Grand Junction City Council to Host Satanic Invocation August 2

Look out! The Devil is coming to Grand Junction.

Hold onto your hats.

On August 2, 2017, Grand Junction City Council will become the first city in Colorado, and one of the first in the nation, to host a Satanic invocation at a council meeting.

It’s not the first invocation to bring notoriety to Grand Junction. In January, 2011, G.J. became the first city in Colorado to host an atheist invocation.

What’s going on?

The diverse invocations are the result of a policy Council put in place in 2008 in response to finding out the City’s invocations had long violated the U.S. Constitution by endorsing religion.

Say, what?

In 2008, a member of Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers who attended Grand Junction City Council meetings as part of her job noticed that attendees were asked to stand and pray to Jesus Christ at the start of the meetings, making City Council meetings more like church services than a public meeting about sewers, zoning and building permits. This struck the member as odd, even illegal, and she brought the situation to the attention of the larger group of WCAF members. WCAF then analyzed the data on city council invocations over the years and found they were almost exclusively Christian, with speakers commonly using the occasion to proselytize by praying in the

A Satanist prepares to say the invocation at a Pensacola, Florida City Council meeting in July, 2016 (Photo: YouTube/Washington Post)

name of “Jesus Christ.” WCAF members then met with City Attorney John Shaver to discuss their findings. Mr. Shaver looked at the data, listened to WCAF members agreed the City’s invocations amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity by local government, and it had been going on for a long time. Mr. Shaver told Council they needed to change their invocation practice to comply with the law.

WCAF asked Council to end the invocations entirely, or at least tell speakers to refrain from saying the name of a specific deity during invocations. Instead, Council dug in their heels, worked to keep religious invocations and staunchly refused to censor what people can say during their invocations. City Council then crafted an invocation policy (pdf) — the city’s first — that opened up the invocation to every individual and group in town, regardless of their religious affiliation. The only guidance the policy (Resolution 114-08) offers is that speakers should “not exploit the invocation opportunity to proselytize.”

But the Christian proselytizing continues at City Council meetings nonetheless.

Religious speakers keep praying publicly in the name of “Jesus Christ” at Council meetings and the City has so far refused to stop speakers or notify them that they are violating city policy. Moreover, there are no consequences for violators. It’s almost like there is no policy at all, as things have continued pretty much as they had always been.

But that seems to be exactly what the City was after.

Even after WCAF notified the city in 2013 that their new invocation policy had been completely ineffective and violations of the Constitution continued apace, the city did not respond or do anything to stop the ongoing violations. In fact, the mayor stills tells people to stand for the invocations.

Anyone Can Say the Invocation. Anyone. Even a Satanist.

Under the current policy and U.S. law, as long as Council continues to host Christian prayers before their public meetings, they must accept prayers from any religion, or from people of no religion. In fact, under the new policy you don’t have to say a prayer for the invocation at all. You can say anything you want.

If you want to say the invocation, no matter who you are or what you believe, just send your contact information to the City Clerk’s office (c/o City Hall, 250 N. 5th Street, Grand Junction 81501) and say you’d like to be put in the “lottery” to say the invocation. Every quarter, Council members pull the names of people who submit their names out of a small bag. The City Clerk then contacts the individuals and lets them know they have a chance to say the invocation. If a person declines or doesn’t show up, Council hosts a moment of silence at their meeting. Speakers have an unlimited amount of time to do and say anything they want in front of City Council, and Council must stand and listen politely to the whole spiel. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you want to do. You can do it, whatever it is.

And now on August 2, 2017, the city will host its first Satanic invocation. It will be anything but typical. What will it consist of? No one knows. You’ll have to show up at the Council meeting to find out. It should be pretty entertaining, though, if only for the furor it is likely to elicit. But don’t worry. Under City policy, attendees have a choice to “sit, stand or leave the room” during the invocation.

In other words, whether the invocations before Council are Christian, Muslim or Satanic, it doesn’t matter. The City’s last word to citizens is “If you don’t like it, leave.”

 

  81 comments for “Grand Junction City Council to Host Satanic Invocation August 2

  1. Note: Personal identifying information was removed from American Patriot’s post of 7/27 @1:06 p.m.

    • That’s all right Anne, I think the people will pretty well be able to fill in the blanks. And I also believe that a point was made. If all Christians are bad, as Scott suggests, one would have to wonder why years ago, when Scott told me that he couldn’t reveal his true belief or rather non belief at his job for fear of reprisals, why didn’t we post the kind of info that you deleted then? We certainly knew where he worked then. If you poke at a dog with a sharp stick long enough without getting bit, there’s a good chance that it’s the dog who is showing restraint.

