Satanists speak out about Phoenix invocation vote

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Tempers flared, accusations were levied, and tears flowed at the Phoenix City Council meeting Wednesday night.

Members voted on a plan to prevent two Tucson citizens from delivering a Satanic prayer at a council meeting on February 17.

The council voted to end the invocations, choosing instead to hold a silent moment of prayer.

It's a decision that few people are happy with.

"Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge," said Michelle Shortt.

This is just part of the prayer that Stu De Haan and Michelle Shortt, members of the Tucson Satanic Temple had planned to read at the Phoenix City Council meeting.

"Satan itself is a metaphor, it's not a deity we believe in. We do strive very hard to fight against Tyranny, and that is what Satan represents. And that is what we have done here, we were being heavily discriminated against, and that is what we fight for and is the Satanist cause," said Stu De Haan.

At the passionate council meeting, speakers blasted the group. A few spoke in support, and the council voted to get rid of an opening prayer in favor of a moment of silence.

"I am actually shocked that this is the route that they decided to go," said De Haan.

"We were not trying to get rid of the prayer as some council members would like to believe, we were fighting against and only have the one voice in the council," said Shortt.

Invocations are common practice in valley cities, these cities all have time allotted for invocations in their city council agendas. We found only four cities in the valley that do not.

"It went way larger than we expected," said De Haan.

This was the first time the group has ever asked to deliver the invocation at a city council meeting.

"We just wanted to be a part of this, that is really all this was, we wanted to come up, we wanted to give our invocation, we didn't want to be disruptive, we didn't want to cause a stir," said De Haan.