Ottumwa, Iowa Invited Religious Freedom and Got Exactly What It Ordered
A Satanic invocation sent a pastor into curse control. The warning had already been delivered.
A note from Lawrence
On October 6 a former Ottumwa city council member delivered a Satanic invocation at a council meeting. A pastor named Rick Bick (really) demanded the city reverse the curse, and the mayor called for thirty seconds of silence. Municipal government briefly became The Exorcist, with Robert’s Rules of Order in full force.
The thing is, the council adopted its invocation policy on January 20, and it explicitly embraces other belief systems and the absence of belief, and forbids the city from preferring one faith. Those were the instructions, printed, adopted, by a vote. The surprise is roughly equivalent to opening a salad bar and discovering someone chose cauliflower.