      • Well, you just demonstrated you missed my point entirely. Hubris will do that to you.

        And I never said I had to fear reprisals where I work, so we can add memory problems to your list of issues.

        Don’t ever threaten my kids again. And yes, you did exactly that.

        • Well, there you go again, assuming. And you’d be wrong again. I don’t make threats. And no one that I’m aware of said anything about your children. I just thought it might be of some interest as to why a devout atheist and the named Satanic prayer meister would have a close association with the deleted, named church group? So how about this; it’s all public information, and if you go to the trouble to check, you might even find out your Mom and Dad are both registered Republicans. But then you already knew that, didn’t you Scotty.

          PS; Just think how many people out here read your posts those years ago. I can name at least three or four off the top of my head. Remember Crusty and Tasha, Gene or Irwin? Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we venture to deceive.

          • Wow. Your assumptions are legion, and you apparently can’t even see it.

            I don’t care who saw what I wrote then. I didn’t write what you seem to think I did, so hopefully they remember it better than you.

          • Well Scott, if there was any doubt about the correctness of our information, you just removed it. Just be careful who you poke with a stick, Christian or not. After a few years of it, they might become irritable, or maybe just as intolerant as you are, unless of course, you think being able to piss off a pope is a talent? Or are we just seeing a midlife crisis? I used to consider you somewhat of a thinking, civil person.

            And no, Michael Ervin won’t remember what you said, because he’s dead. He became a friend of mine, because he would listen. But then he was progressive and we talked about politics, not religion. And I’m sure you’d be surprised how often we found common ground. Perhaps I’ll see him again some day.

            • Well, you can assume I confirmed anything you want. You’re wrong, but you don’t seem to have the ability to consider that possibility. You never did, as far as I can recall. So have a nice day, and carry on with your assumptions. I don’t care, and I doubt anyone esle does either.

      • I’m a Christian and am actually training to be a pastor at a southern Baptist church here on the valley. I find it hilarious that atheist claim to be against Christianity and organised religion when they’re organised atheist groups have become exactly that a religion lol before i was saved i was a devout atheist so i know first hand the
        ridiculousness of they’re “beliefs”. Keep fighting the good fight Christians this is only the beginning it’s time to choose a side and establish yourselves in the Faith. There is no neutral with God.

        • Christians are cheapskate con artists and they ain’t got one story in there fairytale book the bible not even one sentence that can’t have a lot of holes poked in it.Christianity is everything that’s ever been wrong with this world. You know how you can tell if your god is a false god your God is false if he asks you to worship Him any true God would not need you to worship ,he would not be that pathetic .Christians fight the good fight what a crock of crap Christians are the reason that we’re always fighting in this world if there were no Christians this place would be peaceful all the time Christians are violent pieces of shit and always have been

  2. AL
    I find it Almost Sad after reading all of your Long drawn out Purposefully,Justifying,Dellusional Reasonings. For what Appears to be No More than your Own Need for Self Approval. After all, If you are Happy ,Why Try to Convice Anyone else ? . You Obviously are A Troubled Woman. One who Has a Need to Fill. And You Obviously Fill it with this Satanic mess.. I refer to it as Mess, due to the fact There is No Real Bases for What You have Stated in Satanic Worship. There is However in Christiananity. I do Hope for your Mental welfare that you find your True happiness and You Find your Self Approval in a Healthy way . And Come to a Point in life where you do not feel a Need to Convince others of What You Are Trying so Hard to Convince Yourself of. Good Luck to You…p.s I won’t be Coming back to read responses.and will delete emails without reading them.

    • Can you please explain the basis for the odd, distracting, intermittent capitalization in your writing?

      • Now why do you suppose the Supreme Court of the United States will accept a motion, hand written on the back of a brown paper bag, irregardless of grammar, spelling or punctuation mistakes, when they could just as easily dodge the question, and ignore a plea for the opportunity for justice from a voice in the wilderness?

    • You shouldn’t worship anything or anybody but Satan would be better than Jesus at least he’s not as violent and he’s not as big of a liar he doesn’t have some big lie book that’s 3,000 pages long of preposterous stories

  3. BREAKING NEWS, CNN; “Fed Judge Allows Trump’s Panel bo Collect Voter Data”. Judge rules request for voter info cannot be reviewed by courts.

