Just In: Anti-Trump Pastor Fired From Liberal Church After Alleged Sex Toy Shopping Spree with Ministers
The first female minister of a famously progressive church in Manhattan, New York recently lost her position after allegedly taking a group of fellow ministers on a bizarre sex toy shopping spree.
Rev. Amy Butler, who’s known at Riverside Church as “Pastor Amy,” was a rising star famous for her anti-Trump charades. That is, until she took a member of the church and two fellow ministers to a store called “Smitten Kitten,” an adult toy shop in Minneapolis.
The group was in town for a religious conference and while at the adult shop, Fox News reported that the woman purchased a $200 adult toy for one of the ministers and offered to buy a toy for another minister who happens to be a homosexual in a committed relationship.
The unnamed gay minister reportedly told Butler on multiple occasions that he felt uncomfortable that she was offering him such a strange gift. Butler jokingly asked, “Is this a church business expense?”
It wasn’t confirmed that she used church funds to buy the adult toys.
As one would expect, it didn’t take long for Butler to receive harassment charges. Within days of the incident, Riverside Church hired a third-party investigator who confirmed the harassment accusations, eventually leading to Butler’s termination.
According to Fox News, the church council was already questioning Butler’s judgment, as the progressive minister recently asked for a staggering $100,000 raise.
That’s a high number. But Butler’s raise request is even more staggering in context: the minister already took home a $250,000 salary and an $8,000 per month housing allowance.
On July 7, her immediate replacement, interim Senior Minister Michael Livingston, delivered the news of her termination during a morning worship service.
“Rev. Dr. Amy Butler and the Riverside Church Council are announcing that after five years of leadership, Pastor Amy will not be renewing her contract as senior minister,” he said to the congregation.
“The Council thanks Pastor Amy for her leadership and asks all congregants to pray for her continued ministry as a leader in the progressive Christian world.”
It seems Pastor Amy will need quite a few prayers, as finding a gig as lucrative as her last job may be tough.
The harassment charges won’t do her any favors, either.
In an op-ed for USA Today, Butler placed herself at the forefront of the anti-Trump movement, writing that “we have watched a major candidate for our country’s highest office demean and slander whole categories of American citizens.”
Learning about Butler and the progressive church she represented gives me a greater appreciation for my small town church. Nobody there makes a quarter of a million dollars; their focus is on spreading the Gospel.
And they certainly aren’t buying sex toys for fellow congregants.
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