"Far more money and far more perks". The danger of generalization, or lack of knowledge. Our clergy are not all televangelists with mansions and private planes, even among the evangelical wing of Protestantism. A small town Baptist minister in a rural community isn't living high off the hog, believe me.

IN the mainline, many of our churches live, quite literally hand to mouth. Clergy hold outside jobs and are "non-stipendary" meaning they are not paid by the local congregation nor the local district or diocese (the terminology differs from denomination to denomination). The days when all Episcopal clergy, for example, lived a cushy life in a comfortable vicarage with sherry in a crystal decanter went out with Edith Wharton.