Man Sues Pastor for Pain, Suffering, and Lost Time

Walter Stetson spent nearly 25 years in prison. Well not in an actual prison, but in a prison of sorts. Stetson was baptized by Pastor Jonathan MacPiper after walking the aisle in June of 1981 as a 15 year old. After dedicating his life to Jesus, He was told he could not willfully partake in earthly sins. "I worked hard at this. I was really good all through high school and all through my 20s and 30s."

Stetson stands to win just over $2,000,000, or about $10 per hour that he spent in prison-- if he prevails this week. The following statements are taken from Stetson vs. MacPiper:

After discovering last year that I was lost all along, I decided to become really saved the third Sunday in January of 2008 after a very moving sermon on abortion. A week or two later when I was striving to be good during a bachelor party at my friend’s house, it dawned on me just how many activities I had unnecessarily missed during the prime years of my life.

For two and a half decades, I could have had the pleasure and be forgiven now too… now that I’m really saved. For the last few months I continually get these sick feelings in the pit of my stomach. I can’t stop thinking of all the pain and suffering I went through during all those “goodie two shoes” years.

Now that I am truly saved, I’ve forever lost my opportunity to participate in many blatantly sinful acts. I know I don’t want to participate in those activities. But that’s not the point. The lawsuit just involves one issue… the previously lost earthly pleasure. It’s gone forever.

I was trying to live like a Christian, but I realize now that I wasn't one. I was deceived by Pastor MacPiper. I withheld from all sorts of evil unnecessarily. I missed out on alcohol fellowships, dancing, cursing, and lusting. I withheld all the time, had depression, weight loss, and acid reflux. Once my intestines became inflamed from not partaking in alcohol-based wine.

I will never be able to get those years back. Now that I’m really saved, those activities are lost forever. I know there is grace and all that, but I don’t really want to take advantage of that now. How would that look? It’s depressing.

All those years, I saw so many of my friends enjoying their nights out and their women with short hair, while I remained single. Now they are married and settled down with children. I followed Pastor MacPiper’s advice that “bodily exercise profiteth little.” I never met any women and now that I’m 45, bald, and husky, the only women available to me are the ones who look like me.

I could have sowed my wild oats, but instead, I was reading all about my purpose driven life and trying to become a better me. I am nauseous now just thinking about it.