Last week, I posted about how an atheist was scheduled to give an invocation in front of the Grand Junction City Council in Colorado. But just to make everyone uncomfortable, that atheist said he would donate his slot to a local Satanist. Maybe by doing that, he could get the city council to switch to a moment of silence or ditch invocations entirely.

That invocation took place this week, and Satanist Andrew Vodopich did a fine job. He was inclusive, not at all scary, and ended his speech with two infamous words.

(You can see the video of the speech right here.)

We exhort all officials and stewards of the public good, including those here tonight, to be unified in your endeavors for honesty, truth and wisdom. We beseech all those present to shun primitive hatreds and superstition, bigotry, prejudice and atavism and instead seek equality in justice and thereby safeguard all worldviews and treat them equally and with respect.” We counsel this entire community to allow the light of truth to shine unobstructed on all matters, and to let not one coveted assumption be spared examination, to let not one archaic belief be spared disgrace, and thus leave no room for ignorance and assumption. So say we all in the name of reason, in the name of free inquiry and in the name of rebellion against theocracy. Hail Satan.

Sounds reasonable to me. The only thing people might be upset about are the last two words. To which I can only say: Now they know how we feel when they talk about Jesus during invocations.

There wasn’t even much backlash to the Satanic prayer. The Daily Sentinel spoke with several crowd members who wanted to watch the invocation to see what would happen… only to come away realizing that it wasn’t all that bad.

The only people who were freaking out were the ones who had no idea what Satanists believed. Their ignorance was the problem, not what Vodopich said.

(Portions of this article quoting the newspaper have been removed at their request.)

