| Land is at a premium. Even Oprah is buying up | | | | United States Supreme Court ruling. In a New York |
| property because, as she says, "God isn't making | | | | Times interview, the Rev. Roosevelt Gildon, pastor of |
| anymore." At the beginning of our nation's history, | | | | the Centennial Baptist Church of Sand Springs, |
| land ownership was one of the determining factors | | | | Oklahoma, noted that, "The Lord didn't send me here |
| of whether or not you could vote in general elections. | | | | to build a mini-mall." City officials beg to differ. Sand |
| Not incidentally, the Western European concept of | | | | Springs is moving ahead with a redevelopment plan |
| being able to lay claim to portions of the earth as | | | | to make way for The Home depot and other retail |
| one's own, completely contradictory to indigenous | | | | stores. Tax revenue is needed for city services, and |
| North American people's belief that the earth was a | | | | the mayor and many others see this as the way to |
| gift to all that could not be owned, got the United | | | | achieve their goal. This past summer's Supreme Court |
| States government into many pointless wars with its | | | | ruling approved condemnation of private property in |
| own people. Land is a personal issue, a community | | | | New London, Connecticut, for resale to other private |
| issue, and has been for much longer than any of us | | | | interests for what the Court called, "public purpose," |
| can remember or research. Not surprisingly, the Bible | | | | supports Sand Springs in its endeavors toward |
| speaks of land as promised, as flowing with milk and | | | | progress. Pastor Gildon's church is smack in the middle |
| honey, as paradise itself. | | | | of the future shopping area, so his congregation's |
| While part of the Wisconsin paradise was reclaimed | | | | options are limited: sell their land at an amount that |
| this past week, another part of the land that | | | | will not be sufficient to relocate, or be forced off by |
| appeared to be promised to a congregation in Sand | | | | virtue of eminent domain. |
| Springs, Oklahoma, is about to be snatched away as | | | | My questions are simple: How many shopping malls do |
| evidence of a new belief that projected consumerism | | | | we really need? How many more opportunities will |
| and its societal benefits is reason enough to usurp | | | | we have to preserve the earth's gift to nurture and |
| private property in the name of eminent domain. | | | | support us as God intended at creation? How much |
| The Ridges, a wildlife refuge on Wisconsin's Door | | | | stuff do we really need, balanced against the desire |
| Peninsula, successfully negotiated for two years to | | | | to live on land in which beauty and grace still reside? |
| reclaim a section of adjacent land to be able to | | | | Why does our government still not understand that |
| expand its unique state natural area. In a quote from | | | | stealing land from its own people is wrong? |
| the Door County Advocate, "The land is vital to us," | | | | My understanding of these question, and their |
| said Paul Sagen, a member of The Ridges board of | | | | answers, rests on part of a song from Moses and |
| directors and head of its research committee. " The | | | | the Israelites to God: "You brought them in and |
| parcel is in our immediate watershed area, and is | | | | planted them on the mountain of your own |
| critically important to the protection of The Ridges | | | | possession, the place, O Lord, that you made your |
| ecosystem. Protecting it is a big step toward | | | | abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have |
| maintaining the high water quality we enjoy in our | | | | established (Exodus 14:17)." The earth has been given |
| wetlands." Guarding what God has given them in | | | | to us, both as a richly beautiful home, and as a |
| natural beauty and resources, the people of this | | | | sanctuary, a place for worship of the Giver. These |
| Northeastern Wisconsin county have also preserved | | | | two concepts cannot be separated or uprooted from |
| a natural sanctuary, a place that evokes a peaceful | | | | our faithful use of the land. Simply put, we are each |
| and creative spirit with which generations to come | | | | as a generation only holding this land in trust for the |
| will also commune. | | | | next, and as an historical people, we are only renting. |
| Meanwhile, a different sort of scenario is playing itself | | | | How much do we want to jeopardize our security |
| out in the shadow of a recent, highly unpopular | | | | deposit? |