Emminent Domain to Grab Black Church in Oklahoma (for a Home Depot)

[elehhhhna]

Seizing churches for tax revenue
National Review Online ^ | Jan. 17, 2006 | Heather Wilhelm


Posted on 01/17/2006 6:00:37 PM PST by FortRumbull


Unholy Land Grab; In the spirit of Kelo.

By Heather Wilhelm

For seven years, Reverend Roosevelt Gildon has preached the gospel at the Centennial Baptist Church in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. His congregation, around 50 strong, is like a small family. The elderly members, and those without cars, often walk to Sunday services.

“Rosey,” as his friends call him, figured he’d go on preaching in the tidy steel structure for years to come. That was, until the government told him they were taking his church away.

Since the Supreme Court's controversial Kelo decision last summer, eminent domain has entered a new frontier. It’s not just grandma’s house we have to worry about. Now it’s God’s house, too. “I guess saving souls isn’t as important,” says Reverend Gildon, his voice wry, “as raking in money for politicians to spend.” The town of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, has plans to take Centennial Baptist — along with two other churches, several businesses, dozens of small homes, and a school — and replace them with a new “super center,” rumored to include a Home Depot. It’s the kind of stuff that makes tax collectors salivate. It’s also the kind of project that brakes for no one, especially post-Kelo. “I had no idea this could happen in America,” says Reverend Gildon, after spending Monday morning marching in the Sand Springs Martin Luther King Day parade.

This unholy takeover goes back to Sand Springs’s controversial “Vision 2025” project, which emerged in 2003. The plan includes, according to its website, the “largest set of public redevelopment projects in the history of Tulsa County.” The money earmarked for Sand Springs was supposedly meant to focus on redeveloping an abandoned industrial area for big box retailers and other stores. One problem: Centennial Baptist Church isn’t abandoned, and unlike some of the other buildings in its neighborhood, it is in pristine condition. More importantly, the church doesn’t want to sell — and they have good reasons. “After I heard the news, we started looking to see if we could move,” Gildon said. “I just don’t think we can afford it. It’s too expensive. And if we can’t move, and they take our building, what happens to the church? If we leave, who is going to minister to the black community in Sand Springs?”


http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/comment/wilhelm200601170926.asp

[KamaAina]

1. As a church, they might have an easier time fighting back

than the rest of us peons.

A church in a rural area of Maui took the county to court under something called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons (?!) Act of 2001, and forced the county to settle.

http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/11/news/story8.html

WAILUKU » Maui County's insurance carrier will pay $700,000 to a small church to settle religious discrimination lawsuits in state and federal courts, county officials said yesterday.

Hale O Kaula Church filed lawsuits against the county after the Maui Planning Commission denied it a permit to build a chapel on agricultural land in Upcountry Maui in 2001. The Christian church argued it was a victim of religious discrimination.

The commission agreed to grant a five-year special-use permit to Hale O Kaula Church on Nov. 17 to build the chapel, reversing the previous denial.

Ya just gotta love it when green Mammon and pious Faith-Based Everything grapple at the edge of the cliff... :popcorn:

[SofaKingLiberal]

2. Whats next, a veterans shelter for a Starbucks?

This is fucking sick.

[Poppyseedman]

3. Hard to believe our side of the SCOTUS

made this a reality.

Mind boggling

[NaturalHigh]

4. Very sad.

I hope the church manages to win this fight.

[Horse with no Name]

5. This is insane.

Did anyone see where my country went?

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. :^(