City Regrets New Religious Liberty Law Allowing Prayer at City Council Meeting

In Ottumwa, Iowa, a newly adopted city policy allowing invocations before council meetings sparked immediate controversy when former councilor and member of the Satanic Temple, Matt Dalbey, opened a routine meeting with a Satanic invocation. His remarks prompted a pastor and at least one councilor, Cara Galloway, to demand an immediate reversal or counter-prayer; mayor Benjamin Foote instead called a brief moment of silence and moved the meeting on. Critics argued the opening created political and financial risk by inviting contested religious expressions during official proceedings, while supporters pointed out the invocation policy - passed January 20 - requires anyone wanting to speak to sign up electronically and allows applicants to list no organizational affiliation.

Dalbey, who says he is a nontheist constitutionalist and served eight years on the council, framed his act as a defense of the separation of church and state and warned against rising Christian nationalism. He’s scheduled to give another invocation in November and has expressed willingness to see the policy rescinded to avoid the legal complications he says it creates. The incident is presented as the latest flashpoint in a decade-long culture-war struggle in Iowa over public religious expression, including competing nativity displays, a Baphomet exhibit that was vandalized, and recent legal fights involving the Satanic Temple and state religious-freedom measures.