Evangelical Christian Adoption Movement

A large, coordinated effort has been underway for the past few years to convince Evangelical Christians to adopt. This recent article explains some of that movement.

Adoption growing among evangelical Christians[Louisville Courier-Journal 1/18/11 by Peter Smith]

Coordination of large, industry organizations

While “fulfilling Bible mandates” is the focus of this article, it fails to mention the relationship among multiple, long-standing, well-funded Evangelical adoption agencies, these churches, and the multiple industry organizations that each have their own adoption promotion machines. Some of these organizations that overlap in membership include:

National Council for Adoption (NCFA) https://www.adoptioncouncil.org/ ,
Christian Alliance for Orphans http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/ ,
Together for Adoption http://www.togetherforadoption.org// ,
Hope for Orphans http://www.hopefororphans.org/Display.asp?Page=home

and they have powerful influence. Individual members engage in wide-reaching adoption-business generating activities.

We could highlight any number of examples, but today we will focus on one that happened a year ago–the Haiti airlifts. 4 Kids of South Florida , a Safe Families-affiliated group, was one of the main forces behind the promotion of Haiti orphan airlift, Pierre Pan Operation. Though first brought up by Catholic Charities Legal Services, they urged caution Organizers say too soon to implement ‘Operation Pierre Pan’ for orphans of Haiti [Sun Sentinel 1/15/10 by Rafael A. Olmeda and Alexia Campbell], that hasn’t stopped others from endorsing or preparing for the arrival of hundreds or possibly thousands of Haitian children.

“We’ve already begun to make preparations and are willing to do our part,” said Mark Riordan, Broward County spokesman for the state’s Department of Children and Families. While he didn’t know how many children could end up calling Broward County home, Riordan said he does not [expect] every child in the program to end up in South Florida.”

Excuse us for pointing this out, but where would those kids go in Broward County? 4 Kids of South Florida says “First, every child in Broward County who is brought into the Child Welfare system, from newborns to 17-year-olds, upon being removed from their families due to abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment, is given loving shelter and supervision at SafePlace 4KIDS while they await a more permanent placement.” What a surprise–4Kids of South Florida would get them.
Its affiliate Safe Families (see 4Kids of South Florida here )was pushing for an Indiana Airlift http://pear-now.blogspot.com/2010/01/no-airlift-of-haiti-orphans-to-indiana.html

Are we against Evangelical Christians adopting? No. We are against their using their religious beliefs in order to promote—and make a whole lot of money from–the complex international adoption process on fallacies and without practicalities necessary to back that up. It is not about a large group of prospective parents going into a remote, non-Hague compliant country and adopting, but rather about untrained adoption agency personnel going to these locations without doing due diligence for adoption laws or assessing all the local needs of the people first. Instead, they set up a quick adoption shop and sign scores of Christian clients up with claims of “redemption” and “salvation.”

Spiritual Relevancy

Spiritual relevancy is often used by these Christian ministries and agencies to supplant both the risks of the international adoption process and the challenges of parenting the internationally adopted child. In all likelihood, adopted children will have had inconsistent caregivers, have been subjected to the stress of permanent separation from their mother, and/or even subjected to neglect or abuse. The minister mentioned in this article, Russell Moore, also commented on the Justin Hansen case in the Christian Post last year When Adoption Fails, the Gospel is Denied [April 18, 2010], quipping “When adoption fails – whatever the reason – the Gospel is denied” and “This is not only a rejection of a boy, unspeakably tragic and ugly as that act is – it is a refutation of adoption itself.” It is shameful to add some spiritual burden while offering no practical assistance to an adoptive parent in crisis. That tragedy had nothing to do with denying Christianity! This is the kind of discourse that makes this movement look unprofessional, unethical, un-Christian, and flat-out foolish and hypocritical.

Due Diligence

We have no qualms with anyone’s spiritual decision to adopt, BUT you need to fully understand that you are entering into a business proposition. However “nonprofit,” “Christian,” or “humanitarian” that the people who you sign a contract with claim to be, adoption is still a service business. With this in mind, due diligence should be performed to reduce the chance of a crisis in an adoption.

Regardless of what led you to adopt, adoption is ultimately about placing the child in the best place for that individual child. It is not about you and fulfillment of your needs.

In addition to the adoption agency due diligence-which is minimal to nonexistent in many of the countries being promoted in this Evangelical movement–prospective parents need to do separate due diligence in areas of country selection, agency selection, and parameters of the child(ren) they seek to adopt (older child, gender, special need, sibling group, transracial adoption, etc). It’s often necessary to seek out additional training beyond the minimum training provided by adoption agencies. Countries, agencies, and states each have different training requirements, but most are minimal.

Child as Focus

The article states, “And Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said, ‘The option for any of these kids is not a good one if they’re not adopted. It’s pretty difficult for me to have concerns about folks taking kids in and loving them.’” With such an ignorant statement, he misses the mark completely. He, like many other in the Evangelical movement, again focuses solely on the adoptive parent and their feelings for the child. He refuses to admit or seemingly understand that the child’s needs are paramount.

Misperceptions 
From promoting false numbers (see here ) to perpetuation of emotional myths, this adoption movement is extremely problematic. Some common religiously-based yet often completely erroneous premises include:

• “Love is all you need.” Affection is enough to restore mental health and assist or fix learning disabilities of the neglected and/or abused child. You will immediately love your new child, and your new child will immediately love you back.
• The new child will fit seamlessly into your family.
• Siblings will (instantly) bond or bond no matter what the circumstances of the child’s history. The sibling bond is the same as if we brought the child to the family biologically.
• The newly adopted child(ren), siblings and parents all should be able to cope in this “new norm” of a family situation, and if it fails then it’s all your fault.
• If you have problems with your adoptee, you are not religious enough and/or have a spiritual deficit.
• If the agency is run by a particular religion or has an affiliation with a particular religious organization neither the prospective adoptive parents nor the prospective adoptive child will have ANY problems because faith will prevail over the practicalities of parenting a child at risk from fallout of trauma, neglect, or abuse.