 Braxton and friend |
Call it the stimulus package from God.
Manhattan’s Riverside Church – one of the country’s most illustrious religious institutions – is paying its new senior pastor, the Rev. Brad Braxton, more than $600,000 in annual compensation.
That’s twice what Braxton’s predecessor, James Forbes, one of the country’s best-known preachers, was getting after running Riverside for more than 18 years. It amounts to almost 10 times what William Sloane Coffin, the legendary anti-Vietnam War clergyman, was paid in his last year as senior minister at Riverside in 1987.
Braxton was selected in a vote of the congregation last fall and is to be officially installed Sunday.
A group of church dissidents claims the members were never told about the lavish package. Those dissidents filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court last week to stop Braxton’s installation, revealing a growing divide among the church’s 1,500 members.
The Wall Street-like package, the dissidents say, is outrageous for a man of the cloth – especially when you consider Riverside’s long history of advocating social justice.
I guess it doesn’t matter much which hustle you choose, nowadays? They all pay better than working for a living.
1,500 members are paying for all of that? lol.
The whole “church minister” scam is quite interesting. A relative of mine is a preacher and after years got a job as a minister out of state. Small Church–about 30 people with Church and living quarters and donations. “Obviously” his job was to grow the congregation “but” he did not bring enough hell fire to this group of sadists, so after 2 years he moved back to our State.
Probably about as close to a “real” free market situation as you can get and compensation was a bargaining for exchange. I wonder what the ACTUAL salary setting mechanism is at Riverside. Somehow I doubt it is a meeting of the whole church after the Sunday Sermon “to talk brass tacks.”
Belief in God==a private relationship between one person and his best hopes.
Two People==politics.
A whole lot of people==Damn Politics.
How much money did Jesus make? Oh ya, that’s right nothing.
# 3 echeola said, “How much money did Jesus make? Oh ya, that’s right nothing.”
When you can transmute matter and create it from nothing you don’t need a salary…
Don’t the deacons usually decide this? A preacher should be paid a fair wage. Not sure what is fair compensation,but $600,000 is excessive. This is Manhattan so it will be more than an Iowan preacher makes.
One formula I heard was the average salary of the congregation. A preacher with a congregation of Walmart and McDonald’s employees would make less then a preacher with a congregation of Wallstreet bankers.
Boy, the God business looks better and better in these down times. Just get 1,500 people to give you $400 a year, and you get to make payments on a new Rolls and a King Air!
😛 reminds me of the time my brother worked for rex humbard… oh the stories from there!
Preaching is the second oldest profession.
Next, examine the role of a pimp in prostitution business and draw your own conclusions to the preacher industry.
To be fair, apart from the charlatans with TV networks and apart from high profile cases like this one, the vast majority of Christian pastors work long hours ministering to the poor, the sick and the dying for very little money. As long as we’re going to agree that not all Muslims are terrorists, how about giving Christians an even break once in a while?
Is that all tax free or is it just the organization that gets to avoid taxes?
# 10 MrMiGu said, “Is that all tax free or is it just the organization that gets to avoid taxes?”
The salary? Since you don’t live in the US I’ll tell ya. Salaries aren’t exempt from income taxes.
#4, Cow-Patty,
And what material objects did Jesus create from nothing?
#12 Read the New Testament…
So much for the vow of poverty.
The caption under this photo should be
“What’s up bitches, I getz 600 grands a year”
These big churches are the biggest scam. Preachers for them are a good gig if you can get em. $600,000 WOW I guess their not doing it for the Lord!
#12 Jesus created a coin from a fish’s mouth to pay his taxes with. He made 5000+ bread/fish out of just a few of each. He made wine out of water. He made fish appear in nets. Come to think of it, there are a lot of fish references. Is that why some Christians have Jesus fishes on their cars.
#12 Oh wait, I didn’t see the part “from nothing.” He created the Universe from nothing.
by way of comparison, I read that Joel Osteen pulled a $200,000 salary per year before he so graciously opted out because the sales of his books were raking in so much loot.
I know for a fact that that was WAAAAY over the median income for his church members. When you get a church in the thousands (or tens of thousands) of persons, the median income starts to look a lot like the median income for the general population, which, I believe is on the order of $45,000/yr currently.
He and his dad were raping their congregation, and I believe that’s why he had a change of heart and went into “ministry” – lots of loot to be had.
I don’t understand why they had to sue. Why didn’t they either just get the guy fired, or quit going to that church?
They gave their money away, now they are mad about what was done with it. I fail to see what they can actually sue for, it’s no longer their money.
Funny clown costumes!
Cow-Patty,
Once again you failed to answer a question. You, the same asshole that demands others answer. So, in other words, you just don’t effen know.
Benjiman,
You too are wrong. According to the bible, it was Jesus’s father who created everything.
As he passes through the eye of a needle on the way to heaven, I hope he will find it was all worth it.
I don’t care. It’s not MY money, is it? Let the sheep pay the shepherd what they will. If they need this religious drivel, let them pay plenty for it.
# 25 Faxon said, “I don’t care. It’s not MY money, is it? Let the sheep pay the shepherd what they will.”
Yes, however, the loony libs on this site think everyone’s money IS their money. That’s why they are up in arms. They have no concept of private property or private money. Thus, they are criminal by definition…