Amy Butler

[KeithE]

[Haruo]

[William Thornton]

Haven't found it.

[Tim Bonney]

[William Thornton]

Rockefeller church. They can afford it.

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Looks to me like one of the arguments for doing away with churches' property tax exemption. The land Riverside sits on, even if historic-landmark rules require the building to stay, is worth a heck of a lot of money.

[Sandy]

I guess I'm a bit surprised by the incident at the conference in Minnesota which seems to be the catalyst for this. Yeah I know times have changed and this is one of the bastions of liberal Christianity, but I think there was a boundary that was crossed when it comes to the decorum and behavior expected of someone who is a senior pastor of a church, regardless of its theological perspective or denominational affiliation. There was a time and a place when ministers and church members alike were cautious about being seen in a restaurant that served alcohol or had a bar. Perhaps there were other things going on within the church as well, but I think Rev. Butler made a poor decision and set a poor example.

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

Since most communities give a property tax exemption to all non-profit organizations, the question of property tax becomes a wash in church/state arguments. I think William would only tax liberal churches with large endowments, surely not the crossroads churches all across Georgia.

[Rvaughn]

Dave, did William say something about the property tax elsewhere? I haven't noticed that he mentioned it here.

Thanks.

[William Thornton]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

I'm afraid I don't get the "golden parachute" deals that are given out in cases like this. The newspaper reports don't give specifics, but salary negotiations for a new contract weren't headed where she wanted prior to the incident at the sex toy store in Minnesota. Perhaps the church leadership didn't think she warranted a $100,000 raise and I'd have to agree with that in principle. I can't think of a scenario that would warrant that big of a raise in a church pastorate. That's a third of what she was already earning.

She made a bad choice, going to a sex toy shop with church members and staff members. I know she has been an icon of the moderate-to-liberal Baptists as one of the early female pastors in what was at the time an SBC pulpit at Calvary DC, and Riverside is a liberal church, but this was a mistake made in poor judgement if the Post's description of it is accurate. That has to be disappointing to some of her supporters.

Pastoring churches is not easy and I think that many of the women who emerged from the SBC and moved forward to pastor more moderate to liberal congregations were pretty idealistic at the outset, but have met with the same quagmire of issues that is part of church life, second guessing their own leadership decisions, content of sermons and watching out for events, issues and personal feelings of congregants that can turn south in a hurry. In some cases, issues became more complicated because they were women pastors in idealistic, progressive churches that had no real system of support for them as women, and no real precedent for dealing with those same kinds of problems. Several of those high profile individuals, Amy Butler among them, have been in situations that did not turn out well and which were more complicated because of their gender.

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[JE Pettibone]

ED: Yep, This kind of stuff it makes it tough on conservative to Moderate female pastors.


BTW Sandy Calvary BC in D.C is an ABC-USA Church and was such when Amy Butler was pastor there. If you go to the post card section of BL.C And go to Washington DC in the Index you will find Calvary and Shiloh Baptist Churches listed. Clicking on Calvary You will see 2 Pictures one is of the building and the other Is a brass plate stating that in1907 the Northern Baptist Convention was founded there.

The denominational name has since been changed twice



It is true that AMY like many of us had once been Southern Baptist.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

[Stephen Fox]

now at baptistnews.com

[Stephen Fox]

https://baptistnews.com/article/letter- ... bilXXkQV9B

[William Thornton]

https://baptistnews.com/article/letter- ... bGzhujYrZA