A situation came up at a friend’s church. The pastor recently asked for a fairly minimal raise. He has not had an increase in pay for two years. Everyone needs to live, including clergy, and if you ever want to recruit new people to the position(what church is not short of new clergy), you need to make it worthwhile.
Anyway, this has caused division in the church, with some supporting it and other vehemently opposed. To make matters worse, the church, like all non profits, will have a hard time meeting their obligations in 2012 and it looks like the pastor will end up with a significant pay CUT!
Discussion questions:
• In today’s economy, who does deserve to get paid?
• Is asking for a raise worthy of the venom that some spew at public workers?
• Should Scott Walker take his raise while every other public worker takes a cut?
• Did we have to be this divided as a state?
• Was that Scott Walkers plan all along?
• Why do we defend Wall St and not clergy, teachers, prison guards, nurses, custodians, etc…?
• Is it even possible to be considered greedy when you make $30/k year?
• If no one has disposable income, how exactly will we get out of this recession?
• Where do we go from here?
Where do we go from here?
Nowhere but down. As unions continue to come under fire, resulting in lower wages and worse benefits, private sector workers will see their wages and benefits suffer as a result. This really is a race to the bottom for Republicans, because all they care about is the number of jobs they create, not whether those jobs are actually family-sustaining.
As for the venom spewed at public workers, I’m still waiting for someone to give me a rational explanation as to why and how corrections officers, probation & parole agents, DNR game wardens, Capitol Police, etc., etc. became the “enemy.”
If all they care about is creating jobs, and we keep losing jobs at the rate we are, Wisconsin is in serious trouble.
Was that Scott Walkers plan all along?
Yes, the ill-will Republicans’ plan has always been Divide and Conquer.
Re: the church financial argument
A church should be a community: if funds are scarce, how can everyone work together to compensate for needs, goods and activities that require money? Why do people tithe with money: why not time? What part of the Paster’s (or anyone else within the community, for that matter) necessary family expenses can be alleviated or reduced by the group? For a silly example, why does everyone own their own lawn mower?
palli I think you made some of our right wing freinds have a nervous twitch when you brought up sharing a community lawnmower…..
Its funny because I know some republicans who think the government should not help people that should be left to us to help each other through things like our churches. If the church cant even meet their obligations then i guess we are all screwed.