  4. Just to clear the waters y’all atheism is not “christian”. So you can get that out of your head now.

    • This country was founded by God and is why the ten commandments are outside the Whitehouse and why we pledge under God and God came with everything we do and did. You are taking him out of everything and that’s why we as America are failing.

      • it wud b so helpful if those who think this country was founded on christianity wud google something like “what were the religions of the founding fathers?”. or “was the USA founded on christianity?”. u will b sooooooo surprised. hopefully this country was founded on compassionate morals – but chrisitanity? Nah.

      • Whoa…”This country was founded by God”? That’s completely insane. Have you read your American history at all? Apparently not…

  5. That’s the problem with sarcasm. What may seem cute or funny to one person, only makes another person take a look at their list. You’ve got to be careful with things that start with the letter “S”. It’s east to get some of that on ya. And just on the occasion that you’re pressed for time, you may find it a lot harder to get off. And some people may find that funny or the other “F” word….final.

  6. i think that all forms of spirituality and or lack of spirituality should have a voice in the public venue….otherwise how could free thinkers get enough information to make an informed decision….I have had alot of religious information thrust upon me by others who feel the need to “save me”….not sure what I need saved from….for those that think there is a heaven good for you and I hope you have your spot reserved….I DO…..if you need info on that look up my facebook page ….5 dollar church…I hope to see everyone there…..it doesnt matter what your belief.

  7. So censoring what someone can and can’t say is legal? Um last I checked that goes against the 1st ammendment. So you are okay with braking one law over another as long as it’s in your favor? Narcissistic to the full. And we wonder why there are snowflakes.

  8. Satanism is a form of libertarianism. But without the Rand bullshit.
    She was an Atheist, by the way.

  9. Hi Anne- so happy you are still fighting against the delusional!
    I am the Chris who was there at the beginning.
    Keep up the good work!

  10. Am I the only one who finds it a bit confusing that people who don’t believe in God believe in Satan? What’s that, some kind of middle eastern “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” philosophy? A conscious choice between good and evil. And who helped you make your choice?? Satan, maybe?

    • AP, your confusion stems from your beliefs about what Satan is and stands for. The modern day Satanic Temple believes in, and advocates for separation of church and state, religious freedom, personal autonomy, and critical thinking. From their website, here are the seven tenets of The Satanic Temple. It may not be as quite scary as you think it is: https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/tenets:

      –One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
      –The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
      –One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
      –The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own.
      –Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
      –People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.
      –Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

      • Lol haha you don’t even know what you believe!! That’s hilarious!!! You serve Satan but not his beliefs. That’s so funny!!!

        • Not big on irony, are you. The Satanic Temple doesn’t believe in Satan any more than the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster believes that there’s a noodly deity floating around.

          And atheists don’t believe there are any deities floating around anywhere. Its satire intended to make a point. A point that you have missed.

      • Well gee I don’t know Anne, maybe because some of us choose not to capitalize on the name of satan. But I didn’t really believe you’d be supporting the satanist group. I just wanted to hear you deny it….publicly.

        • I’m not denying it, AP. In the U.S., everyone has a right to choose their religion, or lack thereof. And the Satanic Temple don’t seem very right wing to me. Here are the seven fundamental tenets of the Satanic Temple, from their website at https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/tenets

          See what you think:

          THERE ARE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL TENETS.

          -One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
          -The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
          -One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
          -The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own.
          – Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
          -People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.
          -Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word

          • This sounds a lot like a normal societal belief system… these tenets… but if you need to join a club and call it satan… you have problems 🙂

          • No one said you have to join a club to follow these tenets. The club is just to prove the point. It’s satire.

          • satan is a liar, that’s all you need to know…..his whole scene is deception to trick people away from The Creator.

            • You couldn’t have summed up the problem with Christian thinking any better. Don’t question what you’ve been told, just accept it and ignore everything else.

      • Since ‘Satan’ Promotes And Stands For All That Is Evil, Retched, Warped, Perverted And Antithetical To Health Of Society, Individuals, The U.S.Constitution And Freedom As Such, Should ‘Satanism’ Not Then Be Banished In All It’s Public Forms ? ( Rhetorically ) I Trust And Hope I Did Not Leave Out Any Capital Letters In My Comment Here. To Hell With Satan 😉

        I Read The Seven Tenets That You Provided And If That Is What Satan Truly Represented Then I would Not Argue Against That, However We Know That Is NOT What Satan Stands For, You Are However Free to Believe That And Be Deceived And I Won’t Argue Against Your Right To Think And ‘Believe’ As You Choose.

