ottumwa?

His name is Matt Dalbey. He lives in Ottumwa. He is also a former member of the same city council, the Washington Times and the Ottumwa Courier report.

Dalbey told the Courier he is a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa. He said the words he read are a text the group uses.

He also said the language "has nothing to do with the belief in a satanic deity". He told the paper he did not do it to make a point, and he did not put a curse on the city.

Many people find that hard to square. The Satanic Temple says its members do not believe in Satan or in anything supernatural. It treats Satan as a symbol of the rebel, not a god. It organises its beliefs around seven tenets, such as compassion and the freedom to offend.

So to its members, "Hail Satan" is a statement. To many people in the room, it sounded like something much darker.

Photo: Gcardinal101 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

What happened after the "Hail Satan" prayer?

The room did not move on quietly.

After the Pledge, Pastor Rick Bick of Ottumwa's New Life Center stood up. He called the prayer a curse on the city. He said "Hail Satan" is not welcome in Ottumwa, and he asked for a prayer right away to "reverse this curse".

Council member Cara Galloway pushed back. She said he could speak later, in the public comment slot where residents raise their issues. She urged the council to get on with its agenda. The Courier reports she has never stood for an invocation at all.

Then Mayor Benjamin Foote stepped in. He called for a "30 second time of prayer". He then reframed it as a time of silence for reflection, and the room went quiet.

At the end of the meeting, Galloway raised the issue again. She warned that reacting to one invocation could be a "slippery slope". She said it could invite more objections and leave taxpayers open to legal costs.

Why did Ottumwa allow a Satanic prayer at a council meeting?

Because of a rule the council made itself, this year.

On 20 January 2026, the council passed Resolution 18-2026 by four votes to one. Galloway was the only no. The rule opened the invocation slot to every resident.

The city's policy sets these terms:

The council also agreed to time-stamp every request. People in the audience at that January meeting asked for protection against any sense of unfair treatment.

City officials do not see the words in advance. The city says it does not automatically agree with what a speaker says.

City Administrator Philip Rath explained it on KBIZ radio's "Dialogue" show. He said an open policy has to allow different beliefs. Changing it, he warned, could "open it up for a potential suit down the road".

The city said it got calls all day on Wednesday. It described them as mixed, with many rude and profane.

Photo: en:User:Cburnett / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Is it legal to open a council meeting with prayer?

Yes, and a Supreme Court ruling sets the terms.

In May 2014, the US Supreme Court decided a case called Town of Greece v. Galloway. A small town in New York opened its meetings with prayers, and most of them were Christian. Two residents sued.

The court ruled 5 to 4 for the town. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that prayer at a public meeting is allowed, even if it names one faith.

But there was a catch. The town had to be fair in choosing who prays. It could not turn people away because of their religion, and it could not force anyone to join in.

That catch is the key to Ottumwa. Once a city opens the door to anyone who signs up, it cannot shut the door on one group it dislikes. Doing that is how cities end up in court.

By pure coincidence, the woman who lost that 2014 case shares a surname with the one Ottumwa council member who voted against the open policy. There is no known link between the two.

Has a Satanic prayer happened at other council meetings?

Ottumwa is far from the first. The Satanic Temple has asked to give invocations in many US cities, and each city has handled it in its own way.

Scottsdale won its case because of one detail. The city said the Temple group lacked "substantial community ties" to Scottsdale. The judge found the city had not discriminated against the group's beliefs.

That defence is hard to picture in Ottumwa. The speaker lives there. He once sat at that same council table.

Phoenix and Tulsa took the other road. Rather than pick and choose who prays, they dropped the spoken prayer for everyone and replaced it with silence.

Photo: Loco Steve / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

What can Ottumwa do now?

The city has three real choices, based on what other places have done.

It can keep the open policy as it is. That means Christian, Jewish, non-religious and Satanic speakers all get their turn in the queue.

It can do what Phoenix and Tulsa did and swap the prayer for a moment of silence. That ends the fight, but it also ends prayer at meetings for everyone, including the churches that wanted it.

Or it can try to limit who speaks. Rath has already warned that this road could lead to a lawsuit.

Who people in Ottumwa want in charge, and how far religious freedom should stretch at a council meeting, are now the big questions in town. Questions like these often come down to local politics, much like the fights over what a council does with your money. And faith can stir strong feelings in public spaces, as Armenia's giant new statue of Jesus showed.

Who gets the next prayer in Ottumwa?

The rule is still the rule. First come, first served. Two minutes. Any resident.

Pastor Bick wanted a prayer that night to answer the one he heard. Under the policy the council passed in January, he can have one. All he has to do is sign up.

So can every other believer in Ottumwa. The same open door that let "Hail Satan" into City Hall is wide open to every church in town. The next meeting might be the most crowded prayer queue Ottumwa has ever seen.