Pat Robertson, who a few months back told a husband to divorce his wife diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, now it seems has been openly critical of international adoption. He is quoted as saying, "after all, you never know about adopted children; they might have brain damage and 'grow up weird.'"
In his ever gracious style Russell Moore, himself an adoptive father, takes on Robertson's hatred with compassion. Moore writes,
"The issue here isn’t just that Robertson is, with cruel and callous
language, dismissing the Christian mandate to care for the widows and
orphans in their distress. The issue is that his disregard is part of a
larger worldview. The prosperity and power gospel Robertson has preached
fits perfectly well with the kind of counsel he’s giving in recent
years. Give China a pass on their murderous policies; we’ve got business
interests there. Divorce your weak wife; she can’t do anything for you
anymore. Those adopted kids might have brain damage; they’re 'weird.'
What matters is health and wealth and power. But that’s not the gospel
of Jesus Christ. For too long, we’ve let our leaders replace the cross
with an Asherah pole. Enough is enough.
"Jesus was, after all, one of those adopted kids. Joseph of Nazareth
was faced with a pregnant woman he could easily have abandoned. He knew
this child wasn’t his, and all he had to go on was her word and a dream.
He could have dismissed either. But he strapped on his cross, provided
for his wife, and protected her child. Indeed, he became a father to her
child. God called this righteous. The child Jesus seemed to be a
colossal risk. His own family and neighbors and villagers thought he’d
turned out 'weird' (Mark 3:20-21). Maybe he was demon-possessed, they
speculated, or maybe even 'brain damaged.'"
Moore goes on to conclude, "I say to my non-Christian friends and neighbors, if you want to see
the gospel of Christ, the gospel that has energized this church for two
thousand years, turn off the television. The grinning cartoon characters
who claim to speak for Christ don’t speak for him. Find the followers
who do what Jesus did. Find the people who risk their lives to carry a
beaten stranger to safety. Find the houses opened to unwed mothers and
their babies in crisis. Find the men who are man enough to be a father
to troubled children of multiple ethnicity and backgrounds.
"And find a Sunday School class filled with children with Down
Syndrome and cerebral palsy and fetal alcohol syndrome. Find a place
where no one considers them 'weird' or 'defective,' but where they
joyfully sing, 'Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the
world.'
"That might not have the polish of television talk-show theme music, but that’s the sound of bloody cross gospel."
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