Brother John
Puritan Board Sophomore
Should Christians in America be the largest group adopting?
Should our churches be encouraging every Christian family that can to adopt a child?
Should the church work together to make adoption possible financially for believers?
If this is true should Christians focus on adopting American born or foreign born children (or both)?
This question came to mind as I heard a radio commercial today at work that referred to a civil gov't website for adopting children, especially older children. We are close friends to a family that adopted three children and they have caused my wife and I to discuss adoption which we are open to in the future if the Lord wills. The commercial brought to mind a story that a pastor told of the early church in Rome. As was the practice a father in Rome could choose to leave a newborn out in the elements to die. It was punishable by death if you were to take the child in yourself. Apparently from his story the Christians were "adopting" these children on a large scale, causing there families and the "church" to grow quickly. It became so widespread that the non-Christian Romans demanded that the state stop punishing the Christians for "adopting" these children that were left to die. (On a side note he also said that they did this with the elderly that were left to die.) Should the church work together to help each other adopt the discarded children of the world? I imagine if the entire Biblical church determined to adopt children, even if it was only one per household, we as the church would put a major dent into the problem of orphaned children.
I would like to here every ones thoughts on this or anything I have overlooked, especially those of you who have adopted children yourselves.
Should our churches be encouraging every Christian family that can to adopt a child?
Should the church work together to make adoption possible financially for believers?
If this is true should Christians focus on adopting American born or foreign born children (or both)?
This question came to mind as I heard a radio commercial today at work that referred to a civil gov't website for adopting children, especially older children. We are close friends to a family that adopted three children and they have caused my wife and I to discuss adoption which we are open to in the future if the Lord wills. The commercial brought to mind a story that a pastor told of the early church in Rome. As was the practice a father in Rome could choose to leave a newborn out in the elements to die. It was punishable by death if you were to take the child in yourself. Apparently from his story the Christians were "adopting" these children on a large scale, causing there families and the "church" to grow quickly. It became so widespread that the non-Christian Romans demanded that the state stop punishing the Christians for "adopting" these children that were left to die. (On a side note he also said that they did this with the elderly that were left to die.) Should the church work together to help each other adopt the discarded children of the world? I imagine if the entire Biblical church determined to adopt children, even if it was only one per household, we as the church would put a major dent into the problem of orphaned children.
I would like to here every ones thoughts on this or anything I have overlooked, especially those of you who have adopted children yourselves.