Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters reacted sharply after a member of the Tulsa City Council invited a Pagan to deliver a pre-meeting invocation.
“Satan is trying to establish a foothold, but Oklahoma is going to be a shining city on the hill. Tulsa City Council needs to stand against actions like this, and Tulsans need to remember who allowed this at the ballot box,” Stitt tweeted after learning of the event.
Walters piled on with his own tweet: “Satanic prayers are welcome in Hell but not in Oklahoma. Satanism is not a religion. Tulsa should immediately move to ensure this never happens again and the person who allowed it should be held accountable.”
In fact, the invocation, which was delivered by Amy Hardy-McAdams, co-owner of a Pagan- and Wicca-themed business in Broken Arrow, Okla., was not satanic. It invoked Pagan themes and referenced Medusa, a figure from ancient Greek mythology whose hair was composed of snakes.
“As a Priestess of the Goddess, I invoke the Gorgonaea, champions of equality and sacred rage,” Hardy-McAdams said. “I call to Medusa, monstrous hero of the oppressed and abused. I open the Eye of Medusa, the stare that petrifies injustice.”
Hardy-McAdams was invited to give the invocation by Crista Patrick, a member of the Tulsa council who is herself Pagan. The council frequently invites guests to deliver invocations. In August, a man offered an explicitly Christian prayer that ended in Jesus’ name.
Hardy-McAdams, who delivered an invocation before a 2021 meeting of the council without incident, told blogger Hemant Mehta that she supports religious diversity.
“It’s important to publicly and visibly stand up for those rights in a non-threatening way because we need to be seen as valuable, equal, natural parts of the community,” she said.
Rob Boston, senior adviser with Americans United, told Fox25 in Oklahoma City that government can’t play favorites among religious groups. When the government opens up a forum, it has to give access to Christian and non-Christian groups alike.
“When the government creates a forum for expression like prayers before city council meetings or allowing groups to display their symbols on the town green during the holiday season, that means all religious groups get that right of access,” Boston said. “And I think some officials in Oklahoma are a little bit confused about that principle.”