Iowa Pastor Confronts Satanic Invocation at City Council Meeting

An Iowa pastor is speaking out after confronting a Satanic invocation delivered during an Ottumwa City Council meeting, saying he could not remain silent while his community was being subjected to what he viewed as a spiritual curse.

Pastor Rick Bick of New Life Center Foursquare Church attended Tuesday’s meeting expecting to observe routine council business. Instead, former council member Matt Dalbey approached the front of the room and offered an invocation that appealed to the “Luciferian impulse” before concluding with the words, “Hail Satan.”

Bick said he immediately challenged Dalbey, asking whether he had actually invoked Satan. According to the pastor, Dalbey defended his statement by arguing that if Christians could pray in Jesus’ name, he could likewise use a Satanic declaration.

“No, you can’t do that here, not here,” Bick recalled responding during an interview on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.”

Although it was not his scheduled time to speak, Bick then went to the microphone and called for the invocation’s spiritual impact to be reversed.

“Let’s just reverse this curse that was put on our city,” he told those assembled, adding that declarations honoring Satan or a “dark god” were not welcome.

Bick said his reaction flowed from a longstanding commitment to pray for Ottumwa and seek its welfare. He described the city’s spiritual history as complicated, pointing to past involvement with witchcraft and Wicca while also recalling seasons of Christian revival.

The pastor emphasized that he was not seeking media attention. He said he acted because he believed the moment demanded an immediate response and cited 1 John 4:4: “Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.”

Perkins praised Bick as a spiritual “watchman” who refused to allow fear or public pressure to silence him. Commentator Casey Harper similarly urged Christians not to passively accept every message presented by public officials or institutions.

The incident has renewed debate about religious expression in civic settings, but for Bick, the matter was straightforward: when darkness was publicly invoked, someone needed to stand and answer it with faith.

“Don’t get preoccupied with the evil,” Perkins concluded. “Nurture the good.”

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