Second Update - What Is Child Pornography?
Third Update - Synod President Claimed Uncertainty
Confession on Tuesday, Fired on Friday
Survivors Network (SNAP) Issued Statement to WELS
Terms of Bond
Warning to WELS
Failure To Supervise, Failure To Report
Episcopalian Parallel to Hochmuth Case
WAUKESHA, Wis. -- A Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod employee was arrested Tuesday on child pornography charges, according to Waukesha police.
Investigators said the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force provided them with evidence that child pornography was distributed from a home in the 1900 block of Hunter Court. Police searched the home and arrested Joel Hochmuth after they found numerous images of child pornography, according to a police report. Hochmuth, 52, is the director of communications for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. He was in the Waukesha County Jail Tuesday night and was expected in court on Wednesday.
12 News spoke with the group's president, Mark Schroeder, by phone. He said he is hopeful the allegations prove to be a false alarm or a mistake. He said Hochmuth's job does not involve direct contact with children.
The WELS are the third largest Lutheran church body in America with 390,000 members. The national headquarters are in Milwaukee.
Read more: http://www.wisn.com/news/29790392/detail.html#ixzz1dvtvW1i5
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Joel Hochmuth
Director of Communications at Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod
- Greater Milwaukee Area
- Religious Institutions
- Current
- Past
- Education
http://www.wels.net/streams/podcasts/series/witness-this
http://www.uwec.edu/wels/bios/hochmuth.html
Joel Hochmuth
Joel Hochmuth currently serves as WELS director of communications, a position he has held since 2007. As director of communications, he oversees and coordinates all communication coming from synod administration, both to internal and external WELS audiences. Before coming to Milwaukee, Hochmuth was a professor of journalism and communication at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. The bulk of his professional career was spent at CNN in Atlanta where he worked from 1987 to 2002. There he had numerous positions including correspondent, writer and copy editor. Hochmuth was raised in California, the son of WELS Pastor Robert Hochmuth. He earned a B.A. in communication studies from California State University, Sacramento and an M.A. in radio and television from San Francisco State University. He has been married to his wife Heidi for 15 years. They have a son, Adam, 13, and attend Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church in Waukesha, WI.
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Convention wrap-up
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Michele Bachman story - waffling on the Antichrist
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Video of Hochmuth and Schroeder.
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Hochmuth is Facebook friends with Aaron Frey, another recent WELS embarrassment. Frey is trying to start some business - PearlVault - ""PearlVault is creating a permanent, digital margin in which to write your lifetime of Bible notes." How far can he go?
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WELS HIRES COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR
In an effort to fully coordinate communications and provide messages effectively and efficiently to various constituents, WELS has hired Joel Hochmuth to be its full-time director of communications.
In this position, Hochmuth will be responsible for strategic planning, communication coordination, WELS publications, marketing efforts, and public relations for WELS.
“We have the rock-solid truth, but keeping it to ourselves doesn’t do anybody any good . . .,” says Hochmuth. “Our ultimate mission is to communicate the gospel.”
A member at Beautiful Savior, Marietta, Ga., Hochmuth worked for 15 years at Cable News Network (CNN) in Atlanta, Ga., where he produced hundreds of network-quality, long-form video reports and series. He also taught communication courses at Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Ga.
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From SpenerQuest:
This from WISN Channel 12 in Milwaukee:
"12 News spoke with the group's president, Mark Schroeder, by phone. He said he is hopeful the allegations prove to be a false alarm or a mistake. He said Hochmuth's job does not involve direct contact with children."
Call me daft, but how is having child porn on your PC a 'false alarm'? "A mistake"? ('oops, I meant for those photos to be loaded on my iPad'). How about a sin - and a heinous one at that?
And another comment:
Indeed, President Schroeder's statement is quite disengenuous. Even a "We take these allegations seriously and will deal with them accordingly" is better than a "Hopefully, this is all a mistake," which gives a public impression that they do not take the allegations seriously and even that they are circling the wagons to defend Hochmuth. And I agree- I have no idea what he means by "false alarm"! Who cares whether "Hochmuth's job does not involve direct contact with children." A statement that Hochmuth is no longer an employee of the WELS should have been issued immediately.
How denominational entities can stumble so badly, especially on that level, is baffling. Perhaps, in this case, it's because their communications director is in jail?!
