A wolf in sheep’s clothing? A missiological examination of the United States evangelical adoption and orphan care movement

Abstract

The contemporary case of high-profile evangelical groups promoting intercountry adoption in books, conferences, and church ministries in the United States is a situation that requires missiological examination. This article makes an argument for the need for a broadened theological base from which to understand intercountry adoption and orphan care, as well as the need for critical engagement with related knowledge bases in the social sciences. It includes discussion of the difficulties associated with adoption of children as a missionary strategy and making parallel the adoption of children with a believer’s adoption by God. Integration of the biblical theme of power reversal to attain social justice for the oppressed with current adoption literature is used to problematize the theological and practical emphases of the evangelical adoption and orphan care movement, and to inform Christian thought and practices related to child removal and welfare.

Keywords

Adoption intercountry adoption international adoption orphan care missiology child removal spectrum of care social justice evangelical

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

Johnson

SBW

(1994) Regarding Children: A New Respect for Childhood and Families. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Briggs

(2012) Somebody’s Children: The Politics of Transracial and Transnational Adoption. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Brueggemann

(2001) Peace. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press.

Bunge

(2001) The Child in Christian Thought. Religion, Marriage, and Family Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Bunge

Fretheim

Gaventa

(2008) The Child in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Burke

(2006) Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor. Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Carr

Captari

(2013) Orphan Justice: How to Care for Orphans beyond Adopting. Nashville, TN: B & H Publish Group.

Carroll

(2001) Children in the Bible. Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 55: 121–34.

Couture

(2000) Seeing Children, Seeing God: A Practical Theology of Children and Poverty. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

10.

Cruver

(2011) Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living through the Rediscovery of Abba Father. Escondido: Cruciform Press.

11.

Dillen

Pollefeyt

(2010) Children’s Voices: Children’s Perspectives in Ethics, Theology and Religious Education. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters.

12.

Dorow

(2006) Transnational Adoption: A Cultural Economy of Race, Gender, and Kinship. New York: New York University Press.

13.

Dubinsky

(2007) Babies without borders: rescue, kidnap, and the symbolic child. Journal of Women’s History 19: 142–50.

14.

Dubinsky

(2008) The fantasy of the global cabbage patch. Feminist Theory 9: 339–45.

15.

Dubinsky

(2010) Babies without Borders: Adoption and Migration across the Americas. New York: New York University Press.

16.

Dunn

Jareg

Webb

(2007) A last resort: the growing concern about children in residential care. London: International Save the Children Alliance. Available at: www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/docs.

17.

Freundlich

(2000) Adoption and Ethics Serices. Vols 1–4. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

18.

Gibbons

JL and Rotabi KS

(2012) Intercountry Adoption: Policies, Practices, and Outcomes. Farnham and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

19.

Gustafson

(2005) Unbecoming Mothers: The Social Production of Maternal Absence. New York: Haworth Clinical Practice Press.

20.

Heim

(2013) Should God’s adopted be adopting? The Pauline adoption metaphor and its relevance for modern adoption practices. In: Intercountry Adoption: Orphan Rescue or Child Trafficking? Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.

21.

Jensen

(2005) Graced Vulnerability: A Theology of Childhood. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press.

22.

Kim

(2012a) Beyond adoptee exceptionalism. In: ‘Best Interests of the Child?’ Race, Religion, and Rescue in Adoption. St. John’s University, NY.

23.

Kim

(2012b) Some children see him: A transracial adoptee’s view of color-blind Christianity. Journal of Christian Legal Thought 2: 15–17.

24.

Marre

Briggs

(2009) International Adoption: Global Inequalities and the Circulation of Children. New York: New York University Press.

25.

McCoy

(2012) Historic and modern Christian practices of adoption within the context of best practice. In: ‘Best Interests of the Child?’ Race, Religion, and Rescue in Adoption. St. John’s University, NY.

26.

Medefind

(2011) The adoption crusade: what a misleading article in ‘The Nation’ can teach evangelicals. Available at: www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/aprilweb-only.

27.

Medefind

(2012) In defense of the Christian orphan care movement. Journal of Christian Legal Thought 2: 9–10.

28.

Mercer

(2005) Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press.

29.

Merida

Morton

(2011) Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-centered Adoption and Orphan Care. Birmingham, AL: New Hope.

30.

Miller-McLemore

(2006) Whither the children? Childhood in religious education. The Journal of Religion 86: 635–57.

31.

Moltmann

(1983) The Power of the Powerless. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

32.

Monroe

Chung-Sherman

(2012) Rescuing the rescuers: a critical exploration of the evangelical adoption movement. In: ‘Best Interest of the Child?’ Race, Religion, and Rescue in Adoption. St. John’s University, NY.

33.

Moore

(2009) Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

34.

Palmer

(2011) The Dance of Identities: Korean Adoptees and Their Journey toward Empowerment. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press in association with UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Los Angeles.

35.

Quiroz

(2007) Adoption in a Color-blind Society. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

36.

Raible

(2012) Race, religion, and rescue: the rescued speak. In: ‘Best Interests of the Child?’ Race, Religion and Rescue in Adoption. St. John’s University, NY.

37.

Rothman

(2005) Weaving a Family: Untangling Race and Adoption. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

38.

Smolin

(2006) Child laundering: how the intercountry adoption system legitimizes and incentivizes the practices of buying, trafficking, kidnapping, and stealing children. ExpressO: Wayne Law Review 52(1): 113–200. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/david_smolin/1.

39.

Smolin

(2012a) An inside critique of the evangelical Christian adoption and orphan care movement. In: ‘Best Interests of the Child?’ Race, Religion, and Rescue in Adoption. St John’s University, NY.

40.

Smolin

(2012b) Of orphans and adoption, parents and the poor, exploitation and rescue: a scriptural and theological critique of the evangelical Christian adoption and orphan care movement. Regent Journal of International Law 8: 267–324.

41.

Smolin

(ed.) (2012c) Journal of Christian Legal Thought 2.

42.

Trenka

Oparah

Shin

(2006) Outsiders within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

43.

UNICEF (1999) Innocenti Digest 4—Intercountry Adoption. Available at: www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/digest4e.pdf.

44.

UNICEF (2012) Press Release: Orphans. Available at: www.unicef.org/media/media_45279.html.

45.

UNICEF, UNAIDS, and USAID (2004) Children on the Brink: A Joint Report of New Orphan Estimates and a Framework for Action. Available at: www.unicef.org/publications/cob_layout6–013.pdf.

46.

Volkman

(2005) Cultures of Transnational Adoption. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

47.

Wright

CJH

(2006) The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic.

48.

Wright

(1996) Jesus and the Victory of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

49.

Yoder

(1994) The Politics of Jesus: Vicit Agnus Noster. Grand Rapids, MI and Carlisle: Eerdmans and Paternoster Press.