I ran across an article today on MSNBC.com entitled "Orphan Care." I recommend linking to the article at the following address:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442334/from/ET./
The opening paragraph reads, "Prominent evangelical Christians are urging church goers 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." Still further along in the article it is stated, "In some people's minds, the church has been very pro-life up until birth...but a lot of people are saying it is not enough to be pro-life. We need to be pro-children as well." Count me among those people who hold to this conviction.
I have long been dismayed (better yet read "angered") at the shrill and unceasing voices immolating from within our evangelical ranks in the past decade against the "sin of abortion" and the "evils" of homosexuality, same-sex marriages, same-sex adoptions, et al. Let it be clear that as far as I am from being a "prefect" Christian, I hold to the biblical teachings that speak to the subject of homosexuality. It is not a life style that I have chosen to adopt. But, as my minister has taught me, neither am I God and, therefore, it is not my role as a practicing servant to my Lord Jesus Christ to serve as judge and jury to those who recognize themselves to be so. Be it also known that I am overall an anti-abortion proponent, but recognize that there are some unique cases when the life or death health issues of the mother must be considered, or when the health of the infant or infants have been in the prenatal state determined to result in such dire outcome that their termination(s) would be far more merciful than a life consigned to projected dismal quality. Thank God, however, that I have not been personally acquainted with having to make that judgement call, as I also am aware of many instances when children of woefully diminished physical and mental capacities has come into this world to live a most fruitful and productive life on their own terms. Again, I am not God, and choose not to condemn those parent(s) who may elect to terminate their unborn child rather than have the child face a very uncertain and perhaps painful existence. These painful and gut-wrenching decisions are to be made ultimately and finally by the parent(s). The consequences of their decisions fall to the purview of God...not to me.
That having been said, agree with me or disagree with me, that is your choice. My purpose and thrust of this dissertation is to pointedly ask we proclaiming evangelicals...me among them...when our oppositional rancor stops where does our real compassion and desire to be part of the solution begin? The article states that as of the last reporting date of 2005 there are more than 500,000 children in this nation's foster care system. Of that number 115,000 continue to wait for permanent adoption. According to the WEB site ADHERENTS.com, there are approximately 224,457,000 (that's million!) individuals who proclaim to be affiliated with some form of "Christian" faith. If only one half (11,22,850) or one third (7,407,081) of that total number were to embrace the idea of opening their homes and hearts to these languishing children, the issue of securing "suitable adoption homes" in this country would evaporate.
I readily recognize that not all professing Christians are in a current or foreseeable future position in their lives to embrace this idea of "Orphan Care." As my wife and I begin to slip out of the last bonds of "middle age," it wouldn't be fair or prudent to adopt a child into our home. However, with our college-aged child now permanently out of our home, it is not unreasonable to seriously consider becoming foster parents. It is a "possibility" that I plan to pursue with greater interest and enthusiasm. And, it is my intention to investigate in far greater depth the "Orphan Care" program to hopefully become a champion of its embrace within my home church as well as within my local Christian community as a whole.
George Bernard Shaw said, "Some men see things as they are and ask why - I dream of things that never were and ask why not?" James 1:27 in the New Testament of God's Word says, "...look after the orphans and widows in their distress." There always comes a time in a person's life when he or she should introspectively question whether or not their convictions are merely righteous rhetoric or the springboard to performing a greater service beyond their own self satisfaction of being morally right. Being right doesn't in and of itself change the world for good. To impact the world for good one must sacrifice complacency and embrace real sacrifice with viable and committed action. You?
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