The View Of Private Property

Should the United States government be allowed to seize property from you without any explanation or compensation? That is a question many people in the U.S. are asking themselves today. Eminent domain should not be allowed in the United States for several reasons. People own buildings that they do not want destroyed because they are family dwellings or places of business. People have money invested in the buildings and the property they sit on and do not feel it is right to lose it to the government. There are also the property owners who want to protect their property because it has been handed down in their family for many generations.

“An obsession with possessions enslaves us to the demon of worry. Jesus invites us to change our priorities, focus on the kingdom, and share with the needy” (Kraybill, 2011, p.101). A man’s wealth will be measured by the love, kindness and empathy he has for the poor and the hungry in Gods kingdom. For this matter Jesus wants the wealthy to humble themselves and receive their blessing by offering opportunities to the poor instead of being greedy and celebrating their own wealth.

Money brings the inequality of possessions, also called “the haves and the have not’s.” We may all be equal in the eyes of God, but here on earth some eyes grow green with envy. Children come home from daycare complaining that Little Jimmy’s truck was bigger than his, husbands and fathers are forever eying the Jones; new corvette, and entire wars have erupted over the “you have it and I’m gonna get it” mentality. Inequality of possessions is not bad though many passages in the Bible teach that even in heaven there are different degrees of rewards. Even God’s spiritual gifts are not given equally to each of us, but this does not mean He loves one person more than the other. It is what we do with

Despite Conwells experiences, his audience repeatedly tried to prove him wrong and noted how awful it was that a Christian minister prefered to advise people to get rich rather than to preach the gospel. But Conwell believed that to make money honestly was to preach the gospel and to be poor was wrong. What the people did not understand was that a wealthy person can also be a pious person. Conwell tells the people that they should have money and it is their Christian and godly duty to do so. To be pious is to be carful of the duties owed by created beings to God; devout, godly, religious¹. The people associated wealth with being dishonest, dishonerable, mean, and contemptible. He told them that to think that to be pious you must be poor and awfully dirty is an terrible misconception.

Many philosophers have written arguments advocating for all types of property rights ranging from private to communal and for a varying array of reasons.Personally, I feel Schmidtz has the most compelling argument surrounding property rights. He argues for private property rights. According to Schmidtz when property does not have an owner and instead belongs to the commons, there is no way to protect that resource. Schmidtz provides the example of fishing using destructive methods. In certain countries, fishermen fish using methods that destroy habitats such as throwing dynamite or bleach in the water. This method has an extremely successful one time effect as all the dead fish float to the top of the water. However, it kills the entire habitat

a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Doc. 1). This is very bluntly saying that there

In document 4 Gerontius, a Christian monk, wrote a biography on the Christian saint Melania the Younger in circa 450 CE, 11 years after her death in 439 CE. In the excerpt of the biography, The Life of Melania the Younger, Gerontius writes about the benefits of abandoning wealth and worldly possessions to become closer to God and to serve a greater purpose. He states that it would be “impossible to offer pure worship to God unless they made themselves enemies to the confusions of a wealthy life…” This was probably written to encourage the rich to give up their worldly possessions to experience more of God’s blessings. In document 5 the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam addresses wealth accumulation resulting in the resentment of an individual.

28). He describes wealth as a “…blessing to mankind,” (Gladden, 8). Gladden’s perspective of causality dissents from Weber and Sellers; he believes that, “…one effect invariably produced by Christianity upon an uncivilized people receiving it is to multiply the wealth of that people,” (Gladden, 5). He argues, Protestantism, and ultimately Christianity, cause people to desire material goods (Class notes, Feb. 28). Thus, Christianity cannot be against capitalism without contradicting itself (Gladden, 8). Gladden’s evidence for his argument stems from the Bible. Gladden contends that there are statements in the Old Testament in which “…the possession and the increase of wealth are adduced as proofs of the favor of God,” (Gladded, 6). Wherefore, the New Testament supplements this argument by clarifying that is expected for men to accumulate wealth and possessions, but also God admonishes people valuing material goods over spiritual good, but not material wealth itself (Gladden,6). That is, people are meant to value spiritual well-being over material goods, but also remember they are commanded to be “fruitful” on earth and thus produce and amass wealth (Gladden, 7). Finally, Gladden realizes capitalism is not the problem; the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth (Class Notes, Feb. 28). He says, “No possible system will remove all

Question: Is the policy of eminent domain providing for the public welfare, through the taking of privately owned property, using a rightful procedure involving due process and just compensation as it was intended to do when the policy was founded?

Hart describes early Christians as a group of extremists, with an unrealistic set of priorities economically, civically, socially, and even in ways religiously. Hart goes into great detail of his evidence of this by examining the position of the first Christians on the accumulation of wealth. In his findings from the original koine Greek text, Hart points out that the idea that accumulating wealth is not inherently bad as long as we don’t abuse it is not, in fact, the position the first Christians had. While he did concede that modern Christian’s have come to understand this false idea as a “truism”, he points out that the original language and attitude of the first Christians towards

In the Second Treatise of Government by John Locke, he writes about the right to private property. In the chapter which is titled “Of Property” he tells how the right to private property originated, the role it plays in the state of nature, the limitations that are set on the rights of private property, the role the invention of money played in property rights and the role property rights play after the establishment of government.. In this chapter Locke makes significant points about private property. In this paper I will summarize his analysis of the right to private property, and I will give my opinion on some of the points Locke makes in his book. According to Locke, the right to private property originated when God gave the world to

The first time I heard about eminent domain was when the State of Iowa wanted to move my family’s house to build more road way. This is something that affected my family. There was a constant struggle on whether or not we had to rebuild a new house or whether we were ever going to be paid enough for the land we did have. I know where I stand on this issue. I know how people are affected by this.

Although Christianity was well known throughout the affluent classes, Jesus’s philosophies touched the hearts of the plebeians. The self-proclaimed Messiah often spoke of money and riches not being needed in the afterlife, and that God measures you not on how much money you have but on your values you showed throughout your life. This touched the working class’s heart as it informed them that there is hope for a better life that everyone can achieve but not a lot deserve. Therefore, this was the main reason why Christianity was spread as quickly as it could.

The ideology behind what private property represents and conveys through the theories of both Locke and Marx's results in contrasting views. Locke heavily stresses the blending of labor and common land to create private property to increase one’s wealth. Liberty and livelihood under Locke’s theory is tied to the ability of an individual to control the use of their private property. Marx’s theory strongly contends that the bourgeoisie has gained control of the profit making private properties leaving the working class in a stage of exploitation. Marx’s conclusion then is to set private property in the hands of the people in hopes of creating universal economic equality. Respectively each thesis places governments, labour and religion

The United States of America was built on the ideals set forth by our founding fathers in the Constitution of the United States of America. Such ideals are held to the highest standards in our community to this day; like our right to the freedom of speech, our right to bear arms, and the right to own property. Each of these rights are firmly stated in the Constitution, along with many other rights that citizens of the Untied States have. The ideals of our founding fathers were so profound that many other nations modeled their democracy after the Constitution put forth by the Americans. It is basic human rights that people should have the freedom of speech, religion, and press and the right to own property. And we