Governor committed to protecting Missouri churches
Eminent domain need not be a serious threat
By Allen Palmeri
Senior Writer
February 7, 2006
JEFFERSON CITY – Sensing the strength of an unusually large Missouri coalition whose ranks are swelling with family farmers, small business owners, church members, urban corridor homeowners and suburban constitutional activists, Gov. Matt Blunt forcefully advanced the idea of eminent domain reform with a speech in the Capitol Rotunda Jan. 25 at the Missouri Farm Bureau Property Rights Day.
The governor continues to talk about his sincere concern for Missouri churches that are at risk of losing their property because of the recent United States Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v City of New London, Conn.Developers are already trying to seize Centennial Baptist Church in Sand Springs, Okla., so that they can build a shopping plaza. The pastor caught up in that controversy, Roosevelt Gildon, mused to a National Review Online reporter that saving souls must not be as important as raking in money for politicians to spend.
“The idea that we can seize a small business, the idea that the government can seize a farm, the government can seize a private home, the government can seize even a church or place of worship in order to increase tax revenue is repugnant,” Blunt said. It was one of five applause lines that interrupted his brief speech to several hundred onlookers.
During the rally, a group of African-American homeowners from St. Louis held up posters and repeatedly chanted, “No Compromise!” The meaning behind the chant, according to one of the activists, is that African-Americans want to pass on their property to their posterity. There must be no compromise on that principle, the activist explained.
Kerry Messer, lobbyist, Missouri Baptist Convention Christian Life Commission, said Missouri Baptist pastors and laity must work with the governor, whose home church is Second Baptist Springfield, so that what is happening right now to Pastor Gildon and the church in Oklahoma will not occur in Missouri.
“There’s no question that the Kelo decision by the Supreme Court has everybody up in arms everywhere,” Messer said. “It’s also put all the people who want to profit from the abuse of eminent domain in defense mode, so the lobbying here will be intense throughout this legislative session up until the day that the governor signs a bill.
“The Bible defends private property. Civil government, as the guardians of private property, should be on that page also. So reform needs to happen. An additional motivation should be that our church properties, and the properties owned by non-profit ministries, are sitting ducks under the Kelo decision. We are probably the easiest target for eminent domain, and it is occurring.
“The governor has now repeatedly, in the State of the State address and in a Property Rights Rally speech, explicitly brought up the concept that the Legislature needs to pass legislation protecting churches. Now it’s up to individual church members, church staff members and other people across the state to communicate that need to their individual legislators. If pastors aren’t going to write those letters, send those emails and make those telephone calls, or invite those lawmakers to their church for a meeting, or come to Jeff City and meet with their legislators, then how can we expect the legislators to respect what the governor’s saying?”
The governor is adamant on this. Property rights are “a quintessential American right,” he said, and he stands in the tradition of one of his political heroes, Thomas Jefferson, as he speaks of the need to defend that right.
“We recognized the right to property early on, and we have a sacred obligation to ensure that the next generation of Missourians and Americans is as secure in their rights as property owners as we are today,” the governor said. “Actually, we should ensure that they are more secure as property owners than we are today.
“The idea that private citizens should be able to claim a little part of God’s green earth as their own, and to build it up, and to foster it, to nourish it, and then pass it on to the next generation is an important part of who we are as a people.”
The law of the United States, as defined by the nine justices of the Supreme Court, allows state and local governments to target taking private property through eminent domain for no other reason than to increase tax revenues from their current land use, Messer said. Since churches and non-profit ministries pay no local, state or federal taxes, they are as vulnerable as lambs on the African savannah.
“Many of these properties sit on highly prized locations in the eyes of unscrupulous commercial developers,” Messer said.