The Epistler has left a new comment on your post "Anonymous Mind-Reader Is Not Happy with Posts and ...":
While the child porn scandal at the WELS headquarters is tragic and disturbing at so many levels, I have no clue as to how it is relevant in this case. Unless, of course, it's just a way to shoulder the failings of one man onto a group of people.
You say that it took the FBI to shut it down. I'm not surprised. That's their job. It is so, so, so easy to hide illicit activity in everyday internet traffic. Is it fair to paint the tech support and administration at the WELS headquarters as incompetent or in denial? Maybe a simpler reason exists. He wasn't caught because, well, he simply wasn't caught. By your arguement, the wife of every cheating husband is stupid or in denial.
My guess is, it doesn't matter to you that the decisions of one man devestated a number of lives. It's just a very convenient way to deface your enemies in one fell stroke.
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G-NoMoney has left a new comment on your post "Wisconsin Synod Facing Another Lawsuit":
I was raised in a WELS church/school - St John's, Tosa. When I was eight, I told my third-grade teacher that my daddy came in my bed with no pajamas. The teacher, (who was the pastor's mom), slapped me across the face. Then she started shaking me while screaming, "You Horrible, Horrible girl. How dare you say such a filthy thing. You are going to Hell!" --- I never told anyone again. I was assaulted, then raped for another six years before quitting the ninth grade and running away from home. WELS is an unsafe environment for many children. I am just one example.
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GJ - I believe the report by G-NoMoney is genuine. I can add another from a different denomination. A man raped a young girl. The girl and her mother went to their pastor. He said, "If you go to the police, you will go to Hell." The girl is grown, but still suffers from the trauma. She is no longer a Christian. The pastor of that church knew all about the previous minister being an adulterer. In fact, the members knew about the pastor's mistress, because she was a member of the parish.
Within WELS there are many examples of church workers preying upon children and being caught. However, Holy Mother Synod never admits to these crimes, so most people remain innocent and gullible when the spin-doctors go to work. They tend to repeat the crime, as several workers have shown.
The anonymous critic is overlooking a previous crime in the Hochmuth scandal. According to the Criminal Report, Hochmuth was caught before and went into counseling with his wife. Supposedly she caught him. That means the counselor did not report the crime, which is required by law. The others who knew did not report the crime. I know the facts were never communicated to the authorities because Hochmuth has never been charged with any crime. Not even charged! Yet he was the main representative for WELS to the world at large, even when denouncing ELCA for its homosexual advocacy.
Although I have probed, I have not learned whether the WELS agency was involved in this counseling. Others have asked as well. Silence. I take that as an admission, but that is because I assume the worst when dealing with pathological liars.
The Wisconsin Sect was eager to make a known adulterer and false teacher into one of their own. I said then, as I repeat now, that these sins are piling up for the Day of Judgment. Public relations, Hochmuth's strong suit, will not be enough to fool God.
All the leaders have a responsibility to send the predators to prisons, instead of providing a cover story for them, as they did with DP Ed Werner.
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| DP Ed Werner was born forgiven, but the state sent him to the Big House for his crimes against minor girls in his congregation. Pastors knew but never talked - GA works. |
The feigned compassion of the anonymous critic is meaningless as long as the predators run loose, knowing with smug certainty that many will jump up to assail anyone who points out the truth.
Missouri and the Little Sect on the Prairie are no better.
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The Epistler has left a new comment on your post "Epistler Plays Whac-a-Mole. No Scandal Too Big To ...":
I believe that you mistake my intentions. I have no interest in trying to defend the WELS. Why should I? I left the church long ago. Today I'm agnostic. But religion came so close to utterly destroying my life and that of my family that I feel obligated to try to limit the damage that the faithful perpetrate, even if it's simply by calling people out on the potential destructiveness their words carry.
I carry no sympathy for Mr. Hochmuth. As far as I am concerned, there is no forgiveness for someone like him, and he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. How anyone can stand beside him is beyond me. But the callous way in which the responsibility has been spread by Ichabod to include multiple people and to suggest that they are also responsible for the exploitation of children is a facile and dangerous arguement. There are only two people who know for certain what Hochmuth was doing. His wife - and himself. Just because he claimed he was in counseling does NOT mean that he revealed the full extent of his crimes. Couples go to counseling for porn addiction all the time. There is nothing to suggest that the counselor wasn't lied to. In fact, since no crime was reported, it seems likely. And pouring guilt by association onto the WELS tech staff and administration does just as much damage to people who are (lesser) victims of this scandal. They were betrayed by a trusted employee. Why are you trying to crucify them with the traitor?
The rabid tendencies of religious individuals to place a blanket of blame on victims is near universal. It's ironic that the example of a young woman who was molested and then told she was going to hell is a perfect example of why religion is the primary source of evil in the world today.
One more example. Perhaps you've heard of [deleted example].
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GJ - I deleted the example because I have no first-hand knowledge of that situation in an infamous circuit, although one source told me he knew some of the basics.
I wonder how the Epistler can be so ignorant of the secular concept of supervision, not to mention the admonitions of the pastoral epistles. Supervisors (Greek, episcopon, overseer, bishop) are responsible for the people under them. Denominations play innocent, but the justice system comes down hard on religious franchises that tolerate and transfer known child abusers.
Liability is shared by the supervisors and the organization. WELS was so tolerant of abusive church workers that the insurance companies finally began requiring some kind of clearance for each worker. I recall DP Robert Mueller being very unhappy about that requirement. That would have ended Lutheran Parish Resources, one of Mueller's little gifts to Columbus, Ohio.
Paul McCain told me that Missouri began clamping down because "it was costing them so much money."
ELCA lost a $40 million lawsuit from one incident. Fred Adrian's congregation and WELS lost a $400,000 lawsuit, both involving abuse of minors. Good ol' Fred is back in the ministry, thanks to John Seifert. The denominations do not report the annual total of these costs, not to mention the synodical lawyers who work hard at squashing and settling cases on the QT.
I am addressing the human cost of this failure to supervise. I made many different direct attempts to stop what was happening in Columbus. I did not send anonymous comments or make wry little jokes at meetings (the accepted WELS approach). I spoke face-to-face with the Circuit Pastor, the DP, and the First VP - all of them liars. They were stunned that I learned the truth when I pressed them about their responsibility, then began getting even with me.
I also spoke to the future DP, John Seifert, who did the typical WELS flip, jumping to the other side of the issue when it suited him. And SP Naumann's son? He knew all about it, too. So did dozens in the Michigan District, WELS; the future president of the Little Seminary on the Prairie; and Floyd Stolzenburg's future co-worker, Jay Webber.
I told Mueller on the phone, "Every girl that is raped, every woman seduced, I hold you responsible for that."
He was startled and said, "Why?" I responded, "Because you are doing nothing about this now."
In conclusion, the decades of greed, immorality, and corruption are coming home, with a gigantic bill to be paid - not only in dollars, but also in lives destroyed and souls murdered.
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/manda.pdf
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13460
