Free Republic

Riverside Church’s outgoing female pastor is set to receive an exit package worth at least half a million dollars — after leaving her job amid allegations she bought an employee an unwanted $200 vibrator while on a work trip, The Post has learned. The Rev. Dr. Amy Butler — who made $250,000 a year as the first woman to lead the historic congregation — will leave with 12 months’ salary, a six-month housing allowance worth $48,000 and annual retirement contributions of $59,000 for three years, according to her contract. An email sent by the chair of the church council and...

The reason for her ouster is far more stimulating than any sermon this pastor could have delivered. The Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, the first woman to lead Manhattan’s famed Riverside Church, lost her lofty post amid complaints that she brought ministers and a congregant on a sex toy shopping spree and then gave one of them an unwanted vibrator as a birthday gift, The Post has learned. On May 15, Butler allegedly took two Riverside assistant ministers and a female congregant to a sex shop in Minneapolis called the Smitten Kitten, during a religious conference, according to sources familiar with...

Riverside, a liberal Protestant church known for its history of social-justice advocacy, has hosted world leaders such as Nelson Mandela,Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton. “I know that this church is begging for new life,” said Dr. Butler, 45 years old. “That process of resurrection involves some dying. This is what we believe in our Christian tradition.” One-on-one, Dr. Butler is witty and self-deprecating, and her sermons tend to be about 10 minutes shorter than those of her predecessors, congregants say.