A Nevada county commissioner recently pushed to have prayer added to county commission meetings – and it did not go how she thought it would.
A prominent Satanist sparked outrage after giving the opening prayer at the Washoe County Commission meeting on Tuesday, ending the prayer not with an “Amen,” but with a “Hail, Satan.”
Reno Satanic’s Jason Miller prayer caused Commissioner Clara Andriola to storm out in protest. Ironically, Anriola was the one who wanted to add invocations to the meetings in the first place.
Andriola successfully campaigned to add prayers as precursors last year. Safe to say she’s rethinking that decision now.
During his prayer, Milled asked the devil to bring his “guiding actions of nobility and justice to the decisions made in the chamber.”
“The New Age is dawning that these decisions will play a role in,” Miller said during his prayer. “For our liberation, for here and now is our day of joy, here and now is our opportunity. May we seize this glorious day and its enchanting nights to celebrate the wonders of the natural world, as we are all part of its boundless mysteries.
“Hail, Satan,” he concluded.
Following the prayer, the meeting moved onto a period for public comments, and several speakers brought up the Satanists’s impromptu sermon.
Andriola, who finally returned after Miller walked away, was clearly upset by the prayer.
“I would like to, um, publicly state that I totally disagreed with the invocation presenter today,” she said. “I would like to also ask legal to clarify how the county has to abide and the compliance requirement that’s related to the invocation.”
A staffer proceeded to to explain to her that there was a growing trend of Satanists signing up for local invocations around the country, citing that federal law requires everybody to have a turn signing up.
“I guess you take the good with the bad,” he explained.
