Prominent evangelical Christians are urging churchgoers to strongly consider adoption or foster care, not just out of kindness or biblical calling but also to answer criticism that their movement, while condemning abortion and same-sex adoption, doesn’t do enough for children without parents.
With backing from Focus on the Family and author Rick Warren, the effort to promote “orphan care” among the nation’s estimated 65 million evangelicals could drastically reduce foster care rolls if successful.
Yet sensitive issues lie ahead: about evangelizing, religious attitudes on corporal punishment, gay and lesbian foster children, racially mixed families, and resolving tensions between religious groups and the government.
Warren and others are scheduled to speak at a summit starting next Wednesday at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs that aims to elevate the initiative onto the national stage.
“In some people’s minds, the church has been very pro-life up until the point of birth,” said Michael Monroe, who co-founded an adoption and foster care ministry at Irving Bible Church outside Dallas. “A lot of people are saying it’s not enough to be pro-life; we need to be pro-children as well.”
Aware that adoption and foster care aren’t for everyone, organizers are suggesting alternatives such as providing support networks for foster families, taking short-term mission trips and sponsoring orphanages.
More than 500,000 children were in the U.S. foster care system in 2005, the last year for which federal statistics were available. About 115,000 were waiting for adoption.
The new campaign urges churches to follow the example of groups such as Denver-based Project 1.27, which takes its name from a James 1:27 passage to “look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
“As Christians we have been adopted by the father,” said executive director Christopher Padbury, who has five adopted children. “All we have to do is accept his love. We just pray these kids will accept our love.”
Project 1.27 has agreements with five Colorado counties to provide training to prospective foster parents. So far, families have taken in 47 children, and 21 children have been permanently adopted, Padbury said.
