Responsorama #2

See this post for an explanation of the Responsorama series.

Q: President K explains that Issues etc. host Pr. Todd Wilken and producer Mr. Jeff Schwarz were fired because of KFUO’s growing deficit, despite the fact that Issues Etc. was the station’s most popular and recognized program. On a completely unrelated note, if the McDonalds corporation were also hemorrhaging money, who do you think it would be smarter to fire—their CEO or Ronald McDonald?

Hemingway: Actually, I don’t think that question is unrelated at all.

Q: Really? Well, how on earth are they similar?

Hemingway: In all seriousness, the notion that you would fire men (who are doing great work) because of the mismanagement of their superiors just boggles the mind. As a former member of the Board for Communication Services, I can say unequivocally that Issues, Etc. was the best outreach effort under our purview. It also happened to have an incredible base of donor support. As is being revealed here, the financial books on the radio station raise some huge red accounting flags that call President Kieschnick’s figures into question. While the LCMS press office is refusing to answer questions from the media, other sources indicate that one of the reasons it took President Kieschnick and David Strand so long after the initial outcry to come up with their financial allegations was because they ran the calculations days after they terminated the employment of Jeff and Todd.

The question I’d like an answer to — and one that the suits in St. Louis are refusing to answer — is: if the financial picture of Issues, Etc. was this dire and this cut and dry, why didn’t Strand go through the normal channels to terminate the program? Why was President Kieschnick notified but the Board for Communications Services was not? Again, as a former board member, I can think of nothing even approaching that level of seriousness that would be carried out without board mandate. What’s more, the David Strand I know never acted without direct orders from his superiors. Former board member Joel Brondos reports the same thing.

And here’s a related question — when I served on the Board for Communication Services, we were told that any action that had financial implications had to be run through the Synod’s chief financial officer. We know that he wasn’t even in the country when the firings went down. What was the rush?

Unfortunately, David Strand and President Kieschnick are refusing to answer these questions.