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News & ArtsFriday, May 15, 2009
Religion Youth Pastor Watch
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, May 15, 2009 at 8:42 AM
A former youth group pastor at Capo Beach Calvary Church was sentenced to 90 days in jail Tuesday for having an unlawful sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl he met at church. Daniel John Pedroza, 28, Dana Point, pleaded guilty to six felony counts of unlawful sex with a minor. Superior Court Judge Gregory W. Jones also placed Pedroza on five years' probation....
Pedroza met the victim at the church in 2008 and engaged in sex acts with her at his house and at her house while her parents were not home, prosecutors said.
The 31-year-old suspect in an alleged March 8 sexual assault on Lindeman Drive is a youth minister at a popular Baptist church in Bridgeport. Vernitt Hoheb, of 117 Barnum Terrace, Stratford, surrendered to Trumbull police on second-degree sex assault charges May 8.Hoheb is a youth advisor at Mt. Aery Baptist Church on Frank Street, where the 16-year-old alleged victim is a youth group member.
“She is a member of the church’s youth group, PLUG, which stands for People Learning Under God,” said Deputy Chief Michael Harry. “He was a counselor and gave her a ride home after a PLUG meeting that night.” Harry said Hoheb drove to a deserted back parking lot at the Planet Fitness gym and began to “touch her inappropriately.” [I wasn't able to find a photo of Vernitt Hoheb, but there's a guy named Vern in this comedy video produced by the Mt. Aery Baptist Church.]
A former youth pastor—who is also a convicted sex offender—from Delaware County has struck a deal with federal prosecutors, agreeing to plead guilty to a child pornography charge. Charles S. "Chuck" Miller, 49, of rural Gaston, was arrested last September when federal agents raided his Harrison Township home. In court documents, a U.S. postal inspector wrote that Miller "admitted to being a member of an Internet-based bulletin board dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography."
...
Miller in April 2008 was charged with battery resulting in bodily injury, a misdemeanor count still pending in Muncie City Court. In that case, he is accused of beating a teenager in his home because the boy failed to follow instructions in recharging a car battery.
1
I hate stories like the first one, out of California. Say whatever you want about hypocrisy, religious piety, Youth Pastordom, whatever - 17 is legal in many states in the US. It is wrong that he is considered a sex offender for something that is legal in many areas of the country. Age of consent is something that should NOT be left to be determined state-by-state if the punishment is going to be so fucking severe. Something that gets you laid in Nebraska should not get you jailed in California. Period.
2
You always hear about peoples' gaydar, well what happened to peoples' sex predadar? Some of these guys are a dead giveaway.
3
@1, if he was pastoring to her in his capacity as youth pastor, it doesn't fucking matter if she was over the age of consent. He's abusing a power relationship with her.
4
Um, fine Fnarf. Then he shouldn't be a youth pastor. That has nothing to do with whether or not it should be illegal. From the way the article read, it sounded like it was completely consensual. If it was not, then of course I rescind my original statment.
5
PLUG.
Sheesh, it's so easy, I'm not going to bother.
Religious groups really are isolated from reality.
Sheesh, it's so easy, I'm not going to bother.
Religious groups really are isolated from reality.
9
He boned her in her OWN PARENTS' HOUSE? He's 28, right? I mean, Jesus. Couldn't he at least break the law with her at his place, or in his car?
10
@1: I dunno. If you really want to fuck 17-year-olds legally, maybe you should move. It'd be a worthy investment.
11
These YPW started out as a thought experiment, right? "If the media covered sexual abuse reports of youth pastors the same way they covered shark attacks, people would be terrified of sending their kids to church," Dan said, or words to that effect.
It's working. The Slog makes up a significant portion of my news intake, and I'm increasingly starting to expect sexual molestation out of youth group leaders. I grew up in a fairly church-going family: went to church every week, went to youth group every week, went on the retreats and to church camp, was confirmed and everything, and before YPW started I would have said my opinions on youth groups was very slightly more favorable than not, even though I'm an atheist now and haven't been to church in seven years. Now, though? Definitely negative. I have to stop and remember why I think youth groups are risky -- bubble chamber, bubble chamber.