        ‘Rules’ ( Such As Traffic Rules For Example) Are Needed To Maintain Something Other Than Chaos On The Highways And ‘Rules’ That Do Not Promote The Acts Of Evil Are Necessary To Respect Our Collective Wellbeing In Society As Well Too.

        ‘The Christian’s’ Have Overstepped Their Place In Public Forums Time And Time Again. Ironically Their Bible (New Testament Suggests They Should Not Pray In Public ; Matthew Chpt. 6 vs. 5… ). An Invocation Should Be Nothing More Than A Respect To Humbly Say That All Decisions Being Made And Or Discussed Are For The Good And Respects Of All Past Present And Future. Nobody Should Be Promoting Any Religion Nor Group. Just Promote The Ethic Of That Which Promotes Public Good, Leave The Religious Adjectives To Your Private Prayer’s As Your Bible Teaches You.

        This Outcome And Disorder Now In The Public Business Is A Total City Council Leadership FAIL IMHO.

          • Respecting your ‘test question’ A.P… it’s not relevant to my concern or point, nor either whether the ‘grammar spelling and English grader’s ‘ want to pick apart anything I display here (ironically-Liz, while not even choosing the correct form of the word ‘grammar’…LMAO..).

            I read the article that Anne L. generously posted and could not help but comment as I’ve been a citizen of this City for better than 20 years now . Whether you profess to be an Atheist, Christian, Satanist or any other ‘believer’ in what ever, should not matter nor be pronounced prior to doing City business. Because ‘Christians’ feel they must wear their Jesus on their sleeves apparently in every aspect of government work, is what creates these ridiculous scenarios where we now have to embroil belief systems against one another. Ridiculous and a waste of every ones time, even mine here frankly. Yet words and symbols mean things..ie.. Santa Claus, Nation’s flags, Peace signs, The finger, and… Satan…. The City Council could simply offer a humble and humanitarian oriented ‘Invocation’ prior to business that has no exclusive bias to any body’s faith system yet respects all ‘Faiths’ vs this Satanic and random circus it has now opened.

          • Liz,
            Grammar has two a’s and no e. Also, “Nice grammar” is a phrase and should be punctuated with an exclamation point. You might consider having someone proofread your comments when trolling to avoid looking silly.

  11. I considered retiring in GJ. After this news story, it will never, ever happen. I won’t have to leave, because I will never live in a place that embraces the Evil One.

  12. Who are you? Blog on! I think I’m gonna put in to do the invocation for legalizing Marijuana in Grand Junction.

    • You can do it! You can say whatever you want, because Council declined to “censor” the invocations. Send you contact info and request to say the invocation to the City Clerk, c/o city Hall, 250 N. 5th Street, GJ 81501. They’ll put your name in the hat.

  13. LOL you are a work. So you don’t support this but you do support them not having a christian based baccalaureate. You can’t have it both ways hun.

      • Scott, you sure are snarky… nobody has to learn about the satanic temple before jumping to conclusions. The term satan was around long before a temple was founded to sarcastically embrace satanism without really embracing it, but really, truly embracing it because he is the author of lies and they are lying to themselves if the believe atheism is not of the devil. So the conclusion I jump to… hopefully without ruffling your feathers again… is that 1. atheisim is a belief system despite the denial… and that 2. Truth is truth despite your/anybody’s belief in it.

        • The term was around before, yes. But your mistake is in assuming that the Satanic Temple actually believe in Satan.

          • No, it is your mistake to believe that I believe that they believe in satan. I do believe it is OF satan but that the members and one such as you are ignorant of that.

          • Apparently Scott is unaware that the greatest trick the devil ever played on mankind was to convince some of them that he didn’t exist.

          • And you have apparently never considered the possibility that someone telling you how sick you are then selling you the cure just might not be telling you the truth

          • Exactly. Someone tells you that you’re a sinner, and god is going to smack you if you don’t do what he says. Paranoia.

            Thiose who realize there is no god to smack you have no reason to be paranoid.

          • Actually I DID consider that there is a possibility that someone was telling me how sick I was and then would try selling me the cure and that they just might not be telling me the truth… considered that up until my late 30’s. But now that He has made Himself known to me, I no longer consider that… but I understand why you do.

          • And lots of other people have claimed the same about lots of other gods. Why should anyone believe your experience was anything more than theirs?

            If the Christian god does exist, he is collossally incompetent.

          • People won’t believe my experience is any better than theirs until they have my experience… I don’t expect them to. But I still have the right to protest ignorant writing about an ignorant group and its supporters.

