Riverside Church Leaders Defend Pastor's High Pay

In the wake of yesterday's news about dissident Riverside Church congregants seeking a court order to stop the installation of a new highly-paid pastor, some church leaders are out defending the $600,000 compensation package. Dr. Billy Jones, chairman of the church board, tells the Daily News that the new pastor, Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton (pictured), deserves to be well-compensated because of his huge responsibilities, which include "overseeing a staff of 150 people... overseeing a full-time day school of 128 students and running 80 church and community programs." And who knows what else!

Speaking to the Times, Jones insists the pay is "in line with other religious leaders in Manhattan who minister to congregations of a similar size and scope." Jones also says Braxton's employment contract "was presented to the congregation on three separate occasions" before they voted on it, but the dissidents say that assertion is false. They're also worried because the huge endowment John D. Rockefeller Jr. left to the traditionally liberal church has shrunk to barely $100 million because of the financial crisis. The News reports that the church is running a huge operating deficit each year, but can draw no more 5% from the endowment to cover shortfalls.

Diana Solomon-Glover, a 30-year parishioner, tells the Times the pay package is "a huge amount of money to be paying at a time of such economic crisis. But equally of concern is Dr. Braxton’s style of governance, which is highly secretive, and the direction he has been taking the church, toward a more fundamentalist brand of religion." In that sense, maybe Braxton's big bucks make sense; one religion professor who studies pastor compensation says megachurch pastors are raking in up to $300K, which is even higher than Braxton's $250,000 base salary.