So, uh, good job, I guess?
It's working. The Slog makes up a significant portion of my news intake, and I'm increasingly starting to expect sexual molestation out of youth group leaders. I grew up in a fairly church-going family: went to church every week, went to youth group every week, went on the retreats and to church camp, was confirmed and everything, and before YPW started I would have said my opinions on youth groups was very slightly more favorable than not, even though I'm an atheist now and haven't been to church in seven years. Now, though? Definitely negative. I have to stop and remember why I think youth groups are risky -- bubble chamber, bubble chamber.
So, uh, good job, I guess?
12
Lol. Well, I don't know about MOVING. It just seems retarded. People act as if this all about CHILDZ MULLESTING!#@!#! and some irrefutable, God-given explicated standard of morality, but we can't even agree across the country at what age it's appropriate to be able to choose to have sex? That's ridiculous. Especially when you have to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life.
That, of course, doesn't even take into account that, whether we like or not, in today's society 17-year-olds are grown-up. No, they may not be mature, but they are seriously savvy enough to decide whether or not to let something into their vaginas. Please.
That, of course, doesn't even take into account that, whether we like or not, in today's society 17-year-olds are grown-up. No, they may not be mature, but they are seriously savvy enough to decide whether or not to let something into their vaginas. Please.
13
11
thought experiment
Substitute
1935 Germany for Slog and
Goebbels for Dan and
Jew for Youth Pastor
and you see how it's done.
thought experiment
Substitute
1935 Germany for Slog and
Goebbels for Dan and
Jew for Youth Pastor
and you see how it's done.
15
@13: Rather than argue just how off base you are, I'll supply the items that would make your analogy more apt.
You can keep the 1935 Germany comparison, but you have to put Alfred Wiener* and not Goebbels for Dan.
And replace Youth Pastor with Nazi (or the dangers of right-wing extremism) rather than Jew.
Then you have an accurate analogy.
*"Alfred Wiener devoted himself to the task of enlightening the German people about the dangers of right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. He directed most of his efforts towards combating the Nazi threat. As part of this work Wiener was involved in an initiative in 1928 to set up an office to collect all available information about the Nazi Party, its leaders and its activities." - from the Introduction and Essays page of Testaments to the Holocaust at the Wiener Library, London.
You can keep the 1935 Germany comparison, but you have to put Alfred Wiener* and not Goebbels for Dan.
And replace Youth Pastor with Nazi (or the dangers of right-wing extremism) rather than Jew.
Then you have an accurate analogy.
*"Alfred Wiener devoted himself to the task of enlightening the German people about the dangers of right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. He directed most of his efforts towards combating the Nazi threat. As part of this work Wiener was involved in an initiative in 1928 to set up an office to collect all available information about the Nazi Party, its leaders and its activities." - from the Introduction and Essays page of Testaments to the Holocaust at the Wiener Library, London.
16
I have to say I'm a bit confused by the first one in California...isn't the age of consent 17? Or, is the article unclear and the girl is NOW 17 but maybe younger when it happened? Also, it sort of sounds consensual...and I don't condone teachers/doctors/authority figures taking advantage of their students/patients/clients (and vice versa, and yeah, it does happen) but as long as undue pressure is not applied and everyone is consensual and of legal age, uh, who cares?
17
Um, no keshmeshi, but bitch please, let's not pretend that people don't get severely harsh sentences for fucking people who are on the cusp of legal consent. And it says nothing about him registering as a sex offender, which I would assume is required. And way to pick one tiny part of one statement I made but actually ignore my entire point to be a condescending, nit-picking bitch. Yeah, you're quite the intellectual phenom. DUMBASS.
