On Monday, February 1, 201o, Dr. Russell Moore and Jedd Medefind discussed the current orphan crisis in Haiti on the Albert Mohler radio program.
These two men are leading voices in the current orphan care movement. This is why I was relieved to hear them address the embarrassing scandal of the Baptist group from Idaho that tried to take a group of 33 Haitian orphans away from their homes in light of the recent earthquake. The discussion is also helpful for those whose interest in adoption was peaked because of the current orphan crisis in Haiti.
Listen here.
- Ex-Orphans. The good news of the gospel is that by God’s grace through faith we all experience adoption. In the Son, our status is transformed from poverty stricken spiritual orphans to wealthy heirs of God’s eternal Kingdom. This truth must hit home in every home not just those where children who have been adopted live. The whole church must come to understand that these children, who were at one time adopted into families, are not the only ex-orphans at church on Sunday.
- Together for adoption. As ex-orphans, we are all in this together. The church must be freed from thinking that actually adopting a child into your family is the only way to care for orphans. Creative outlets must be available that include, but are not restricted to, praying and giving toward adoptions. Everyone must be called upon to funnel their own unique gifts toward alleviating the suffering of orphans around the world. Those who are called to adopt will naturally step forward in such a culture, but they won’t be the only people caring for orphans.
Being pro-life means being pro-adoption. But for the church to protect the unborn and rescue the abandoned, men must take the lead. The task at hand requires more than just nurturing. It requires bold aggression and risk-taking courage. It calls for the sacrificial leadership of men equipped by God to defend and provide for the least of these.
On Sanctity of Life Sunday at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church Pastor David Prince made these connections in the following sermon.
Why Being Pro-Life Should Scare You More Than it Does
On Father’s Day 2009 Pastor David preached The Manliness of Adoption: Testosterone and Pure Religion
Pastor David is one of the Elective Session Speakers at the Adopting for Life Conference on September 26-27, 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky. He will be leading two breakout sessions with the topic A Call for Men to Lead: Mobilizing Men for Adoption and Orphan Care.
This year M.L.K. day provided a significant moment for me as a dad. As I threw baseball with three of my four sons, I stopped for a moment to consider with amazement the scene before me. There stood three boys, two white and one black, and they all with equal rights share my last name.
I have often thought like Brad Paisley, “If I could write a letter to me back when I was seventeen…” If possible, the first thing I would do is rebuke every bit of the residue of racism that was alive in my life at that time.
I grew up in the rural south and as a teenager racism was still very much ingrained in my culture. It was subtle, selective, and for the most part behind the scenes. However, when it reared its head it often directed its venom at two things that I now value most in life, family and missions. It was a racism that allowed us to distinguish between those we claimed to love and pray for in Africa and those we neglected in our neighborhoods.
It breaks my heart to say that for sometime ‘the way I was raised’ trumped the gospel on certain issues of race. I’m very proud of where I am from, but this is one root I’ve had to rip up, burn, and destroy. In doing so, I’ve realized that racism isn’t just cultural it’s satanic.
As I watched my oldest son teach his little brother the right way to hold his glove when fielding a ground ball, I was brought to tears. I immediately thanked God that I was literally seeing the sin of their father pass over them. I praised him for the way my family is a repudiation of the anti-Jesus prejudices I once subtly embraced.
The truth is at seventeen I already had a letter that had been written to me. I held in my lap every Sunday morning. I just wasn’t really paying much attention to it. If I had, maybe I would have repented of my sin of racism, understanding that, “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined their allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places.” (Acts 17:27)
This Sunday at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church we began to pray and respond to the current crisis in Haiti. Here I have revised the information concerning our immediate prayer initiatives.
Pray for Relief Efforts: Roadways and electricity must be restored throughout to help with relief efforts. General chaos and confusion from those desperate for help has led to violence such as riots and looting. Last week, the word was, “If you are not medical personnel and if you do not know the language, wait!” Now relief teams from all over the U.S. are leaving and planing to travel to Haiti at this very moment. Pray the relief will help bring order to the chaos to Haiti. Pray also for safe passage for those bringing the relief to Haiti.
Pray for the Abandoned: There were 1.2 million orphans in Haiti prior to the earthquake. Only 200,000 lived in orphanages. Orphan care was already difficult in Haiti due to the extreme poverty. This tragedy has not only created more orphans that need care and families but the governmental structures needed to process adoptions have been affected. With this said, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced the provision of “humanitarian parole” for certain Haitian orphans. You can read about these developments here. At this time, adoptions that were already in process will be addressed. However, lets continue to pray that more doors will be open for both orphans and refugees from the country of Haiti. Pray also that orphan care initiatives will increase and many more will see the need to defend the fatherless in Haiti.
Pray for the Lost: Joshua Project lists more than 4 million, ½ of the population of Haiti, as nominally Christian. 11% of the population is listed as unreached, meaning they have little or no access to the gospel. 74% of the Christian population is categorized as Roman Catholic and only 20% Protestant. Hatians are very ’spiritual’ people and heavily syncretistic. Pray that this tragedy will be used to awaken Haiti to the gospel. But pray also that there will be a renewed focused on the unreached in Haiti.
Dan Cruver of Together for Adoption summarizes this point well in saying,
…only the gospel will move us forward to meet Haiti’s immense needs over the next many months and years. What Haiti needs is Christians from neighboring countries who are moved to serve them long-term by the power of the gospel.
