Picture your pastor standing in line for food stamps. It does happen. Many clergy today find it necessary to receive government assistance to feed their families; I am one of them.

I'm a full-time pastor of an upper middle-class church of 300 members in a mainline denomination. I have a B.A. degree in psychology and a master of divinity degree from a major seminary I've been married twelve years and have two children. I have committed my life to Christ.

Yet the government has to supplement my income by providing food stamps as well as the Earned Income Credit, which comes through my income taxes, and the free lunch program that my daughter receives in the public school.

How can this be? Even though lay people attempt to do all they can to alleviate world suffering, they often allow their pastors to subsist On the lowest level of income possible.

My wife and I were once able to say we earned everything we received. We worked hard and were paid accordingly. In the ministry it's different. I ...