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The Satanic Temple Invocation At City Council Meeting Interrupted By Christians [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 20:40 PST, Jul 23, 2016

A representative of The Satanic Temple attempted to deliver a legally-sanctioned Satanic invocation at a Pensacola, Florida city council meeting on July 14. Despite having received permission from the city to represent his religion in prayer at the secular city meeting, and despite the fact that Christian prayers are regularly conducted at the same meetings without interruption, The Satanic Temple representative had his words drowned out by Christians in the crowd.

As the Christian Times reports, David Suhor had formally requested permission to give an invocation on behalf of The Satanic Temple at the Pensacola meeting. However, when he attempted to exercise his constitutionally-protected right to freedom of expression, his words were effectively silenced by Christians who had gathered in the meeting to do precisely that.

When the representative of the local chapter of The Satanic Temple, garbed in a black hooded robe, began his legally-sanctioned invocation, many of those in attendance began to work in tandem to suppress his words. Audience members at the city council meeting began to loudly recite the Lord’s Prayer in an effort to smother the sound of the Satanic invocation.

Despite the blatant attempt to curtail the religious freedom of David Suhor, a member of The Satanic Temple, Suhor continued with his Satanic invocation until its organic conclusion, refusing to back down in the face of mass hostility.

The president of the Pensacola City Council, Charles Bare, attempted to bring those attending the controversial invocation in line. He demanded that attendees remain orderly and quiet, adding that those who refused his command would be escorted from the room.

In response to Bare’s words, many of the Christians in the room, who had been working so diligently to silence The Satanic Temple representative, chose to leave the meeting. Others opted to stay and continue in silent prayer. Still other Christians refused to be quiet during the Satanic invocation, nor would they willingly leave as requested. Reportedly, officers from the Pensacola Police Department had to escort some unruly Christians from the council meeting.

While the room around him was filled with discord and strife, the representative of The Satanic Temple continued to respectfully recite his invocation, singing and chanting in accordance with his religious beliefs.

“That which is destroyed by truth should never be spared. Its demise, it is done. Hail Satan!”

At the conclusion of his controversial Satanic invocation, The Satanic Temple’s Florida representative concluded with a bit of political speech that indicated his true purpose — to impose constitutionally-mandated separation of church and state and to eliminate the pervasive practice of Christian prayers at public, secular city council meetings in the United States.

“Quit pushing Christian privilege as we’ve seen with the Bayview cross and so many other issues and instead go to a moment of silence, that lets everybody pray or not according to their own conscience.”

The Washington Post reports that Gerald Wingate had the opportunity to attend the city council meeting in which The Satanic Temple’s invocation was given in lieu of the traditional Christian opening prayer. He thought that he would be unmoved and unoffended by Suhor’s invocation on behalf of The Satanic Temple, but he was wrong. Rather than respectfully listen to The Satanic Temple member exercise his personal religious beliefs (something that non-Christian Americans do every day at city council meetings), Wingate opted to leave the room.

He told the Washington Post that he was offended by the sight and sound of someone worshiping a deity other than the Christian God in public prayer. The fact that it was a Satanic invocation appeared to cause the most offense.

“You’ve got somebody who is worshiping Satan and who is coming in when the majority of us in this area serve God. It wasn’t good for me to stand there and I got a little bit emotional. I was offended.”

According to David Suhor of The Satanic Temple, that’s precisely the point. It can be offensive to be exposed to religious ceremonies that contradict your personal spiritual beliefs, and as such, government meetings in secular America aren’t the place for prayer, Satanic, Christian or otherwise.

“The ones who have trouble with this are those that think their way is the only way. When one group wants their message to be the only one and they try to enlist the agenda of the government, people get angry.”

The Satanic Temple’s Pensacola invocation took almost six months to arrange. In the city, council meeting opening prayers are generally reserved for local Christian clergy members. However, Suhor put in a request to conduct a Satanic invocation when he got word that an upcoming slot was available. Rather than deny his request and face a costly discrimination/free speech lawsuit, the city complied.

Following The Satanic Temple’s peaceful invocation at the meeting, several citizens took to the podium to condemn the city for allowing a Satanic invocation to take place. One such citizen who had an issue with the Satanic invocation was Vickie Truett. Despite her complaint about the Satanic invocation, there are no previous records that she ever protested the regular Christian prayers at the city’s council meetings.

“When you invoke a name, any other name under heaven that is not the Lord Jesus Christ, you almost invite cursing or disaster to fall on you.”

Suhor said that he vehemently disagrees with Truett’s stance, adding that he wanted to give the invocation on behalf of The Satanic Temple so that others would understand how it feels to be forced to endure being exposed to prayers they don’t believe in.

“I wonder how many of these people would tolerate week after week hearing calls to some supernatural being that they believe is bunk or — in my mind — pathological. I want people to understand how that feels.”

What do you think? Were the Christian dissenters in Pensacola correct? Or did the representative of The Satanic Temple prove the point he set out to prove with his invocation?

[Image via Shutterstock]

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