            • So until that point, we are every bit as justified in believing you are the ignorant one. The difference that we have evidence on our side. You have a subjective experience that you cannot support. Guess which side I’m going to go with?

        • It’s called paranoia Scott. But the good news is, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get ya. In God we trust.

          • Who are thiose? And I notice you didn’t capitalize God. Boy, those claws are in deep. Careful that doesn’t get infected. You’ve obviously mistaken me for someone who cares if you’re afraid or if you’re not afraid. That’s a personal problem. You’ll have to take that to the chaplain.

          • You’re entitled to your opinion. You aren’t entilitled to your own facts. And the facts say the Christian god doesn’t exist.

          • Have you seen today’s headlines in the Daily Sentinel Scott? Associates? Or just affiliated?

            • I didn;t see any mention of the Satanic Temple in today’s headlines. Care to point out exactly where?

              Or are you just trying to imply that there is no difference between the Temple and another group using satanic imagery?

              Please let that be the case. I’d love to paint you with the same brush as Westboro Baptist.

        • Why are you being so hostile Scott? Did the word disciples hit a little too close to home? But okay, you’re excused for not answering the question. Didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that. I guess the people will just have to make their own connections. Or maybe you don’t think they’re capable of that.

          By the way, you’re not planning to craw-fish and not give that satanic invocation at the city council meeting are you? I was kind of looking forward to videotaping that. You never know when that sort of thing will come in handy, just to show how tolerant and welcoming we all are here in the happy valley.

          I can assure you it will be used for educational purposes only.

          • So you can’t show any mention of the Statanic Temple, just another group using a similar name and so you imply a connection so as to discredit the ones you disagree with. So since you are a Christian, I would be justified in assuming you protest at the funerals of veterans, right?

          • Hello Scott. They picked the name “Devil’s Disciples”. I am a veteran and I do plan on dying some day. Now, let’s get back to the business at hand. “They” told you that you were sick. And then they offered you a chance to get well. Now, I won’t even go into what your malady was, but apparently it left you with a deep seated hatred of Christians.

            Okay, that part I can understand. And I suspect that’s what brought you to become a Satan Disciple. And I understand that you feel threatened that your malady might be exposed. I think the point that you’re missing is, no one cares what religious group you choose to be a part of. Just suit yourself son. And try not to wear your preferences on your sleeve, for a more harmonious outcome.

            This is America where you get to be all you can be. But what you make of that opportunity is entirely up to you. What you do in the privacy of the back seat of your very own automobile is your business, until of course you do it while parked on Main Street, in the public eye.

            When your group starts handing out satanic religious study material to grade school age children, of course the public is going to take sharp issue with that. Isn’t that why you did it? To make yourself the center of attention. That’s called narcissism. And it only adds to the public perception that something in your life went terribly wrong. Now, people do care about that when it involves their children.

            It’s not really that they dislike you Scott. It’s just that they don’t like what you stand for and what you do. It’s a big world out there and I’m very sure that even right here in the happy valley, you should be able to find your niche. A micro community, where with a little effort you can fit in, and be a contributing member of that community. And that’s what we’re all hoping for. That you’ll find some place to live where you can be happy.

            I apologize if I’ve upset you. My intent was only to make you aware that your actions reflect on others, and that you should check yourself before you wreck yourself. I remember when you told me about your frustration at not being able to reveal your true self at your job for fear of reprisal, real or imagined. And what’s that been now, seven or eight years ago?

            But hopefully you’ve moved on from that to create a life for yourself. You can be happy Scott. But it’s going to take effort. That’s the way it is for all of us. And I only wish you the very best. And I look forward to hearing your Satanic prayer at the city council meeting. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for you to express your true feelings, your true convictions, in a public forum. And hopefully it will be a healing experience for you.

            • Well, youve gotten it wrong on just about every particular. You don’t understand nearly as much as you think.

              Have a nice day.

          • “So since you are a Christian, I would be justified in assuming you protest at the funerals of veterans, right?”

            You would have an argument if a large amount of Christians did this… but since it is a small percentage of a fraction of a percentage… not representative of the Christian faith at all… I would say that you use whatever you can to disparage what you disagree with… no matter how ignorant. 99.9% of Christians throughout history are loving, compassionate people.

          • Scott, you are obviously not aware that ideology and theology are peaceful and history itself if violent. You said that I didn’t understand as much as I thought I did.

            Well, ***** if you don’t mind me using your Christian name, perhaps I know and understand more than you think I do. Like **** ****, and the ****** ****. And for sure, I do due diligence. But while you’re assuming, you can just assume I know all the rest.

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