Sutter Says:
That he is an ordained Baptist minister
through King's Word Seminary in Ohio:
"I am a Independent Baptist minister, ordained through King's Word Seminary in 1993."
...or is it that he is an ordained Catholic minister... ordained by the Catholic Life Church?
"I was ordained December 11, 1994 by the Catholic Life Church program out of
Modesto, California."(source)
The Truth:
Actually it doesn't really matter which story he claims, since
neither institution exists!
Sutter has fluidly swapped tales of his ordination, denomination and supposed religious titles for many years. The real story appears to be that he obtained his "ordination" on-line from ULC. Here is their stringent process:
Note the "Ordain Me" button!
Not surprisingly the Roman Catholic Diocese apparently issued a formal order for Sutter to stop pretending to be an ordained Catholic in 1996.
(source)
The "Ministry License" that Sutter often claims is nothing more than a $10.00 certificate from the State of Ohio that allows him to perform marriages. He obtained it by getting a small prison ministry to create a new trade name of "Jesus the Way Christian Fellowship" and then issue a letter of recommendation that allowed him to get his license. As near as we can tell, this church exists only on paper, even though Sutter claims the lofty title of Pastor Emeritus.
On Sutter's license application, his denomination is listed as "Jesus the Way Christian Fellowship," meaning that he is neither a Baptist, nor an Independent Baptist pastor.
An odd turn of events occurred in October of 2008. Although publicly claiming to be a member of "Jesus the Way" - the church that doesn't exist - Sutter was actually a member of Grace Church in Middleburg Heights. His behavior caused several parishioners to become uncomfortable with him and an investigation quickly turned up the serious problems in his background.
In typical fashion, Sutter reacted by trying to smear the person who stood up to him, in this case an associate pastor named Steven Harper. Although he has yet to make up bogus criminal charges, as he does when pursuing other personal grudges, Sutter did pretend that that Harper wasn't qualified to perform weddings because of a license issue.
Unlike the Phony Rev, however, Harper's ordination is entirely legitimate - not store bought. Neither did Harper purchase his degrees for $45 a piece as Sutter did. He earned them instead.