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Iowa city council debates proper time in meeting agenda to "undo the curse that was just put on our city."

An Iowa man has kicked off controversy over religious freedom in the small town of Ottumwa, Iowa by opening a city council meeting with a prayer to Satan, which then kicked off a debate about the proper time in the meeting agenda to undo the “curse.”

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[–] jve@lemmy.world 182 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

That prayer is fire.

Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds and darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferan impulse to eat off the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.”

Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not for their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations,” he continued. “Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all. That which will not bend must break. And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.”“It is done. Hail Satan,”

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 102 points 4 days ago (4 children)

What's ridiculous about it is, if any of the people who were offended actually sat down and analyzed the wording, the only thing they could reasonably object to is the "Hail Satan" at the end. Which illustrates the entire problem with Christian Nationalism. They don't care about the content, only the branding.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 58 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No, there are religious people that object heavily to truth seeking. One must only have faith, you don’t need truth!

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[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 321 points 5 days ago (5 children)

People often seem to forget that “Religious Freedom” means all religions, not just yours.

Never mind the importance of the separation of church and ~~skate~~ state

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 174 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm glad you fixed it. Some priests are not down with the separation of church and skate.

[–] Akasazh@lemmy.world 32 points 5 days ago (2 children)
[–] CharlesDarwin1809@piefed.world 31 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Forget air fryers, let's talk about air friars.

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[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 47 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You will literally hear dumb fuck xtians argue until they are blue in the face that what the Founders really meant to do was to merely allow you to choose among an array of xtian sects. Maybe if you are spicy, you'll be permitted to be Jewish, because well, Jesus was a Jew. And we will "tolerate" that.

Other xtians just seem to view "religious freedom" as "xtians get special privileges and they should be able to treat certain groups less-than if it suits them".

And man, they'll definitely get butthurt when you point out that the First pretty much requires that you have freedom FROM as well as freedom OF. And that "OF" means....anything, not just xtianity. I'll be a fucking pagan on Monday, fuck you very much because of that OF, and if I please, I'll be an atheist on Tuesday because of the FROM. Because that's real religious freedom.

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[–] slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.works 49 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

separation of church and skate

sings

Now, Heaven would be a DJ spinning dub all night long

And Heaven would be just kicking back with Jesus packing my bong

And if you don't believe in Jesus, then Muhammad or Buddha, too

And while the world is warring, we just sit back and laugh at you, singing

If I die before I wake

At least in Heaven, I can skate

'Cause right now on Earth, I can't do jack

Without the man up on my back

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 104 points 5 days ago (7 children)

They only want religious freedom when they're using their religion as an excuse to infringe on other people's rights. Hail Satan.

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[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 87 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

Another citizen, a pastor named Rick Bick, rushed to the podium. “Let’s just reverse that curse that was just put on our city,” he said. “That ending with hail Satan and hail dark god. That’s not welcome here.”

“Mayor, that should be done at the end,” city councilor Cara Galloway said.

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

“So what I’m gonna do now…I’m just gonna invite us into a 30 second time of prayer — time of silence.”

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

“As mayor of this city…I’m going to ask right now that we do 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,” mayor Benjamin Foote said.

I should start giving incantations, that reaction is gold.

[–] BrainBow65@lemmy.world 58 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

And this is exactly why the Satanic Temple exists.

Hail Satan

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 30 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I used to be a preacher, and am still a Christian. I also have given money to the Satanic Temple because the work they do is important.

Separation of church and state is good for the government, the churches, and society at large.

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[–] Zedstrian@sopuli.xyz 132 points 5 days ago (12 children)

At the Tuesday night council meeting, the audience stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance the moment Dalbey finished.

The dubiousness of unquestioning nationalism aside, the pledge of allegiance containing 'under god' also makes it a religious phrase.

[–] leg@leminal.space 59 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

It's honestly so weird. The whole ritual needs to be done away with

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[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.social 80 points 5 days ago

"No, not like that!"

They say "religion" but what they really mean is "christofascism"

[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago

And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.

🔥🔥🔥

[–] _wizard@lemmy.world 116 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Pratai@piefed.ca 52 points 5 days ago (6 children)

Does he drive taxis? Or are you just forecasting the weather to him?

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[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 67 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What's the matter Rick? Too much freedom for you?

[–] TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's something most Americans don't understand about our history. We love to claim that the first settlers in the modern-day states (Puritans mostly) were 'fleeing religious persecution' and sought a new land where they could gain 'freedom of religion'. Pretty much all of that is wrong, they were a fringe early-Protestant group who wanted to distance themselves from the new Church of England which they felt was still too Catholic. Once they got here, anything and everything they considered too heretical was... well, see the Salem Witch Trials for a prime example. They were the epitome of "freedom for me, not for thee" and that attitude/practice went on to infect the whole rest of the country as history progressed.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 26 points 5 days ago

To paraphrase the immortal Robin Williams: "people so uptight the english told them to get the fuck out"

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 41 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I can't help but wonder at the fundies that want to insert their beliefs into the government. The separation of church and state protects the church from the state just as much as it protects the state from the church.

