Adopt Who?

Article from the 6/15/16 Weekly Update
by Anna Jane Friess

Over the past few years I’ve noticed a cultural shift: we are a more pet-friendly people than ever. Many have adopted the homeless pet problem as their social justice cause. Every time I log in to Facebook I see multiple posts along the lines of “Sparky needs a forever family!” or “Help find Sparky!” or “Let’s raise $10,000 for Sparky’s surgery!” Every time I get in my car I see bumper stickers which proclaim people’s love for their pets, or encourage me to “Adopt.” These “Adopt” bumper stickers come in the shape of a bone or feature paw prints, to make it clear that the anonymous stranger driving ahead of me is urging me to adopt animals, not children.

I’m not an animal lover, but I think it’s good that as a society we care about the general welfare of dogs and cats. In this discourse about the importance of adoption though, it seems to me that children are wildly excluded. People joke about how much easier it is to love pets than to love people, and there’s truth to that. It’s not that hard to provide enough care to win the affection of a pet. It’s hard, messy, complicated and expensive to help people. At this point I think our culture is very aware of the homeless pet problem and willfully ignorant of the homeless child problem.

There are over 100,000 adoptable children in our foster care system. Many are considered undesirable because of their age or race. Many mothers who choose to place infants for adoption have few families to choose from because of the baby’s race, health issues or substance abuse during pregnancy. There’s even a little abbreviation in the adoption world, used on anonymous internet forums, spoken rarely and in hushed tones, that allegedly describes what adopting families hope for, a PWB: Perfect White Baby. People line up and wait for years to adopt PWBs, but what about other children?

Let’s deal with the homeless pet problem; dogs and cats are created by God and endowed with a certain dignity. Human beings are of immeasurable worth, and as a society we seem to be favoring the easy satisfaction we get by helping vulnerable pets over the hard work of helping vulnerable children. This is work for the people of God.

I’m not saying everyone should trade in their dog for a kid: having kids isn’t God’s will for everyone, and neither is adoption. You can be actively pro-adoption even without kids. I do wish though, that we were more willing to face this problem and support each other in trying to fix it. If you’re a young (or young-ish!) married couple, who determines your family structure, you or Jesus? Have you ever prayed about whether God is calling you to adopt? I can personally attest to His faithfulness to provide and empower you to do so. If you’re not married or if you believe adoption is not for you, have you considered how you can support adoptive families and vulnerable children?

Recently I saw another bumper sticker that gave me pause. It read, “Every child a wanted child.” At first I smiled, but my face fell when I realized that what the bumper sticker really meant was, “Only wanted children should be allowed to live.” I pray that the people of God would rise up to meet the world’s great need for adoptive families. May the church one day say with a great voice, “All children are wanted. They are wanted by God and they are wanted by us,” and then by the power of Holy Spirit, put our money, time, attention and energy where our mouth is.