Earlier this week, attendees at a city county meeting in Iowa were surprised by the invocation given by a former city council member. To say the least, it was very disturbing.
Onetime Ottumwa City Council member, Matt Dalbey, was recognized to give the invocation at the beginning of the evening’s meeting. He opened the evening by praying to “dark father” and continued down a very Satanic path with the balance of his “prayer.” He prayed for dark father (I refuse to capitalize either word) to “embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge” and went on to eventually end the 45 second prayer with the the words, “Hail Satan…”
Mr. Dalbey then returned to his seat and the next item in the order of the meeting was to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Clearly, this highly unusual and inappropriate prayer was unexpected and left the entire room silent without anyone really knowing what to do next. After the pledge, New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick immediately spoke up demanding that Dalbey’s prayer be renounced. He claimed that the invocation was a curse upon the city and used language that was not welcome here.
Oddly, one member of the city council, Cara Galloway, thought it wrong to offer another prayer or to stop the proceedings to allow time for a rebuttal to the invocation. To my surprise and delight, the Mayor pulled rank and compromised by asking for 30 seconds of silence throughout the council and gallery to reflect on what was just heard before the pledge and to deal with it in whatever way the audience felt appropriate. There was still some pushback but the Mayor prevailed and the moment of silence was observed. Things then proceeded according to the set agenda for the evening.
Galloway’s position was clear – she said, “I just want to remind us that again, sometimes things are said that we may not agree with – and while you’re allowed to do the moment of silence and that kind of thing, too, I think we have opened ourselves up to for others to object or respond to others’ invocation.” She continued, “And we need to remember that we are up here to be neutral and allow viewpoints because we have opened up invocations.”
The last part of her statement was a reference to the fact that the city adopted a policy last January does not endorse any faith or religious denomination but is intended to “acknowledge and express the City Council’s respect for the diversity of organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced by the citizens of the city of Ottumwa.”
Later, Mayor Foote told Fox News Digital, “The is not a reflection of our community. As the mayor of my hometown in Iowa, I know the people of Ottumwa and the invocation read at the start of Tuesday’s meeting doesn’t not represent the faith or the values of families who call this city home.” In response, Galloway responded that allowing a pre-meeting invocation invites such controversy.”
Another council member, Bill Hoffman, a Christian, left the chamber at the beginning of the Satanic invocation and returned in time for the Pledge of Allegiance. He said, “I’m a Christian, with Christian values – He exercised his right to not listen to a prayer offered to Satan.
Clearly, this entire fiasco creates something of a conundrum. I don’t think the powers that be ever envisioned someone offering prayer to Satan in Ottumwa; or pronouncing a curse on the city…It seems to me that things are getting out of hand in so many different areas. Several years ago it was the removal of statues and trying to re-write history. In fact, I just read that Columbus Day is getting back on the calendar after several years of neglect and removal from our celebrations.
I don’t know how we will sort all of this out. There are always outliers in society but our country was not founded on the principles of Satanic worship. We do know that Satan currently has access to the throne room of God in heaven. That will be the case until Revelation 12, when Satan and his demons (fallen angels) are vanquished and thrown out of heaven. That becomes our verse for tonight. Regardless of what happens in city council meetings throughout the land, ultimately, God wins, and so do we! You can count on it!
The apostle John, who wrote the Book of Revelation, tells us, in Revelation 12:7-10, “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”
My encouragement this evening is that no matter what people who worship Satan say, they are on the wrong side and will eventually receive eternal damnation and separation from God. My prayer is that, as Christians, and knowing the truth about eternal life with God, we should never discontinue our mission to spread the Good News of the Scripture so that as many others as possible may accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…