Property ownership has always been a great pursuit for Americans, but it takes place in the context of a great social divide. Christians often hold sacred the pursuit of home and homeland, such as Israel’s pursuit of the biblical Promised Land. Like all human endeavors, these pursuits are fraught with gross imperfections. Unfortunately, in U.S. history, there were many problems with unbiblical concepts of all kinds of property ownership. In fact, greed and hatred slipped into our national concepts of ownership in the form of African slavery and Native American genocide.

During Reconstruction, the government at least considered that giving former slaves 40 acres and a mule would bring about equality of opportunity. It did not work out. In those days, southerners were unwilling to allow blacks political power, and they blocked true black assimilation. This is how the black community ended up in segregated neighborhoods and inner-city tenements. Segregation depressed values and economic opportunity, which prevented them from building wealth, pursuing educational opportunities