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Child Porn Surfaces on Businessman-Pastor's Slide Show
Houston Chronicle ^
| 11-22-02
| AP
Posted on 11/22/2002 8:29:47 PM PST by Theodore R.
Porn shows up in businessman's slide show Associated Press
FORT WORTH -- A North Texas businessman has been jailed after co-workers reported an image of child pornography showed up on a screen as he gave a computer slide presentation recently.
James Andrew Smith of Denton was in the Mansfield Jail under $300,000 bond after he was charged with two counts of possessing child pornography and one charge of promoting child pornography.
Exel Inc. co-workers told police Smith had just completed a PowerPoint presentation on Sept. 4 when he tried to open another document on his laptop computer. The co-workers said a photograph of a nude young boy appeared on the screen.
Exel Inc. is a logistics company in Fort Worth.
According to the police report, Smith told Exel officials that a computer virus had caused the image to appear. Nevertheless, police said Excel officials fired Smith and contacted police the following week after a search of his laptop found pornographic photos of children that appeared to have been e-mailed to others.
Police seized the computer, as well as disks containing child pornography and a folder with 65 pages of printed pictures of child pornography that Exel officials had found in Smith's desk, the report stated.
Smith is also pastor of Landmark Baptist Church in Sanger. His wife, Julie Smith, said they have been married for 13 years and have two children.
"He's never hurt our children. As far as I know he's never hurt anyone's children," she said. "He has always taken very good care of me and our children. Anything we needed or wanted, he worked and I got it."
She said the congregation at the Sanger church was told Wednesday night that her husband was resigning immediately, but was not told why. He had been pastor of the church for 3 1/2 years.
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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: businessman; computer; pastor; porn; tx
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Here's another tragic case of how porn can ruin a family.
To: Theodore R.
Here's another tragic case of how porn can ruin a family.This guy's a nominee for a Darwin Award (spiritual division).
2
posted on
11/22/2002 8:32:34 PM PST
by
freebilly
To: Theodore R.
Hold muh smut and watch this!
This guy was an idiot.
Betcha he finds another pastorate after he gets out of prison.
3
posted on
11/22/2002 8:32:57 PM PST
by
Poohbah
To: Theodore R.
Third posting of this article/story.
The perp, when convicted, should have his means of viewing such garbage 'interrupted' permanently.
4
posted on
11/22/2002 8:33:50 PM PST
by
MHGinTN
To: Theodore R.
Get ready Baptists. Now that the media is tired of Catholic Church scandal, they'll be looking to publicize every bad pastor in your communion.
Of course, other conservative Christians had no problem ganging up with the leftist media to attack the Catholic Church.
I'll say this: I have no hard feelings. I will not pile on conservative Protestants like the media wants me to. This character is in no way representative of Southern Baptists - and if I see any media article trying to exploit this case to give conservative Protestants a black eye, I'll challenge it.
5
posted on
11/22/2002 8:38:40 PM PST
by
wideawake
To: Poohbah
Betcha he finds another pastorate after he gets out of prison.He can minister to the membership of NAMBLA....
6
posted on
11/22/2002 8:39:13 PM PST
by
freebilly
To: MHGinTN
The guy has to be an idiot, to keep kiddie porn on his computer, esp. at work. That's why I wonder if he was set up. If somebody framed him by inserting those pics on his work computer. Office politics, and all.
7
posted on
11/22/2002 8:40:29 PM PST
by
Ciexyz
To: wideawake
This character is in no way representative of Southern BaptistsWell, at least he wasn't dancing....
8
posted on
11/22/2002 8:40:33 PM PST
by
freebilly
To: Theodore R.
To: Ciexyz
More found in his home though. How would someone 'set him up' with that? It should be easy enough to check 'History' of net access to his time on the puter, just in case his wife 'set him up'.
10
posted on
11/22/2002 8:42:41 PM PST
by
MHGinTN
To: Theodore R.
Police seized the computer, as well as disks containing child pornography and a folder with 65 pages of printed pictures That is a pretty powerful computer virus that can force your printer to print 65 pages of pron and keep you from noticing it.
11
posted on
11/22/2002 8:45:53 PM PST
by
ikka
To: Theodore R.
Porn is sick and destructive, but doesn't this story sound the least bit strange? What guy would really have a pic on his computer that he uses for public demonstrations, and have tons of pictures in his office desk?? Is he just really plain loco, or could it be something else? Everyone assumes this guy is guilty right off... I thought in America one is presumed innocent til proven guilty. This whole thing smells.