Giving to Haiti: If you are member of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, you can designate your funds to AABC Ends of the Earth: Haiti Relief. This money will go to fund the relief efforts of the International Mission Board’s Haiti Response Fund.
Stay Connected: The following sites are a few that I constantly troll to stay updated concerning developments and pressing needs:
I see very few movies that I really enjoy. The Blind Side was a movie that I knew was loosely based on a true story of the life of Michael Oher, a homeless inner-city teen, and his adoption by the Touhy family, wealthy Memphis suburbanites. Knowing the storyline contained S.E.C. Football and adoption there was no doubt I would go see it. I was expecting a second rate but enjoyable film but was surprised at how well the film was produced and at the gripping portrayal of the story.
I was far more surprised by the reaction of some of the Christians I talked to and heard talk about the film. In one conversation I was talking about how powerful I found the story as portrayed in the movie to which the person responded, “Yeah but they were so rich.” When I followed up to discern what they meant it was obvious that they were suggesting that the storyline was not powerful to them because the Touhy family was rich and, of course, rich people can do things like that, but not ordinary people.
I think the story is more amazing because the Touhys were wealthy. In our cultural fascination with money and possessions evangelicals are often blind to the constant warnings in the Bible about the danger of riches even while we carry our well worn study Bibles around (Matthew 19:21-26; Mark 4:19; 1 Timothy 6:9-11; James 2:6-7, 5:1-6). We believe that if we were rich we would automatically become more generous even though the Bible warns that most often the opposite happens. Money and possessions often shrink our soul, steal our affections, and blunt our compassion.
Jesus warned, “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). Likewise, it is true that it is hard for a rich person to live with the priorities of the Kingdom as well. Too many times Christians hear these pleas to avoid hell itself and flippantly remark, “It may be hard for a rich man to go to heaven but I sure would like to try.” I suspect those are the same people saying, “Yeah, but they are rich” about The Blind Side. I am thankful for the racism and reverse racism that The Blind Side has exposed in the context of the beauty of transracial adoption but it is possible that the “ism” the film may most powerfully confront among Christians is materialism.
I posted some initial thoughts about the Blind Side here. This is a guest post by David E. Prince, my pastor and mentor at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church.
If the current adoption orphan care movement will be what Jesus wants it to be, it must be more than a movement. It must be a mission embraced by and latched to the local church. Crucial to such a mission are men.
Visiting orphans in their time of need is not a task that must be left to women who are nurturing by nature. Men who are protectors and defenders by nature must lead the charge.
My pastor and mentor David Prince recently preached a sermon titled, The Manliness of Adoption: Testosterone and Pure Religion. You can now read this sermon at Reformation 21. If you would like to listen to the sermon you can find it our church’s site here along with other adoption and orphan care resources.
Here is are 7 reasons why you should consider beginning the adoption process in 2010. While they are simplistic and overlapping at points, each represents an eternal truth or significant reality that has transformed me and my family over the last year.
- Adoption is a reflection of God’s grace to us in Christ.
- You were once Fatherless and now have a Father.
- You were once without a family and now have a family.
- Adoption is the wisdom of God’s mission in the world. (Ephesians 3:10)
- Adoption is an aspect of true religion. (visiting orphans)
- There are 145 million orphans and vulnerable children in the world, who Jesus considers His brother and sisters.
- The sacrificial love and patience involved in adoption will transform you and your family.
Considering adoption? Consider attending this conference in Louisville, Ky February 26 – 27th
A few weeks ago Jonah (2yrs) met a man who knew Amharic. We encouraged the man to try and speak to him in his former tongue. Danae and I held our breath waiting to see how he would respond. With a sense of confusion, Jonah looked at us to see if we approved. He then looked at the man and said, “My name is Jonah!” While Isaac (4yrs) remembers some Amharic, Jonah has forgotten most of his former vocabulary in a matter of five months.
This is something I don’t feel guilty about. Not because English is better than Amharic, but because it is the language of our family, their family. There are even English words and phrases more unique to us than other families. There is a thick Haskins’ dialect that you would hear from them, even if they were adopted from within the U.S. This is what adoption does.
The barriers in communication that we have struggled through the last five months are not new to my family. They are not new to any family who has adopted internationally. It is the residue of an ancient curse.
In Genesis 11, the consumation of man’s pride is met with the judgment of God. Protecting man from sinking further into his exaltation, God separated men by confusing their language. The story God is telling went from one family to many families. And yet, the curse of many words is not the final word.
Immediately, following the episode of Babel, the story of Abraham’s adoption begins. God calls Abraham away from his family into a new family. He tells him He will create through him a great family with a great name. This family will bless all families.
Adoption is God’s way of redemption from the curse. Throughout the Scripture, we see God speaking His word into the world full of many words. Those who believe His word are adopted from the many families into one family, God’s family.
In Acts 2, we see peoples from the many words coming together at Pentecost to hear one word. It is the word of the gospel. It is a word about the man we call the Word, the Promise God gave Abraham in Genesis 12. The Word is overcoming many words and creating one family with one word.
Adoption meets the separation that occurred at Babel head on with one language. In Christ, it is the redemptive sound of the gospel. It transforms words rooted in pride that bring corruption into words seasoned with grace. This new language spoken by your new family is to overwhelm all other competing words, especially the words of your former father, sounds you should remember but can’t quite make them out.
I long for the day when I hear the sounds of my former wickedness and like Jonah all I know to do is turn to my Father. And all I remember is my new name.
