20 July 2009

Adopted for Life-Chapter 3

On page 79, Moore writes:

  • "An orphan protecting adoption culture is countercultural--and always has been. Some of the earliest records we have of the Christian churches speak of how Christians, remarkably, protect children in the face of a culture of death pervasive in the Roman empire. The followers of Jesus, though, did not kill their offspring, even when it would have made economic or social sense to do so. This is still distinctively Christian in a world that increasingly sees children as, at best, a commodity to be controlled, and at worst, a nuisance to be contained. Think of how revolutionary it is for Christians to adopt a young boy with a cleft palate from a region of India where most young people see him as 'defective.' Think of how counterintuitive it is for Christians to adopt a Chinese girl--when many there see her as a disappointment. Think of how odd it must seem to American secularists to see Chrisitans adopting a baby whose body trembles with an addiction to the cocaine her mother sent through her bloodstream before birth. Think of the kind of credibility such action lends to the proclomation of the gospel."

Christians are often accused of being exclusive and judgmental or perhaps even racist and hateful. What would it say to the world about what Christianity really is if we took it upon ourselves to look after the "least of these?"

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