The Satanic Temple West Florida
Pensacola, Fla., City Council
July 14, 2016

The text of the invocation was originally written by Lucien Greaves, co-founder of The Satanic Temple. The invocation was delivered by David Suhor, a musician, activist, teacher and co-founder of The Satanic Temple West Florida.

Suhor sang it to an altered version of Albert Malotte’s famous and beautiful melody for the “Lord’s Prayer” (1935).

This was his fifth invocation before local elected boards. David is also a plaintiff in FFRF’s lawsuit against the city of Pensacola for the exclusive display of the “Bayview Cross,” a huge Latin cross in a local public park.

Let us stand now,
unbowed and unfettered
by arcane doctrines
borne of fearful minds in darkened times.
Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse
to eat of the Tree of Knowledge
and dissipate our blissful
and comforting delusions of old.
Let us demand
that individuals be judged for their concrete actions,
not their fealty to arbitrary social norms
and illusory categorizations.
Let us reason our solutions
with agnosticism in all things,
Holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true,
Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority
that threatens the personal sovereignty of One or All.
That which will not bend must break,
and that which can be destroyed by truth
should never be spared its demise.
It is Done. Hail Satan.