{"id":47698,"date":"2014-03-24T07:58:36","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T11:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=47698"},"modified":"2014-03-25T00:11:44","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T04:11:44","slug":"why-christians-should-embrace-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Christians should embrace adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-43849\" alt=\"heartandbelly\" src=\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/heartandbelly-300x200.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/heartandbelly-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/heartandbelly.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Despite efforts at awareness of such a miracle of life, sometimes people still don\u2019t embrace adoption. Sadly, many of those ideas emanate from Christians who are pro-life.<\/p>\n<p>Recently another sad story of a \u201creturned\u201d child made news, leading others to question whether adoption is the best thing\u2014at least for the parents\u2014especially when children are difficult and need more support, whether emotionally or physically. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re getting,\u201d they say, often adding that an adopted child could be \u201cdamaged.\u201d He or she could make your life uncomfortable, ruin the family dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>To the Christian, the answer to all of that should be, \u201cso what?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First, the reality for Christians is that the Bible talks of God adopting believers into his family thought the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of Christianity. To reject adoption as a special calling for \u201cother\u201d people, or only adequate for extreme circumstances such as for infertility, is to reject the principle that God himself modeled. The actual question should be \u201cis there any good reason not to adopt?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There <i>are<\/i> good reasons not to. It would be irresponsible to suggest everyone should run out and sign up for home studies and adoption lists solely because it\u2019s the model of Christianity, but the question must be an honest inventory of why nots?<\/p>\n<p>Second, the Bible abounds with scriptures about orphans, and it is clear that the job of the Christian is to take care of the orphan; James 1:27 describes this as \u201cpure religion\u201d that God accepts. One of the most oft-cited verses is Psalm 68:6 \u201cGod sets the lonely (some versions say <i>solitary<\/i>) in families.\u201d It brings a sort of comfort into pro-life circles to know this: \u201cGod will take care of the orphan; he loves the orphan and will give him a family.\u201d But it can also become a clich\u00e9, a cloud without water, if the next question is not \u201cDo some of those lonely belong in <i>my<\/i> family?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God does set the lonely in families, but God is a supernatural being who uses human beings to execute his work on earth. God gives resources and love and families to people, so they may share those things with others. To say \u201cGod sets the lonely in families\u201d then shut the door to the lonely outside of our homes is missing a key point of the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>As pro-lifers, we rightly demand abortion stop. We decry the killing and pray for hours at abortion clinics, weeping over the loss of life. We post pictures and sayings on social media and proudly announce we only vote for pro-life candidates. But beyond that, the solution for abortion remains solely in our hands. \u00a0It\u2019s negligent of us to expect everyone else to do the adopting. Not all pro-lifers are Christians, but the majority of those on the forefront are vocal about their faith. That voice must translate to adoption\u2014in one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>True family can be any lifelong bond God has knit together, and blood isn&#8217;t a requirement for it to be real or somehow better because some DNA connects in a special way.\u00a0 Birth children can end up with severe problems just as adopted children can.\u00a0 Love doesn&#8217;t get to choose which goods are damaged, just as God didn&#8217;t dictate who was too damaged to be in his family.<\/p>\n<p>Family is a committed, loving relationship that is in our power to offer and support\u2014whether by doing the adopting or by actively, financially and emotionally, supporting those who do.<\/p>\n<p>Recently a comment appeared on a public site saying that adoption wasn&#8217;t a \u201cnatural\u201d thing, but to a Christian, it\u2019s the most natural thing that can be.<\/p>\n<p>God didn&#8217;t have to send Jesus, and Jesus didn&#8217;t have to go to the cross to allow us a way to the Father. The goal of this was to expand God\u2019s family through adoption. That statement sometimes gets so overused in Christian culture that it loses personal meaning, and yet it\u2019s the reality of the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>Janette Pettey and her husband Tim, who adopted both of their daughters, tells the story of how her daughter Hannah used to explain her adoption: &#8220;She used to say she was &#8216;double adopted,&#8217; referring to her adoption into her natural family and also into her eternal family as a Christian,&#8221; Janette says.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s the most natural thing of all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite efforts at awareness of such a miracle of life, sometimes people still don\u2019t embrace adoption. Sadly, many of those ideas emanate from Christians who are pro-life. Recently another sad story of a \u201creturned\u201d child made news, leading others to question whether adoption is the best thing\u2014at least for the parents\u2014especially when children are difficult [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":827,"featured_media":43849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[804,1580],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Christians should embrace adoption - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Christians should embrace adoption - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite efforts at awareness of such a miracle of life, sometimes people still don\u2019t embrace adoption. Sadly, many of those ideas emanate from Christians who are pro-life. Recently another sad story of a \u201creturned\u201d child made news, leading others to question whether adoption is the best thing\u2014at least for the parents\u2014especially when children are difficult [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-24T11:58:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-25T04:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/heartandbelly.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"334\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Catherine Livingston, PhD\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e546e5fbb46d771bbe66c0ab7690156c\"},\"headline\":\"Why Christians should embrace adoption\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-24T11:58:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-25T04:11:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\"},\"wordCount\":747,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Adoption\",\"family\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\",\"name\":\"Why Christians should embrace adoption - Live Action News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-24T11:58:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-25T04:11:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/why-christians-should-embrace-adoption\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Christians should embrace adoption\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; 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