New Adoption Inititative Is Right but Wrong Headed

According to a story from the Pastor's Weekly Briefing published by Focus on the Family, "foster care could drastically be reduced in the United States if the estimated 65 million evangelicals got involved in a [new initiative called] 'orphan care.'"

So far the story isn't surprising but what caught my attention was the motivation for this new initiative spelled out in the last part of the brief.

"'…churchgoers are being encouraged to consider adoption or foster care to respond to criticism that, while condemning abortion and same-sex adoption, evangelicals do not do enough for children without parents,' according to CBSNews.com."

At the risk of being misunderstood I respond quite negatively to any kind of reaction that compels a people of faith to do this, that, or the other thing in order to somehow lessen the criticism of godless authorities who pride themselves on ridiculing the faithful any chance they get. The fact is, no matter what a Christian does, the God-haters twist it, bend it, or flat out lie about it just to marginalize the Christian for in so doing, they legitimize--in their own minds--their rebellion against God himself.

Let me be clear--I am all for Christians adopting but if a Christian never adopted a single a child, it would still be appropriate to decry the atrocities of abortion, and of the illicit sex that produces millions of unwed mothers and on and on. That does not mitigate the pro-life message. Right is right and the necessity of proclaiming what is right is not contingent on the righteous taking up the slack, or paying the price, of the consequences of the unrighteous.

In other words, I can and should speak out against drunk driving and that doesn't necessitate my publishing my phone number in order to be available to give rides to anyone who calls under the influence.

I can speak out against divorce without having to supplement the divorced woman's income once she is on her own and it does not make my protest against divorce less compelling or proper.

Once again, truth is true regardless and a person committed to truth in his own life is not obligated to make up for or pay for the lack of truth in someone else's. I am disappointed that this new initiative--which is a good to be sure--is so poorly defended on the basis of somehow neutralizing the negative comments about evangelicals from the mainline media. It is the words of Jesus not the words of Kouric and her ilk that should compel us to action.