Saturday, November 19, 2011

Failure to Supervise at WELS Headquarters.
Failure of Counselor To Report Felonies

Joel Hochmuth was arrested on Tuesday and confessed.
He was fired on Friday.
WELS DPs are known for walking into a pastor's office and firing him on the spot.


SuzieQ has left a new comment on your post "Warning to the WELS - From Head Elder and SusieQ":

I would suggest you read the criminal complaint and you will have a better understanding why I find the Synod President's  slow actions in firing Hochmuth puzzling. The complaint is extremely graphic and describes in detail what was depicted in the videos. I would have fired him in 30 seconds after reading it. The more important thing right now is looking for victims.

The only purpose to carry a flash drive with graphic man/boy child pornographic video and photos would be to view the information you have stored on that. It's not used to prop to open the door or to clean your fingernails.

It would certainly deter anyone from looking at children performing sex acts on grown men if they knew their employer could access their their computer at anytime. This is the case in most large corporations and educational institutions.

It is not an invasion of privacy. When you are at work you have no expectation of privacy, concerning anything you bring into the work place. This includes CDs, flash drives, emails. IM and web browsing.

As I covered previously in this response. There would be no reason to bring child sexual pornography to work unless you were going to access it using your employers computer. He wouldn't have been holding it up to the light to look at it.

And in hind sight it would be advisable for WELS Synod to monitor their employees more closely, thus lowering the level of temptation. And to quote a famous person, "What have you got to hide?"

It is obvious to me that Hochmuth had this child pornography at his Synod Office out of fear his wife or son may find it. So it does look like WELS Synod was the weak link.

WELS has the obligation to be swift and firm. For your information his office at WELS is not in his home, so all your rigamarole and misquoting of the law is useless babble. If the FBI finds reason to search other offices and computers at Synod I am confident they will.

The FBI knows exactly who Joel was sharing the child pornography with. And they don't even need his cooperation or anyone elses to prove him guilty.

They have his confession and evidence, he's going away.

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GJ - Some basic questions are:

  • How did the local area network administrator at 2929 Mayfair Road manage to overlook the use of images and videos that are a federal crime to view, let alone share?
  • When did this counseling take place? Before or during Hochmuth's tenure at 2929 as director of communications?
  • Why did the counselor, who worked with Mr. and Mrs. Hochmuth, fail to report the crime, as required by law? 
  • Was it through WLCFS?
  • Pastors Glende, Ski, Patterson, and Gurgel have recently excommunicated members for questioning them. Is child pornography also an excommunication offense, or is that a trivial matter in comparison?
  • Hochmuth lawyered up fast, with the best criminal defense attorney in the state. Who is paying those enormous fees?
Martin Spriggs


Martin Spriggs's Summary

I am a general technologist with a public ministerial background. Together the two form a mix that supports ministry efforts within WELS that involve the use of technology. My primary goal is to share the love of Christ with as many people as possible through whatever means are available.

Specialties
Graphic design, web design, programming, project management, management, leadership

Martin Spriggs's Experience
Chief Technology Officer Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod October 2004 – Present (7 years 2 months)

Provide vision for and management of technology within WELS. This includes infrastructure and applications development, communication tools, and general web presence.

Consultant Unisys Public Company; 10,001+ employees; UIS; Information Technology and Services industry 2004 – 2004 (less than a year)

Director of Operations Qwest Communications Public Company; 10,001+ employees; Q; Telecommunications industry 1999 – 2004 (5 years)

Manage the consulting practice and general operations for Midwest Office

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AC V has left a new comment on your post "Failure to Supervise at WELS Headquarters. Failure...":

"Mind Like Water":

http://wlsce.net/course/262

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HOME › COURSES ›
Mind Like Water: A Productivity System for Shepherds

In karate the position of perfect readiness is described with the imagery of “mind like water.” A still pond reacts appropriately to a rock that is tossed into it regardless of the size of the rock or the force with which it was thrown. It then returns to a calm state. It doesn’t overreact or under-react. That is the state of mind that every pastor needs to be productive in the often chaotic pastor’s offices of today. We all struggle with getting to a state where we always react appropriately and are as productive as possible. When we don’t, we waste time and potentially sabotage relationships with unclear communications - essentially poor stewardship.

Using established time and talent management methodologies this course mixes the sciences of technology and the art of productivity, all from a Christian perspective. The end result will be a system every pastor (or any called worker) can use to be a good steward of time and talent. Topics include 1.) Getting your inbox to zero…and keeping it there; 2.) Determining what to do next…with confidence; 3.) Turning your to do list into something you can actually “get done”; and 4.) Getting others to be as productive as you are.


Martin Spriggs
Martin Spriggs has served as the synod’s Chief Technology Officer since 2004. A former pastor serving in Milwaukee, WI and Summerville, SC he now seeks to blend technology with its effective use in ministry.

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GJ - Spriggs gave sermons in Summerville that were verbatim copies of Hybels, Willow Creek. Even the inflections were copied. He promised to stop, but started again. He was not removed for false doctrine but for being dishonest.

WELS fed me a story through a friend that Spriggs was getting another pastoral call. I checked out the story and found it false. The idea was to plant a fake story so WELS could call me a liar. They tried it again, with a story of a prominent pastor being an adulterer. WELS is allergic to the truth - typical of an abusive sect.

Spriggs was in charge of the LAN at The Love Shack when Church and Change was registering WELS members and pastors from the WELS.net website for their next conference. One pastor said, "But SP Gurgel told me that Church and Change does not exist anymore."

I said, "Here is the link. Try it for yourself." I believe that clever addition to the WELS.net website was taken down by Mark Schroeder. I would have enjoyed the Come-to-Jesus meeting about that link. I heard Church and Change was furious that they had to report their activities to the Synod President. The idea!

Since Spriggs teaches for The Sausage Factory, he should add this to his bio: "Asleep at the switch when  the local area network I manage was being used for child porn."


That would be the best he could do, because if he knew and did nothing...

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From 29A: My wife said ... [comment deleted by request]. Women do not like that kind of stuff and when he goes up the river, neither will the other cons. Cons usually get these or give these kind of guys the justice system did not do, if you know what I mean.

The question now becomes how many others at the Love Shack knew about this and also in the synod schools and even throughout the local congregations?

Also is the Appleton and Texas gangs going to call you a liar about this when it is all over the media? Does that mean the FBI agents are liars too? The WELS may want to be very careful on this issue because they could end up on the wrong side of the law themselves.