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submitted 2 days ago by cannedtuna@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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[-] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 32 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

True, but he also probably would have a problem with most of the content as well as the flavoring

[-] jtrek@startrek.website 3 points 1 day ago

When you're interfacing with the world emotionally, that's how it goes. I mean, we're all emotional, but for some people that's the bulk of it. Emotions create reality. For other people they're more advisory.

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
1035 points (99.5% liked)

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