12 comments:
So now when people see a WELS Connection video, they'll think of this.
Dr. Jackson was right on the mark calling it the Love Shack.
That's another reason to move to PeWaukee--to get ten miles removed from this bit of publicity and criminal history.
No where to run when you embrace a false gospel of Objective Justification and attack the Triune God's Gospel of forgiveness and Justification through Faith in Christ alone.
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/05/stole-from-wels-too-but-all-is-forgiven.html
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/06/herman-otten-flacks-for-synods-again.html
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/02/change-to-enthusian-or-die-brochure.html
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/05/jimmy-james-on-thrivent-headquarters-in.html
etc, etc, etc,
The damage control on this scandal will be very difficult.
Did anyone else's radar go up when they saw CNN on his resume???
Given the current attitudes and other "events" in the news (ie, the Penn State coach thing), this will be very difficult to deal with, and will end up. President Schroeder's comment is a little confusing. I think they need to put out a proper press release ASAP.
Again, let me remind society of the most cost effective way of ridding the world of a menace: Shoot him in the knee caps and leave him in the cornfield for the coyotes to get him. 22 shells cost $0.03 each. A nickle and a penny. Can you imagine the horror of being in a pitch black cornfield, in pain and completely conscious, yet unable to move... as wild dogs circled? That's a heck of a deterrent for other potential sickos.
And I just have to comment on Schroeder's namby-pamby response. What people of God would permit such a mutterer to represent them? We ought tear out the bottom on his pants, shave his head and drive him out of town with a horsewhip.
Is that Old Testament enough for you?
Luther had a similar suggestion in dealing with false teachers. It was something about being baited by dogs, driven out of town, and pelted with dung.
I think that Pres. Schroeder's comment can be taken in the context of "innocent till proven guilty" meaning we need to let the judicial system do their job. Pres. Schroeder likely did not have enough information to come to a conclusion and he should have stated that. As you well know, reporters tend to pick and choose words out of context. Pres. Schroeder should have not commented at all and responded by saying that a press release would be issued and then called in back-up.
Gregg, for once I agree with you. As a person who works as a journalist, President Schroeder's non-comment was sorely lacking. He should have said "We our shocked and saddened by the alleged allegations against Mr. Hochmuth. He has been suspended from his position with WELS until these charges can be fully examined in a court of law. My office and all administrators in the WELS will cooperate with the investigation as needed. The WELS does not condone the abuse or objectification of children. We pray for Mr. Hochmuth and his family, along with any children who may have been harmed in this tragic situation." Something other than what Schroeder said would be better - it just came off as so cold, uncaring and concerned only about the WELS.
At least SP Schroeder didn't say Hochmuth's videos were a parody on child porn like he said the homoerotic video "Party in the MLC" on YouTube was a parody on gaydom.
Some people who distribute illicit materials have no interest in it, similar to how drug dealers don't use the drugs they sell.
Child porn and pedophilia often refer to (or maybe most often to?) ephebophilia:
I found these three articles were informative:
http://www.childmolestationprevention.org/pages/focus_on_the_cause.html
When researchers analyzed the data provided by the 4,000 abusers in the Child Molestation Prevention Study, they found this fact. Put all together, these first three categories of abusers - the sexually curious teens, the adults with medical or mental disorders, and the antisocials - were responsible for only five percent of the sex acts committed against children. In contrast, the members of the fourth category were responsible for 95 percent of the sex acts committed against children.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/01/29/has-australia-really-banned-small-breasts/
The internet has its “outraged” face on over news that the Australian Classification Board plans to refuse classification to films depicting A-cup breasts in case it encourages pedophilia.
ephebophilia (synonym: Hebephilia):
http://www.religioustolerance.org/pedophile.htm
Hebephilia: A condition in which an adult, usually male, is sexually attracted to post-pubertal adolescents (14 to 17).
https://glbtqja.wordpress.com/category/ephebophilia-paedophilia-homosexuality/page/2/
The term ephebophilia, derived from the Greek word for “youth,” is sometimes used to describe sexual interest in young people in the first stages of puberty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kSdADOIG3Y
The fourth category was ephebophiliacs, meaning men, mostly, with preferred sexual orientations toward minors.
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