18
And actually, yeah, 90 days in jail and 5 years probation IS pretty severe for something that maybe shouldn't have even been illegal. Stripping him of his Youth Pastor duties and/or making him leave the church might have been an appropriate punishment. But ZOMG, let's make sure he learns that lesson about fucking people who want to fuck him!!#@!##! You're a fucking retard keshmeshi. Everything you post here is always a steaming turd.
19
15,
No, no, he's got a point. It's an offensive, ridiculously phrased point, but it's still a point. The point isn't that I am now more aware of a large and growing threat (though there may be one), the point is that I feel that there is a threat REGARDLESS OF HOW SIGNIFICANT A DANGER IT REALLY IS.
The analogy I would have used would have been Hearst's yellow journalism crusade against marijuana. There you had a journalist (or a journalism magnate) taking legitimate news stories and giving them exaggerated coverage until people were convinced that marijuana was a much bigger threat to the country than it was. Is. Simply making sure that every single criminal case that involves (marijuana/a youth pastor) gets played in banner point across the medium makes it seem like this big stinking deal.
And I can see the parallels to anti-semitism. If you want to demonize a group of people, one nice and easy way to do it is to take any awful story that involves some member of the group and pound on it -- see for example Dan's worry about the gay Taco Bell employees who were contaminating food and how that might have been demonized. The implication from these stories starts to become "People are sexual predators BECAUSE they are youth pastors" not "People are youth pastors because they are sexual predators" or even "Some sexual predators are youth pastors."
That being said, I think the whole Nazi thing is in kind of poor taste. Yeah, the Nazis were hip to propaganda. So's the Slog. So's, oh, Coca-Cola. Therefore Slog IS Coke!
Which, as we all know, is life. So there you go. Slog = Life.
No, no, he's got a point. It's an offensive, ridiculously phrased point, but it's still a point. The point isn't that I am now more aware of a large and growing threat (though there may be one), the point is that I feel that there is a threat REGARDLESS OF HOW SIGNIFICANT A DANGER IT REALLY IS.
The analogy I would have used would have been Hearst's yellow journalism crusade against marijuana. There you had a journalist (or a journalism magnate) taking legitimate news stories and giving them exaggerated coverage until people were convinced that marijuana was a much bigger threat to the country than it was. Is. Simply making sure that every single criminal case that involves (marijuana/a youth pastor) gets played in banner point across the medium makes it seem like this big stinking deal.
And I can see the parallels to anti-semitism. If you want to demonize a group of people, one nice and easy way to do it is to take any awful story that involves some member of the group and pound on it -- see for example Dan's worry about the gay Taco Bell employees who were contaminating food and how that might have been demonized. The implication from these stories starts to become "People are sexual predators BECAUSE they are youth pastors" not "People are youth pastors because they are sexual predators" or even "Some sexual predators are youth pastors."
That being said, I think the whole Nazi thing is in kind of poor taste. Yeah, the Nazis were hip to propaganda. So's the Slog. So's, oh, Coca-Cola. Therefore Slog IS Coke!
Which, as we all know, is life. So there you go. Slog = Life.
20
15
But you forget, Wiener lost and Goebbels won.
And Dan is fond of pointing out that He's Winning!
Decadence is always the easier sell.
Carrie Prejean is your Alfred Wiener, warning America of impending moral collapse. Vainly and to much derision.
Dan is your Goebbels with a seductive appealing message of teenage anal sex and mutual masterbation, anything goes "marriage', and don't worry about monogamy. Messages relentlessly pounded into the children of America by Hollywood, MTV, etc. A modern day Nazi Youth.
He IS winning.
And the outcome will be the same.
Destruction of the society that embraces the seductive decadence.
Allied bombs and armies devastated Germany.
America is rotting from the inside out with moral decay.
But you forget, Wiener lost and Goebbels won.
And Dan is fond of pointing out that He's Winning!
Decadence is always the easier sell.
Carrie Prejean is your Alfred Wiener, warning America of impending moral collapse. Vainly and to much derision.
