Why Evangelical Christians Love Adopting Kids

[angi_is_altered]

American Christian families are adopting children from other countries with the hopes of giving them a better life - but is it actually better? An interview with Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption.

Comments

[fenris_lorsrai]

I'm reading an article on same basic subject right now in Mother Jones current print edition about this whole mess... and the fall out for kids. It really lays out the whole "we are saving them for GOD" thing in greater detail. and if the adoption didn't work out as expected, send the kids back to their home country! (I will post it once its available online)

The most interesting part of that would be relevant here is that overall international adoptions are declining in the US. EXCEPT for ones through these missionary adoptions through religious groups in countries with really weak laws. Most of them follow a boom and bust cycle as one country has a huge number of adoptions, a huge number of abuses occur, they finally stop ALL out of country adoptions to stop it.

It is such a fucking mess.

[zinnia_rose]

I first made the connection with this broader adoption movement when one of my Quiverfull sources was asking me if I think it's wrong that she ask a woman who wanted to have an abortion to carry to term and relinquish to her instead.

This makes me want to barf. YES IT IS FUCKING DISGUSTING AND WRONG, YOU ASSHOLE (the Quiverfull woman, not the author of the article). Adoption is an alternative to parenthood, but it is not an alternative to pregnancy. And even if it were, you still don't get to make that choice for someone else.

I think adopting a child and raising him or her in a conservative Evangelical household is about as far from "saving" them as you can get.

[elialshadowpine]

Ugh, yes. I have somewhat of a personal tie to this sorta situation, as my partner's mother was bullied by her sister and BIL when she asked for money that they figured out was the going price for an abortion. They are Evangelical Christian and it was a Thing that my partner should have been grateful to them for everything for saving their life, despite that they were horrendously abusive.

(This is also the MIL that, upon being told that I can't have kids at risk of my life, that God would take care of everything and she'd be praying for me to get pregnant. Yeah. Lovely people.)

My partner is, on one hand, happy to be alive, but is pretty vocal that what their adoptive parents did to their biological mother is fucking disgusting and wrong. For some reason, people expect them to be anti-choice. -_-

I am totally with you on your last sentence.

[the_siobhan]

I put my daughter up for adoption. Frequently when people find that out they expect me to be anti-choice, but the experience made me even more solidly pro-choice than I already was. I would never put another human being through that by force, it colours your whole life. And I've met my daughter, and she rocks, and she's pro-choice as well.

It drives me feral when people say, "Oh she can just put the baby up for adoption" like it's nothing. It's far from nothing.

Uh. Sorry. Apparently there was a bit of a rant in there.

[tallycola]

People should only give birth to children and adopt children IF THEY WANT THEM. I can think of nothing sadder than a kid adopted by some people just to be a charity case or a ticket into heaven instead of being adopted by loving parents who want a child for the child's sake. And when they're being adopted into huge families who make a career of it, how is it really better than a group home?

International adoption can of course be done well, (and adopting a group of siblings together is great,) but it's so fraught with bullshit and trafficking as well. And it's not like there aren't tons of older kids here at home that need homes. Blah.

[tabaqui]

Reading the comments to this article shows me that i *do not* want to read the article. Fuck these kind of 'Xians' and their sick delusions to 'parenthood'. Seriously sick of this kind of shite.

[romp]

You read the comments and not the article? IDGI--the author is not defending this.

[tabaqui]

Just reading about stuff like this makes me cringe. I get the gist, it's something i'm familiar with - i just don't want to roll around in it, you know?

[romp]

a mental health call, I gotcha

[redstar826]

I used to attend a church that was reallyyyyy into adoption, although they seemed more interested in getting kids through the foster care system rather than from outside the US. Still, these same attitudes were present as the church is in a wealthy white suburb, the kids that were being adopted were mostly black children from poorer communities.