Comment #13 Removed by Moderator
To: Ciexyz
Some other guy a while back who had something similar happen said he was doing "research."
14
posted on
11/22/2002 9:07:21 PM PST
by
Contra
To: Theodore R.
Sounds like intentional sabotage by computer virus to me. Maybe by Dem Rats, those nasty rats. Don't count this man out yet.
15
posted on
11/22/2002 10:15:31 PM PST
by
ex-Texan
To: plerophoria
Addiction
16
posted on
11/22/2002 10:18:56 PM PST
by
tiki
To: wideawake
Look, are you saying people should keep their mouths shut about the abuses the priests are instigating on the young to protect the Catholic Church? Get real. That is exactly why they are in the position they find themselves - because everyone who saw the problem tried to protect the church, protect the funds, protect the priests at the expense of the young.
The priest problem was not one single priest - it was massive for the very reason that it was hidden by the church year after year. That should be exposed.
Pile on? Sure, we are to be permissive of any behavior that protects a church hierachy, their ability to raise funds - even if it harms our young year after year; even if it causes the church to become merely a fraud; even if it turns the priests that teach religious beliefs into perverts that stalk the young of the congregation ruining their lives and their view of religion.
If the leaders of the Catholic church had been more interested in protecting God's message and God's purpose and less interested in protecting their funds, their reputations and the lives that members want to live, they would have solved the problem years ago.
You will note that this man resigned as pastor - he did not seek to continue his position in the church. He knew full well that if he did not resign, he would have been dismissed.
17
posted on
11/22/2002 10:56:06 PM PST
by
ClancyJ
To: ex-Texan
To me this is more than a violation of the law: it is the destruction of a family by demon-like forces within this man's being. The Bible says to be sure that "your sins will find you out." This man, his wife, and children have seen his life come apart in the past two months, and there is no immediate reconciliation likely. The society forbids "child porn" but it encourages "adult porn." The man did not learn the distinction. Perhaps too for some people "adult porn" can lead to "child porn." The visual images of 16, 17, and 18-year-olds is not that distinct except in the legal definition. Earlier this year, I remember reading about a young doctor in Ville Platte, LA, whose life was similarly ruined by child porn via computer. In that case, it was his new wife who turned him in to authorities. Such cases as these should warn all of the dangers of pornography. Even Ted Bundy understood that porn was at the root of his serial killings.
To: ClancyJ
If the leaders of the Catholic church had been more interested in protecting God's message and God's purpose and less interested in protecting their funds, their reputations and the lives that members want to live, they would have solved the problem years ago. I find absolutely nothing to disagree with in this statement.
I would think, however, that every conservative observing the media coverage of the scandal would recognize two things: (1) the media doesn't care at all about the children who were actually victims of abuse, since they trumpet all allegations without any investigation into the truth or falsity of a claim (the Archbishop Pell incident is a perfect example) and (2) the media has seized upon the abuse in order to discredit the good work the Church has done to support the unborn and to oppose homosexual rights legislation.
And, since you're you are so eager to accuse Catholics of "covering up" the abuse, you should know that I am a member of a Catholic organization called RCF (www.rcf.org) which has been speaking out quite vocally about this problem for many years now. But if you really want only the mainstream media's view of reality you're welcome to it.
I mean, why give your fellow Christians the benefit of the doubt?
To: wideawake
I was replying to the comment made that the poster would not "pile on" a religion because of the actions of one person. I pointed out that the actions of this one person were in no way the same as the ongoing actions of priests in the Catholic Church. One is an individual act, the other is an ongoing acceptance of individual acts of abuse by the Catholic Church administration. Rather than oust the offender, they chose to hide the offense and allow the offender to continue his abuse.
It is not my fault that those in the Catholic Church made the decisions they did. However, now that they did, I am in no way at fault for speaking the truth.
Your efforts to chastise me for speaking the truth are very telling. Am I supposed to just ignore their offense because they are the "Catholic Church"? Am I, too, to hide what they are doing because some did speak up?
They were wrong. They made the wrong choices for the wrong reasons. In making those choices, they dishonored their church and corrupted their purpose.
The same would have been true no matter what church did this - Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic.
20
posted on
11/23/2002 8:52:44 PM PST
by
ClancyJ
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