After all there's no guarantee that the official state sanctioned religion couldn't end up being Mormonism or Islam or any of thousands of other religions that you might object to. Even some of the founding fathers were deists who created the depictions of blindfolded justice and lady liberty to be new gods of America.

Even as a Christian myself, I'm glad that the satanists are there to help teach this lesson.

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[–] TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 50 points 4 days ago (7 children)

What a simple minded bumblefuck. 'oh no, a curse'.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 32 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The ridiculous part of this whole thing is if you listen to what the guy actually said, if you get rid of the 'dear dark father' at the beginning and 'hail satan' at the end, it's actually a pretty good invocation that SHOULD have no problem at a council meeting.

Didn't at all sound like a curse to me, sounded like good advice for a city council.

....let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds and darkened times. Let us embrace the ... impulse to eat off the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old. Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not for their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations. Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all. That which will not bend must break. And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise. ..."

If you ignore the Lucifer stuff, it's a damn solid invocation. Apparently that pastor dude couldn't see past the Lucifer stuff and called this a curse.

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago

"Let's be reasonable"

"CUUUUUURSE"

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[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 92 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Rick Bick is a party pooper. Don't be a dick, Rick Bick.

The prayer is a common one used by the Satanic Temple of Iowa. “Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not for their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations,” he continued. “Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true. Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all. That which will not bend must break. And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.”“It is done. Hail Satan,” he finished.

Another citizen, a pastor named Rick Bick, rushed to the podium. “Let’s just reverse that curse that was just put on our city,” he said. “That ending with hail Satan and hail dark god. That’s not welcome here.”

[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 64 points 5 days ago

Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not for their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations.

Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true.

Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all.

That which will not bend must break. And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.

Think about it. To me that sounds like a literal slice of heaven, especially that last line.

But this guy's convinced it's a curse. Either that or the ~~multi-syllabic~~ big words made him scared.

Sounds like Rick Bick is thick as a fucking brick.

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[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 50 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

That prayer was pure poetry. You can state the exact opposite of what's said in the christian bible and it makes perfect, rational sense.

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[–] Kaligalis@lemmy.world 27 points 4 days ago (2 children)

How was that even a prayer. Bro just urged everyone to act based on evidence instead of superstition.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 20 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

In American that can be considered very controversial.

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[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 39 points 4 days ago (2 children)

So I actually think that the government officials did about as well as they could here.
They let the person make their statement, and then someone not in the government interrupted to say they had to "undo the curse". Official said that wasn't in the agenda, and then the mayor said they would just pause for 30 seconds to reflect before moving on to keep things from getting off the rails.

Galloway spent the moment of silence with her head up and her arms crossed. An hour later, she spoke up. “Opening with an invocation means allowing viewpoints that may not reflect our own and responding to someone’s invocation is a slippery slope to putting a financial liability on the taxpayers and allowing others to object or respond. This is exactly why I had concerns about having an invocation when we first talked about it.”

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[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 29 points 4 days ago

Let's allow prayer in government functions.

Surprised Pikachu face

No, not like that.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 45 points 5 days ago (11 children)

I'm in Texas, where this kind of nonsense is standard. I've spoken out at multiple school boards to successfuly stop in-school prayer time. Most of the evangelical folks pushing it grumble about it without understanding that we are saving them from themselves.

The most interesting address was a devout Christian lady who had come from a district where they approved it early. She said one day her daughter came home doing sanitaria and when she complained, the school said that there was nothing they could do. She begged the schools not to make the same mistake.

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[–] SwissArmyKazoo@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What did the council think "religious freedom" meant? They should be blessed it wasn't a Scientology rhetoric or symbolic narrative.

Now that would be highly demonic and inhumane.

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[–] Naive@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago
[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 48 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

Lucifer was the most beautiful of all angels and was cast down to earth for daring to question God's authority.

Not that any of those cross eyed bear-ing Christians would know that.

Edit: apparently this is Milton's fanfic.

[–] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 48 points 5 days ago (26 children)

That's fan fiction, it's from Paradise Lost, not from biblical canon

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[–] the_q@piefed.social 55 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I love that Satan is little more than "fuck you" to established systems and norms.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 50 points 5 days ago (17 children)

I mean, that is kindof Satan's whole deal.

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[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 46 points 5 days ago

What do you call people who believe in Satan?Christians*

* yes, yes, not just them, others too.

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