Is $600,000 too much to pay your pastor?

What a joke and the joke is on those who really think this guy is worth this since no preacher is worth that much. This new theology of prosperity is working only for the ones getting the check, not the clueless flock who are paying it, but, if he is smart enough to get them to pay it, let him live large.

Hey!! Another pimp in the pulpit and we allow it.

These parishioners are ridiculous. They full well knew Braxton’s compensation plan when he was voted into the senior minister role. The sad thing is they are the ones causing the division at the church. As a member my opinion is that if these people have SO much of a problem with Riverside they should LEAVE!!!! They are not at that church to worship the Lord; they are only there to worship the endowment. Diana Solomon-Glover is known to be behind most of the confusion being erupted at the church. Again if she has such a problem the best thing for her to do would be to leave, but I guess she would not leave being the highest paid choir member!!! I hope that in light of this, Pastor Braxton and the church council disband the paid Riverside choir!!!! They are some of the main members and non-members behind this controversy, and they are showing their utter insubordination. Any company I have ever worked for FIRED people who were insubordinate, or made the workplace unsafe. The judge has spoken though, and the installation will go on. Funny how they wasted everyone’s time and money just to end up nothing but losers!!!

Maybe he needs that kind of loot to buy more of those hideous outfits, what a bunch of nitwits paying this man that much money and in this economy no less.

This seems a little excessive. His is making more thatn Obama>

Dont hate the player hate the game. Pastor Braxton's compensation package is another example of gullible black people who worship preachers instead of God.

I am shocked. Another preacher making money off ignorant Negroes? Stop lying.

blkbandit: You are wrong the riverside Church is a wealthy primarily white congregation. Please all of you get your facts right before you complain.

This is an issue that draws alot of emotion. Politics, and religion usually do. And it can cause us to not be practical sometimes. We dont mind seeing Lebron James make 800 zillion dollars for shooting a baketball. But the compensation of the preacher everyone thinks they should have a say so for whats enough for him. And I will admit some scam artist preachers have cast a cloud of suspision over them all. And if the black church would come out and be honest about the situation like the cathlic church eventually had to do. It would go a long way, with healing the distrust. As long as we have these "pimps in the pulpit" And the good preachers are silent we will be having this same disscussion. But some of these comments were right. Worship God, not man! Stop treating these ministers like gods. Sure there worthy of double honor according to the bible but, honor is a far cry from "worship". Peace dailyvoice....

Exactly why I don't fool with big mega churches..These super churches aren't nothing but a money business now days..A preacher making 6 figures is completely cray..There's no way in hell I would support a chuch where a pastor is making almost a million damn dollars a year..The brainwashing in religion is really sad.

Religion: The Whore of Whores.

i don't know anything about this church or the breadth of their ministry, but i will say in general that many of the "mega-churches" require leadership on the scale of a blue chip corporation. should they? that's a separate question. but to recruit and retain the best talent, you've got to pay for it. our society has placed too great a premium on these leadership services and it should be scaled back all the way around, not just in the pulpit. the proliferation of unchecked greed is the issue, not this single pastor at one church in harlem.

Is he married yet? (I didn't read the article).

Looking for a mistress?

Of course I'm kidding

...but hey.

Don't like the negotiated compensation package of your pastor? Leave. Don't like megachurches? Choose smaller congregations. Don't like religion? Faint.

Seems easy enough to me.

His salary is irrelevant. if the members are ok with this, then why should we care. there are plenty of people of make far more for doing far less good.

if they church can afford it and, everyone is ok with it, who cares!

I agree w/Tandy.

Why do we give a damn what a pastor, or anyone, makes?!?! Worry about your own money! If you want his salary, then do what ever he did to get to that salary.

I LOVE the colours in which he is clothed! FABULOUS! They are so ---, anyway, not that there is anything wrong with that! LOL!

Folly always come at a high price.

Yeah I wondered about what it was that made look at this picture for more than a second. It must be the colours inside and out.

This compensation package provided by Riverside Church to their new minister is disgusting and nauseating. Perfidy! Hypocrisy! Disgraceful! Appalling! This situation is totally shameful. I am sad. How could they let this happen? The current Riverside leadership has totally neglected their proper stewardship and fiduciary responsibilities of the church’s resources. The Riverside congregants would be wise to transfer their membership to churches that “‘walk the talk as well as they talk the walk.” Clearly Riverside is NOT kosher, so to speak. WWJD? (What Would Jesus Do?) “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels” – Proverbs 1:5

Are basketball players worth the millions they are paid? No one has a problem with their salaries but when it comes to the preacher he should be giving it away for free. If the church is meeting all of its other financial obligations and the salary is agreed upon I do not have a problem with his salary.

Solomon, I don't know what JWD, but I do know about Solomon's Temple. What did God do? Allowed nature to take it's course I guess.

Jesus preached the Gospel. I imagine that he didn't go around telling people how much they should pay their kings. Nor is he worried about how much this church pays theirs. So that's ok, he does not need the services of the Federal Order of Jesus Police on this one. He good.

If the church members agreed to pay him $600,000 that's their choice. There was obviously a mutual agreement. He's the man they want and they were willing to pay him. It's a non-issue.

