Instead of starting a county board meeting with a prayer to the Lord, you can now do it to Satan. At least you can in Washoe County.
Tuesday’s Washoe County Commission meeting didn’t end with “Amen,” but a “Hail, Satan,” Daily Mail reports.
“In the spirit of the unconquerable son, the bringer of light and knowledge, we say shemhamforash — hail Satan!” Miller concluded.
Attendees at the meeting can be seen shaking their heads and leaving the meeting as Miller gives the invocation, where he calls upon Satan to “bring influence and guiding actions of nobility and justice to the decisions made in this chamber today.”
The invocation or prayer was delivered by Reno Satanic’s Jason Miller and caused one board members to storm out in protest.
The staffer, Commissioner Clara Andriola, was the one to dream up adding invocations to the meetings in the first place.
She campaigned on it.
Reno Satanic refers to itself as a “non-theistic Satanic group” on X and says it is unaffiliated with The Satanic Temple, Church of Satan, or other satanic groups on its website.
In other words, the Reno Church of Satan’s goal is to mock religion and people who believe in God. If it’s non-theistic, you would think he wouldn’t be allowed to give an invocation.
However, that’s not what the Assistant DA Nate Edwards said.
“That’s a trend that’s going on in various places around the country where that group or groups similar to it are signing up for local invocations,” Edwards said. “The case law in the country and the federal law in the country is that you don’t have to open your floor for invocations. If you do open your floor for invocations, then federal law is that you have to let everybody have a turn signing up.”
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