"We believe that groundwater is an absolute, vested ownership right of the landowner." P. 10 #6

"We believe that the state should neither make nor enforce any law that abridges or denies the inalienable constitutional rights of the citizens of Texas with regards to minerals, water, or property rights." P. 10 #7

"We oppose conservation easements on our national resources administered by organizations unaccountable to taxpayers and voters." P.10 #9 (This suggests that land trusts would become unconstitutional under a dominionist-influenced court)

"We oppose the Endangered Species Act." P. 10 #17  (The Endangered Species Act has been used to stop development in some areas.)

Biblical Rational for Property Rights

America's Providential History, a textbook that teaches millions of children in Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movement how to view reality through the lens of a Biblical Worldview, explains the biblical rational for property rights.

Let every person be in subjection  to the government authorities: ... For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil...it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. (Romans 13:1,3,4)

America's Providential History interprets Paul's statement as an affirmation of property rights:

The purpose of government therefore is to protect the life, liberty AND PROPERTY by punishing evil doers and encouraging the righteous. (p. 20)

Scripture defines God as the source of private property ..
Ecclesiastes 5:19 states, "For every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them..." Also in 1Chronicles 29:12, Both riches and honor come from Thee." (p. 188)

God has created everything, including us, and given us the right to possess property... (p. 272)

Developers and dominionists alike have lost sight of other basic rights such as the right to protect the environment and conserve open space. They have lost sight of the notion of land use for the common good.  

I've devoted many years to teaching about the principles of ecological cities. I started EcoVillage at Ithaca, a thriving environmental community of sixty households where I now reside. I also co-convened the Third International EcoCity Conference in Senegal, West Africa. Yet the future of the Green Cities movement and its enormous implications for the environment could be thwarted by a Roberts Supreme Court if that court embraces a dominionist philosophy of property rights.

America's Providential History teaches the goodness of a "government acting on the Biblical principles:"

The  internal change of heart that Christ brings produces Christian character and self-government which is necessary for an economy to be prosperous. (p. 194)

This belief in a future where, eventually, perhaps over thousands of years, there will be a societal change of heart that Christ brings, is very optimistic. I applaud those who carry such a vision in their hearts.

The problem is that that vision becomes a nightmare when it is used for political power. Consider the issue of property rights. If all property owners were good, honest people who believed in the stewardship of the earth, there might not be a problem.

But real estate magnates such as Howie Rich of  New York who was highlighted on PBS Now for bankrolling property rights campaigns in several Western states this election cycle have the most to gain. They support politicians who campaign on hot-button social issues such as abortion or gay rights, and those same politicians gave the developers the absolute right to plunder and pollute our natural resources.

Previous articles in the series on Dominionism and The Role of The Federal Government

Dominionism and The Constitution in Exile Movement

House Bill Would Eliminate Most Regulatory Functions Of Federal Government

A Culture of Life or Death?

Follow The Votes

Paul Weyrich: The Man Who Framed the Republican Party (How he succeeded in getting a huge constituency to vote against their economic interests)

ALEC: Traditional values discover corporate funding