Dan is your Goebbels with a seductive appealing message of teenage anal sex and mutual masterbation, anything goes "marriage', and don't worry about monogamy. Messages relentlessly pounded into the children of America by Hollywood, MTV, etc. A modern day Nazi Youth.
He IS winning.
And the outcome will be the same.
Destruction of the society that embraces the seductive decadence.
Allied bombs and armies devastated Germany.
America is rotting from the inside out with moral decay.
22
It just goes to show you what happens when you let those filthy heterosexuals around our children. They just can't be trusted.
23
@20: That doesn't hold up either. Wiener was able to compile information about the Nazis (original source materials, propaganda, news items from inside Germany, etc), and was able to continue doing so throughout the war while in England.
The information that he gathered was used by the Allies and was vital in their winning the war.
Prejean is (in more than a few ways) an example of the Nordic ideal of what the perfect citizen should be - not only physically, but also in being educationally empty and vapid.
The information that he gathered was used by the Allies and was vital in their winning the war.
Prejean is (in more than a few ways) an example of the Nordic ideal of what the perfect citizen should be - not only physically, but also in being educationally empty and vapid.
25
Right on Stay Tuned! Because of Gay Marriage, my car wouldn't start, my athletes foot flared up again and my eggs were over cooked (again!).
Thanks Dan! asshole...
Thanks Dan! asshole...
26
16,
I have always understood it is 18 years of age. I was born and raised in CA, but they may lowered the age after I left.
I have always understood it is 18 years of age. I was born and raised in CA, but they may lowered the age after I left.
27
Um didn't our morality decay when Bush was on watch, and the conservatives were in power?
Us: "Sex is okay! Torture is bad."
Them: "Torture is okay! Sex is bad."
Age of consent in California is 18, but there's some judicial leeway when the couple are of similar ages. (An eighteen year old will probably not be prosecuted for fucking a sixteen year old, for example.) But a youth pastor boning one of his own flock is definitely a situation with abuse of power implications. I can see how he ended up with the sentence he did.
Us: "Sex is okay! Torture is bad."
Them: "Torture is okay! Sex is bad."
Age of consent in California is 18, but there's some judicial leeway when the couple are of similar ages. (An eighteen year old will probably not be prosecuted for fucking a sixteen year old, for example.) But a youth pastor boning one of his own flock is definitely a situation with abuse of power implications. I can see how he ended up with the sentence he did.
30
These guys need to move to Virginia if they are moving. As of the last time I checked (probably 8 years ago, it may have changed) the age of consent was 14. On the other hand, you had to be 16 to work. In other words, if they work in the mall, they are legal.
Here in Texas, the age of consent is 17, which I think is fine. The first guy is definitely a douche bag, but I have a hard time seeing him as a criminal.
Here in Texas, the age of consent is 17, which I think is fine. The first guy is definitely a douche bag, but I have a hard time seeing him as a criminal.
31
I hope, everyone understands that the girls were under age having sexual acts with the adult men,nevertheless they did it. Someone could say that the minor is minor and an adult is adult, no matter if she is 17 and 363 days, wrong is wrong.
I really wish the hormones were more powerful than faith in all these cases.
I really wish the hormones were more powerful than faith in all these cases.
32
AS FOR THE YOUTH PAST IN CT. I HOPE AND PRAY THAT NOW HE IS IN JAIL (EVEN THOUGH IT IS FOR TOO SHORT OF A TIME) GOD WILL REALLY WORK WITH HIM. BUT IN ORDER FOR HIM TO WORK HE MUST BE WILLING TO EXCEPT THE LESSON THAT WILL BE TAUGHT. IT TOOK A LOT OF COURAGE FOR THIS YOUNG LADY TO COME FORWARD. JUST THINK OF HOW MANY GO LEFT UNKNOWN. WHEN YOU ARE 32 YEARS OLD AND YOU HAVE OR TRY TO HAVE SEX WITH A MINOR NO MATTER HOW CONSENTUAL IT IS.. IT IS STILL WRONG..
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