Promoting Immorality
I owned a bed and breakfast in a little southern town. It was a small business— just three rooms in an old farmhouse that was built in 1835. During the off-season, which was late fall through mid-spring, we would give away three-day packages for charity events, such as auctions.
We were never in charge of the money that was collected. A man and his wife booked for a weekend in late March. They showed up on Friday afternoon with their gift certificate from the charity auction, which we gladly accepted.
I greeted them as Mr. and Mrs., to which the guy responded, “It’s PASTOR.” I proceeded to show them their room, inform them of our policies, and explain that there was going to be another couple arriving that evening.
The next morning, I served both couples breakfast, and after the other couple left, the pastor said to me, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have more than one couple here at a time. Why did you schedule us both?”
I told him that we were just like a hotel and it couldn’t be expected that we should only take one room at a time. He didn’t like that answer, not one bit. He said he found out the other couple was not married, and he was bothered by the idea that we would promote “immorality.” It got worse.
We had a huge farm with wonderful little gardens and nice spots to sit and enjoy the country. I walked out to the grounds and found the pastor, sitting on a plastic folding chair, right in front of the entrance to the farmhouse.
I wondered about it, but I didn’t say anything. Later that night, the lady of the other couple came to my door and told me that they were leaving because the pastor had blocked their entrance to the house and began to preach to them about being immoral.
I apologized and offered her almost everything I could think of to have her stay. She was lovely and told me that she knew it wasn’t my fault, but that their weekend was ruined. The following day, I was getting breakfast ready, and I saw the pastor putting his luggage in their car.
They had another night left, so I was kind of confused. I walked out the driveway, and I said, “I think maybe there is a miscommunication; you have another night.” He said, “Your air conditioning is broken, so we are leaving.” I told him that I could check on it since it might just not have been on.
It was still cool out, and, in fact, the heat might have been on. He looked at me and said, “No, it was too hot last night, and YOU should have known that. I want my money back!” For SOME reason, I was still trying to keep the whole thing friendly.
I explained to him that I didn’t receive any money from him, that the certificate he used was from a charity auction, so I am not even sure what he paid, to which he responded,
“Well, I paid $110, and I didn’t pay that to sleep in a hot room next to sinners, so you better write a check.” I told him that I would not be issuing a check since ONE night at our regular rate is $100.
Therefore, his nightly rate was less than a third of that, and I didn’t receive any of that money. I walked back inside and began to shut down, making breakfast. About five minutes later, he came back to the door and he caught me completely off-guard.
He said, “We’ll be taking our breakfast and my check now.” I explained that I would be happy to put his breakfast in a box, but I was not giving him any money.
They left, and there was a letter in his room to me, telling me that he was going to call his lawyer. Two weeks later, I got a package in the mail with their name on the return address. I was both scared and intrigued to open it.
It was a letter from his wife, whom I didn’t hear more than two words from during their trip. She apologized for her husband’s behavior. She told me she knew I had not done anything wrong, that the room was charming, there was no issue with the heat.
She said that since her husband had become a born-again Christian and an online minister, he had become a complete terror. She included $200 in cash and asked that I not contact her since she was trying to get officially separated from him.