{"id":22001,"date":"2024-05-03T11:25:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T15:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22001"},"modified":"2024-05-03T12:25:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:25:19","slug":"protests-after-satanic-group-permitted-to-perform-opening-invocation-at-board-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/protests-after-satanic-group-permitted-to-perform-opening-invocation-at-board-meeting","title":{"rendered":"Protests After Satanic Group Permitted to Perform Opening Invocation at Board Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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@leftofcentermi \/ X | Inset: Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A board meeting in Ottawa County, Michigan opened in chaos<\/a> after the commissioners permitted a member of the Satanic Temple to perform the opening invocation. Luis Cypher, a so-called minister of Satan, opened the invocation saying, \u201cLet us stand now, unbound and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.\u201d He called on the audience to \u201cLet us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all days, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true.\u201d He ended his invocation saying \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous protesters and supporters packed the hall and overflow room for Cypher\u2019s words. Many bore signs denoting their affiliations, with some saying, \u201cHail Satan!\u201d and others \u201cOne Nation Under God.\u201d One man preached in the overflow room while the invocation continued on a projection screen. After the invocation, Commissioner Rebekah Curran, who handed out heart-shaped cookies with \u201cJohn 3:16\u201d stickers before the meeting, spoke out against the prayer. \u201cI feel like it’s a really important moment in time to not only show the love of Christ, but show the power of Christ. I just pray that everyone will feel the manifest presence of God in this room and in this building today,\u201d she said<\/a>. The public comment portion of the meeting was filled with people speaking out against the Satanic Temple. Bendr Bones, co-head of The Satanic Temple of West Michigan, said he saw the protests as a positive sign. \u201cIt\u2019s sort of a message that \u2018I\u2019m doing the right thing\u2019 if people that I ideologically disagree with are protesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The invocation is a result of changed policies the board adopted at the beginning of the year. The change was the result of a lawsuit brought on by LGBTQ+ affirming pastor Jared Cramer, who claimed that Ottawa County Board Chair Joe Moss had ignored his two requests to do the invocation as a way to \u201cendorse a particular set of religious beliefs and exclude a particular set of religious beliefs.\u201d The board changed the policy so that all requests from pastors to do the invocation must be received in writing and received on a first-come, first-served basis. Cramer did the February invocation, but his lawsuit is still pending. Moss supports the change in policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A board meeting in Ottawa County, Michigan opened in chaos after the commissioners permitted a member of the Satanic Temple to perform the opening invocation. Luis Cypher, a so-called minister of Satan, opened the invocation saying, \u201cLet us stand now, unbound and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":22013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nProtests After Satanic Group Permitted to Perform Opening Invocation at Board Meeting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/protests-after-satanic-group-permitted-to-perform-opening-invocation-at-board-meeting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Protests After Satanic Group Permitted to Perform Opening Invocation at Board Meeting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A board meeting in Ottawa County, Michigan opened in chaos after the commissioners permitted a member of the Satanic Temple to perform the opening invocation. Luis Cypher, a so-called minister of Satan, opened the invocation saying, \u201cLet us stand now, unbound and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/protests-after-satanic-group-permitted-to-perform-opening-invocation-at-board-meeting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T15:25:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T16:25:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/05\/michigan-borad-meeting-satanic-innvocation_02_credit-@leftofcentermi-X_Inset-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Protests After Satanic Group Permitted to Perform Opening Invocation at Board Meeting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/protests-after-satanic-group-permitted-to-perform-opening-invocation-at-board-meeting","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Protests After Satanic Group Permitted to Perform Opening Invocation at Board Meeting","og_description":"A board meeting in Ottawa County, Michigan opened in chaos after the commissioners permitted a member of the Satanic Temple to perform the opening invocation. Luis Cypher, a so-called minister of Satan, opened the invocation saying, \u201cLet us stand now, unbound and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. 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