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.
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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Well, there’s Cathartic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, New Calvinist, Presbyterian, Fellowship, Chirch of Christ. Yep, I think that’s about everyone. The Muslims know to keep their heads down around here because we do this sort of thing and I think we’re ok with the Jews for now.
-The Council probably.
How was that even a prayer. Bro just urged everyone to act based on evidence instead of superstition.
I'm America that can be considered very controversial.
Around here, “evolution” and atheism are considered religions. I have personally heard people preach against “those who worship at the altars of science”.
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,”
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.
No, there are religious people that object heavily to truth seeking. One must only have faith, you don’t need truth!
Jebus never lies and neither do old racist southern preachers.
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Not sure if the "luciferan impulse to eat off the tree of knowledge" would slide all too well
"They don’t care about the content, only the branding." - Which is also the problem with Trumpism.
The venn diagram is a circle within a circle
Jesus freak here and I concur. This prayer is a 10/10 no notes.
This you?
Actually yes, kinda, lol. Not religious but definitely trying to live in a Christlike manner. Everything in that prayer is a call to the highest, godliest principles. If anyone who claims the name of Jesus has a problem with it, they're wolves in sheep's clothing. But I don't think I need to tell y'all that :3
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.
The number of Christian sects in the U.S. isn't 1, isn't 5, isn't 10, isn't 20. It's more than 200. It's very clear that Christians don't and have never agreed with each other so it is absolutely rediculous for any Christian to think "what we believe" means all Christians. Hell there are so many people that call themselves non-denominational simply because they don't want to claim parts of the Bible hated by others.
If we tally it up according to Christians all Christians will go to hell, which they made up.
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Can you imagine what Trump would have done if he had control over an official state religion?
We'd have official Trump bibles in every school. They'd be changing doctrine to more closely align with Trump's values. He'd be threatening them if they ever spoke against him
Let's allow prayer in government functions.
Surprised Pikachu face
No, not like that.
Fundies: WE DEMAND RELIGION BEING INSERTED WHERE IT DOESNT BELONG
Satanic Temple: rubs hands together excellent.
Fundies: NO WAIT NOT LIKE THAT. ONLY FOR US.
Pastor Rick Bick!!!!!! I’m dying, I can’t breath, and I’m dying. This can’t be fucking real life. This is perfect.
They only want religious freedom when they're using their religion as an excuse to infringe on other people's rights. Hail Satan.
Hail Satan.
Hail Stan
Cthulhu fhtagn!
rAmen
And that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise.
🔥🔥🔥
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.
And this is exactly why the Satanic Temple exists.
Hail Satan
Thick prick Rick Bick is a sick dick.
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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What a simple minded bumblefuck. 'oh no, a curse'.
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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"Let's be reasonable"
"CUUUUUURSE"
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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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Looks like stupid, hypocritical Republican Christians are having the day they voted for yet again. FAFO you bunch of morons.
I grew up independent evangelical. Many times, a visiting pastor would say something the home pastor disagreed with. Invariably, home pastor would use closing prayer as a way to correct what the visiting pastor said. Sometimes they'd turn it into a mini sermon of their own with scripture passages. This is like that, but way funnier.
Hail Satan
"No, not like that!"
They say "religion" but what they really mean is "christofascism"
"Oops, I thought this was freedom only for me."
Badass ex councilman. And yeah, if any prayers belong at the beginning of government proceedings it's ones like that.
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