Judge Sentences Catholic Man to Spend 12 Weekends at Baptist Church

By Ligonberry Fields, BuzzVine Contributor Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Audience during a worship service for the 'Evangelical Day of Prayer and Action for Immmigration Reform,' at Church of the Reformation, Washington, D.C., April 17, 2013. — Audience during a worship service for the "Evangelical Day of Prayer and Action for Immmigration Reform," at Church of the Reformation, Washington, D.C., April 17, 2013. | (Photo: The Christian Post/Napp Nazworth)

No, this is not satire. An Ohio judge decided that a Catholic man had to pay his debt to society in the most ecclesiastical way possible: by attending worship at a Baptist church.

Judge William Mallory of the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati sentenced 23-year-old Jake Strotman to attend worship at a Baptist church for 12 consecutive Sundays.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Mallory sentenced Strotman to this peculiar sentence due to his offense stemming from a fight with some Baptist street preachers.

"Strotman would be sentenced to attend 12 consecutive Sunday services at Morning Star Baptist Church. He was ordered to attend each entire 90-minute service, and is required to get the weekly program signed by the minister," reported the Enquirer.

"That's 18 hours of solid Baptist teaching. He also paid $480 in court fines and a $2,800 lawyer bill."

Strotman appears to be accepting of the sentence, preferring it over jail time. So maybe it is not a fate worse than death after all.