Eminent Domain and the Church

In 2003, government leaders in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, adopted what they called "Vision 2025." The plan is billed as the "largest set of public redevelopment projects in the history of Tulsa County."

The members ofCentennial Baptist Church in Sand Springs call it something else: an "unholy land grab." It's a land grab for which we have the Supreme Court to thank.

Part of "Vision 2025" calls for redeveloping "an abandoned industrial area" in Sand Springs for "big box retailers" and other stores. However, the area in question isn't exactly "abandoned": Not only is Centennial Church located there, but it's also flanked by a McDonald's and a muffler shop.

Yet officials decided that the only place a proposed "super center" could possibly go was—where else?—where Centennial Church presently stands. Since, as Pastor Roosevelt Gildon said, the church can't afford to move elsewhere, it obviously does not want to sell. He asks, "If we leave, who is going to minister to the black community in Sand Springs?"

The government doesn't care. It plans on using its powers of eminent domain to take the land from Centennial. As Reverend Gildon put it, "I guess saving souls isn't as important … as raking in money for politicians to spend."

Well, unfortunately, that's good enough for the Supreme Court, because in its 2005 Kelo decision, the Court ruled that government can take property from one private party and give it to another if it thinks that the latter use would generate more tax revenue. It doesn't matter if, like Centennial Church, the property is well-maintained and the owners do not want to sell. "Raking in money for politicians to spend" satisfies the Constitution's requirement that such takings be for "public use."

To put it mildly, Kelo is very controversial. Congress is looking for ways to overturn it or at least limit its reach. Someone who saw just how far Kelo could reach is UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh. Following Kelo, he wrote that "one predictable loser" in the aftermath of the decision would be nonprofit groups such as churches. After all, even a run-down residence pays more taxes than a church or a homeless shelter.

And that's exactly what's happened. Centennial Church was not the only church targeted by "Vision 2025," however. Two other churches in the neighborhood were bought out. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center has pointed out that, even before Kelo, churches were already having these kinds of takings problems. After Kelo, we can expect "many more."

In this sense, Centennial is the unfortunate canary in our legal coal mine. But just as Centennial is fighting back, so can we. In her dissent, Justice O'Connor wrote that the "beneficiaries" of Kelo will be those with "disproportionate influence and power in the political process." It's up to us as Christians to make it clear to our representatives that catering to those types of interests carries a steep political price.

This is also another reason why the make-up of the Supreme Court is so important. Kelo was decided by a 5-4 margin. It is hardly written in stone. If we act now, perhaps this "vision" of the future will not come to pass.

Our government is no longer a Republic and is becoming a democracy. We the people are no longer in power of our political offices.

The forefathers only meant for the government to provide national defense and punish the bad guys.

I am seeing on a daily basis the government getting into the private sector and competing with business, IE. campgrounds, motels, rental of commercial space,housing, convention centers. I see them ousting people because their homes are not pristine, and if they were gone they could allow a developer come in with illegal labor and build town houses and condos that these people will never be able to afford.

They remove these people and business so they can boost the tax revenue on the property, and they pay for it with the tax dollars they take from or hard working Americans.

Most of the people that are removed from their property will never be able to afford to own another home, or they may never get the value from their property if they could have held on to it a little longer.

I do not like the government in the private sector, they should not be in the education system, they should not be providing any services other than protecting the country and punishing the bad guys.

Churches, private homes, private businesses.....should all be protected from the grasping hands of government.

Do you have a proposal, re who should be the protector? Has your church filed for 501(c)3 protection?

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