Foolishness or Hope?

 

   I've been reading a book, an expose, which I didn't really want to read because I knew it would make me mad. I read it because I felt I needed to know what those on the "other side" of the adoption debate thought about the kids and the process and the remedy. As I read, I kept looking for what the author's view point was and where she was coming from and then I spotted it. In the third chapter a sentence which I feel summed up why "orphan ministry" may be hard for some to put their arms around. The author states that she could never accept a theology where one person has to suffer for the happiness of another. She, of course, was talking about a birth mother suffering to bring happiness to the adoptive family. As I read this I couldn't help thinking that the theology she can't accept is someone being forced to suffer, yet I do not believe that most adoptions result from a force of one person's will on another but a set of circumstances which lead to a decision. It is the decision which brings both grief and joy.
    
    The circumstances for adoption are varied and cover the whole spectrum of life from a frightened pregnant teen-ager, to a poverty stricken woman; from an addicted parent, to a governmental family planning policy. And while we would like to right all of these wrongs, it is not possible.  Sometimes the decision to place a child for adoption is solely a personal one; however sometimes the decision is made not by the individual but by the government or social services. There is also the instances where parents in other cultures have unknowingly severed their parental rights or have had their children stolen from them. While we don't want to advocate a solution in which parents feel pressured into adoption, we also don't want children who have no guardian to be ignored.  It is a sad fact that most of the world's orphans will never have the chance to be a part of a family; yet if we throw up our hands we are ignoring those who can be adopted.
 
    I think what really bothered me about this expose was that it highlighted all the problems of adoption but offered no solutions. It advocated keeping children in their own country and letting agencies minister to the families. This is understandable; however according to her own research, this seems to be how most adoption programs have started: a church reaches out to the community and provides help for children who are without help, these children then need to find a home, the church uses whatever contacts it has to try and find a home which sometimes results in the child being adopted out of country. This process escalates as more parents see the ministry as a way out of poverty for their children and more adoption agencies become involved. Is there a way to break this cycle? What about when disaster strikes a destitute country such as Haiti or Sudan? Adoption is not the only answer, but it is part of the answer.

   The Christian faith is built upon the One who suffered the cross so that all might have a new beginning: a new life in him. It was not a forced decision but a loving decision based upon our need for a relationship with our heavenly Father. This message is foolishness to those who are perishing. In the same way, adoption of a child from the other side of the world also appears foolish and to some criminal.  Any time we step forward and begin to walk down an unknown path we will face disapproval. As Nehemiah found out, if someone doesn't like what you are doing, they will ridicule you, slander you, fight you and make you think they have the same goal as you, but in the end it is the one whose cause is just that will prevail. 

                  Be The One