Thursday, February 12, 2009

Property Rights - Age Old Issue

It seems a treasure hunter may have found a lost treasure ship with the use of Google Earth mapping satellite information. Well, next thing ya’ know, he’ll be millionaire a movin’ to Beverly Hills, movie stars and swimmin’ pools; sorry couldn’t resist the temptation.

“Nathan Smith thinks he’s found a lost treasure ship that sank somewhere north of Corpus Christi during a hurricane in 1822.”

There is a problem; the folks who own the property upon which the treasure is buried have refused to let anyone excavate their land. Smith wants to dig so he wants the court to give him permission.

“Where we walked, your honor, there was gold, there was silver,” Smith told a federal judge in Houston in December about his initial visit to the site, according to the Houston Chronicle. “When you step off that area, you got nothing.”

I must be old fashioned thinking property owners had the final say on things like “their land”. Then again, if there’s a bunch of money involved folks tend to ignore right or wrong and even the law. If the treasure buried under the land is worth so much why didn’t Smith offer to purchase the property? He didn’t have to tell everyone what he believes is under the dirt and then he could dig to his heart’s content.

The scriptures, as found in Matthew 13:44 , explain this well known process through the use of a parable, one that anyone with the slightest understanding of property rights would understand. Is it any wonder our society has problems, folks aren’t reading their scriptures much.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”

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