I am with Tandy and TJ concerning the pastors salary, if it's okay with his congregation then that's all that count. However, to Maryland Mom, when there is a discussion of outrageous salaries, why do you always bring up basketball players? Is it because it's a sports league that's dominated by African-American players? You never hear attacks against baseball where a number of white players have excessive contracts, you only get the attacks in basketball. These athletes bring in millions upon millions of dollars to their owners and entertainment. They deserve their piece of that pie. Athletes for the most part are entertainers just like actors and actresses are entertainers, but no one ever attacks Tom Cruise for being paid millions for a movie role, so please take these points into consideration when attacking basketball players.

Rev.Brad Braxton, must be a good Preacher. The people in his community must be well off. The Rev. and his Church are no doult feeding the hungry,housing the homeless and counseling people with drug addictions. I know with the growing violence and increase in aids that this preacher and others like him wouldn't put materialism which will do them no good before their communities which has many challenges. SAD,SAD,SAD INDEED.

Headsup!!!! Some of these Pastors are entertainers like actors and actresses, but does that justify the large salaries in the name of the Lord.

Let me get this straight, Marcus, when you go to church, you want to be treated exactly in the same manner you are treated at work? If you're late, you like to be docked or at least spoken to harshly or have to write up why you’re late? Instead of paying your tithes, you'd rather be taxed, or pay dues into your retirement, or union dues, or life insurance plans? If that's the case, then start paying into the Braxton Fund, because with his salary and that of his new staff members making upwards of $300K each, the endowment will need a lift to keep the Social Justice services going without any possibility of expansion. Or is that the point, you don’t like that Riverside has been the beacon on the hill for social justice of New York and sometimes the world, from its inception? If that’s the case, perhaps you should be the one to leave. Were you at the budget meeting, when Mr. Jones was asked to supply the numbers BEfore the vote was taken to approve the budget? If you were, you would have heard Mr. Martin say that they did not have those figures right then. And even though the vote was a tie, rather than do another vote, Mr. B. Jones decided to vote on the side of the yeses to (steamroll) get the budget approved. That is not an overwhelming approval for the budget. It is only 51% of the possible votes. Then it was only after they had the budget approved, were the figures for Rev. Braxton’s compensation package revealed. That was convenient, don’t you think? In a congregational church, when did it become insubordinate to ask questions? Do you know the by-laws of Riverside Church? Do you even know Riverside? It has been said of Riverside Church, if 5 people are in the room having a discussion, you’re bound to hear 8 different opinions. When did talking about or asking for a discussion about unanswered questions become subordination? Perhaps you are too used to working within a tyrannical environment and expect the same at church. That is too bad, for you and the potentially new Riverside Church. Riverside Church is a United Church of Christ congregational church, which means its finances are supposed to be disclosed in a timely fashion to the members at large before voting, especially budgetary votes, not after a vote on the budget has been taken. As for “people should leave” because they disagree, no, then you have a tyrannical system. The dissenters must be part of the church to keep the whole organization on par with their tenets of the by-laws and what should be expected of the organization. The many points of view within Riverside Church has continued to make Riverside a great church and an exception to church members becoming robotic followers. Without different points of view within an organization, the organization easily becomes infested with drones or clones.

TJ, Tandy, Deena Rockefeller - are you guys even reading this story? The whole reason the members of the church are suing is because THE CHURCH CANNOT AFFORD 600K IN COMPENSATION. Membership and pledging is down. Programs aren't being funded for community outreach, yet the pastor is making 600K. There is no money for college scholarships for the kids in the church, but the pastor's 3 year old daughter is getting a $25,000 education? PLEASE! The congregation voted, but not on factual information. When they voted for the budget, they had no idea that this package was so excessive. Please read before you make judgments that aren't valid.

John B: Those are all compelling issues. However, the church isn't paying him from thin air; The money is coming from somewhere. Should they be cutting funding for other church programs? Maybe..maybe not--that's really a matter of opinion.

Another perspective is that 600k was the price of getting a talented executive that can effectively guide the church during these troubled economic times. No matter how you spin it, this man will be running a multi-multi-million-dollar enterprise (preaching will be less than 10% of his responsibilities). Regardless of our opinions, it's just a fact that good exec leadership isn't cheap.

i'd like to see how each of you would feel if when you're offered your next promotion, people wrote articles asking if you deserve it, lol

it's always easier to criticize others

the man is a Rhodes Scholar! This is a damn bargain.

John B. you are right. In my haste I did not read the entire story carefully. I'm Sorry. I now see it in a different light. Thanks for bringing it to my attention

I went to college to be a public school educator and I am grossly underpaid and overworked. I am considering a career change to the ministry. I am feeling God's call on my life. And if I can get just 20% of the income this brother is earning, I would be satisfied.

So now, you CAN serve God and Money.

I doubt that members of a synagogue would bring such a suit with respect to their rabbi. In any event, the salary is not high for NYC. It's $250K - that's upper middle class in NYC, but not upper class. The housing allowance makes sense, because if he had to house his family in Manhattan, he couldn't do it on $250K and have any money left. He has to have a very nice place because of who he represents and all of the entertaining he has to do. I mean Presidents and other heads of state regularly attend Riverside Church. Private school for his child is a given in NYC. Obviously the family needs maid service to keep them free to entertain and to ensure that the home is always "dignitary ready." I just don't see the big deal here.

Maybe I should preach???? LOL. Really though, there is an underlining issue here, the fact that the church is divided, is what is disturbing to me. I have seen this happen, and it is not pretty. This has become unfortunately a common issue in our black community.

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One person has to go to the store? Begsy not me!