Deal With the Devil

 

A month or so ago and again this week, our little town made the news when a prayer before the local city council started led to a prayer to Satan. As usual, the media outlets across the country picked up the "story" with sensationalized headlines but had absolutely zero backstory. A guy stood up and said a prayer to Satan, not once, but now for the second time. That was all the details offered. 

The backstory actually began eight or nine months ago when our city council voted to allow their meetings opened with a prayer by any citizen who wished to sign up. I of course was against it because I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state as generally interpreted by our First Amendment in our Constitution. Only one city council member thought it might lead to trouble in the future and was the lone dissenting vote. 

The warning shot came later when a few months later, a fellow citizen offered up an amusing prayer in a Star Wars theme, among other things urging the Force to be with the city council. 

Then a month ago, a citizen stood up and said a prayer to Satan. What wasn't reported was that the man offering the prayer was a former city council person, wasn't a Satanist and was merely trying to "stir the pot" that the city council created by inviting churches into state meetings. The same guy is signed up for more prayers, you have to sign up months in advance, and indeed, gave a second Satanic prayer this week. The city can't refuse or the man will surely file a justly lawsuit for discrimination on religious grounds. I am now sitting back with my bag of popcorn watching my city council trying to gracefully get them out of the pickle they created.

As it turned out, my church's priest had signed up to lead the invocational prayer the very next city council meeting after the first prayer to Satan. Upon his urging, he asked for parishioners to join him in reciting St. Michael's Prayer at the end of his invocation. I decided to show up along with quite a few others and we indeed recited the prayer. However, I have mixed feelings about the effect it will have. I think it will likely just amp up a prayer war now across the city as people jockey to get their prayer to whatever entity they believe in to be heard by our entire city. The chances of something more shocking the a prayer to Satan is highly likely I think. I don't think our prayer to St. Michael will show the public that Satan has no place in our world as others might believe. The city has little to say about the prayer. 

The second prayer to Satan involved a man in the audience standing up and shouting the Lord's Prayer over the Satanic prayer. The latter man was rightfully removed since he wasn't authorized to speak. At the last two city council meetings now, the open to the public portion at the end, has been a half hour of religious discussions, all from Christians who oppose the Satanic prayer but not necessarily the period of prayer itself. All this reinforces my belief that religion of all types has no place in our governments. I hope our city council realized the error of their ways before this circus gets any worse.