Christians Interrupt Satanic Prayer in City Council Meeting

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PENSACOLA, Fla. (ChurchMilitant.com) - Christians in Pensacola, Florida united on Thursday to protest against and disrupt a satanic prayer held during a city council meeting.

The Pensacola city council has had a tradition of concluding all meetings with Christian prayer, but it had agreed, under the leadership of President Charles Bare, to let the satanists say their own prayer after fearing that refusing their request would lead to claims of religious discrimination and litigation.

The co-founder of the local chapter of the Satanic Temple, David Suhor, approached the podium ready to proceed with his invocation of the devil.

The crowd, which consisted of both Protestants and what looked like a Catholic priest, start to pray the "Our Father" in an act of defiance.

Bare called for order and told the crowd to remain silent or they would be removed by local authorities. "If you deviate away from what I feel is proper invocation speech, I will have you removed from the chamber," Bare ordered.

"I would rather be in a room than let darkness sit here by itself," one man in the audience answered.

After the crowd became silent, the satanist resumed his mocking of Gregorian chant by singing a song to Lucifer. Many Christians continued to pray loudly behind him in an effort to drown him out. One of the councilmembers even walked out in protest.

At the end of the prayers, citizens approached the podium to express their anger and frustration at the council for allowing Suhor to say his satanic prayer.

"When you invoke a name, any other name under Heaven, that is not the Lord Jesus Christ, you're almost inviting cursing or disaster to fall on you," said Vickie Truett.

The invocation delivered by Suhor ended after he spoke of "arcane doctrines borne of fearful minds in darkened times." After struggling to speak over the crowds, he ended the prayer with "Hail, Satan."

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