Remember this on Election Day: Iowa City Council Meeting Opens With Prayer to SATAN — Councilwoman Objects When Mayor Calls for Prayer to “Reverse” It

A man addressed the prayer to the “dark father,” which concluded with the words, “Hail Satan.

The moral decay forced upon America by radical leftists has reached a terrifying new low right in the heart of the Midwest.

An Iowa city council opened its regular meeting this week by standing for an invocation addressed to a “dark father,” praising the “luciferian impulse,” and closing with “Hail Satan.”

The City of Ottumwa’s official YouTube channel posted the October 6, 2026, regular meeting.

After the mayor called the 5:30 p.m. session to order and invited those who wished to participate in the invocation to stand, the scheduled speaker began: “Let us pray. Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times.”

He continued by urging the room to “embrace the luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old,” to judge people by “concrete actions” rather than “arbitrary social norms,” and to hold “only to that which is demonstrably true.”

He closed with the line that set off the room: “It is done. Hail Satan.” The Pledge of Allegiance followed immediately.

The city’s own invocation schedule lists the October 6 speaker as Matthew Dalbey, organization “None.” Dalbey is also listed for September 1 and November 3. The schedule is posted on the city’s website.

The clip spread after it was posted by Libs of TikTok, which tagged the city’s official account.

WATCH:

The invocation did not pass without pushback.

During the official recording of the meeting, a man identified as Rick called on city leaders to “reverse that curse that was just put on our city,” referring to the invocation that ended with “Hail Satan” and an appeal to a “dark god.”

Cara Galloway objected, telling Mayor Ben Foote, “Yeah, Mayor, this should be done at EER at the end.”

Rick pushed back.

“I appreciate what Miss Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on a city when he said, ‘Hail Satan’ and ‘oh dark god.’ Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it,” he said. “It needs to be done now.”

Mayor Ben Foote then called for 30 seconds of silence so those in attendance could pray or reflect.

Galloway immediately interrupted.

“No, we are at consent agenda. I’m sorry, but it’s time to move forward. The invocation happened,” she said.

Foote refused to be deterred.

“As the mayor of Ottumwa and the one running this meeting, I’m going to ask right now that we have a moment of silence to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time, and then we will move to the consent agenda,” Foote said.

You can watch the full video below:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/remember-this-election-day-iowa-city-council-meeting/