Do you ever read Mother Jones? It is a very liberal media outlet that is not for the faint of heart. While I agree with very little, if anything, they produce, it is a helpful resource for seeing how evangelical Christians are viewed outside our own circles. It is extremely easy to get lost inside the big world of evangelicalism and forget that people on the outside view both life in general and how we live it in particular quite differently.
Case in point: “Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession” by Kathryn Joyce. As Jonathan Merritt wrote in covering this story for Religion News Service, the gist of the argument is this “as a result of Christians’ efforts to adopt orphaned children, kids who may have been illegally obtained are being placed in oppressive, fundamentalist homes in order for parents to evangelize them.”
Really? Is Christian adoption simply a plot to evangelize children? Russell Moore, president-elect of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission doesn’t think so. Merritt quotes Moore saying, “the idea that Christians’ desire to adopt children is a ruse for evangelism is little more than a tired cliché.
Yes, [Christians] believe in rearing our children with instruction in what we believe is the most important part of life: the gospel,” says Moore. “That is hardly unusual. Buddhist parents rear their children with Buddhist values, such as mindfulness and meditation. Secular progressive parents rear their children with progressive values, such as equal rights and fair treatment of all. Why would it surprise anyone that evangelical or Roman Catholic or Pentecostal Christian parents rear their children as Christians?”
To be fair, Christian adoption isn’t perfect. Nothing is. It is, however, an essential movement for believers to live out a consistent and Biblical pro-life ethic, as well as meet the needs of society in general, in order to promote the common good for all, especially those without a home or voice.
I invite Joyce and her ilk at Mother Jones to come and visit my family (I have four adopted children) or my church for that matter (we have nearly 6o adopted children from all over the globe) and see if observing adoption up close and personal would change her opinion. Our home is a lot of things, but oppressive and fundamentalist it is not!
Joyce and Mother Jones have given us a great example of why faithfulness to following God and His Word must be our standard and not the biased, uninformed musings of those who do not even take the time to really learn about what they criticize. Makes you wonder who is really oppressive and fundamentalist.