Government Targets Small Church to Build Shopping Area

If this kind of action by local governments is allowed to continue then any church property could be seized since they are tax exempt.

A small church in Oklahoma has come up against the large hand of the state as it faces possible seizure to make room for a tax-generating shopping center.

Centennial Baptist Church has been ministering to the black community of Sand Springs for years, led by its pastor, Roosevelt "Rosey" Gildon. But the city says the church building, which sees about 50 congregants gather on Sunday mornings, is in the way of progress – Sand Springs' controversial "Vision 2025" project. The project reportedly is to be anchored by a Home Depot.

Ousting a church from its building has become possible for city officials thanks to last summer's Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, in which the justices cleared the way for a government to seize private land to be turned over to private developers.

The foundation of prosperity is the protection of personal property rights. Without this protection the incentive to produce will be replaced by the need to protect. What innovation requires is a security of investment. If those investments are subject to seizure by the state they will cease to exist and with them innovation. The result is stagnation.

It used to be that when the government wanted a property, it paid a premium for it. Now the opposite is true. Governments typically low ball the land owner with the excuse "we want to look out for the interests of the citizens." ignoring the fact that the person they are taking the property from is a citizen.