We Were Adopted
It’s National Adoption Month. Here at Family Policy Alliance, adoption means a lot to us: it’s a critical part of who we are both as individuals and as an organization. Here are 3 reasons why.
- Adoption is an important part of our pro-life, pro-family vision.
At Family Policy Alliance, we believe that every person has inherent value that is worth honoring from the moment of their conception till the moment of their natural death. That’s why we take a strong stand on both abortion and end-of-life issues: No person should be denied a fair chance at life, regardless of the circumstances of their conception, their physical ability, their sex, or any other characteristic. Every life matters. Period.
But while many legislative battles happen surrounding the first and last years of life, we don’t only care about those two points in a person’s life. We sincerely believe that every person’s life matters – and that they should not only have a chance at life, but that they should have the chance to be loved by a family as God envisioned it. That’s what adoption is—giving a child the chance to be part of a loving family, regardless of the circumstances of the family they were born into. It’s an opportunity for love to transform both child and parent. And supporting it is one way we can tangibly be pro-life from conception through life to natural death.
- Faith-based adoption is at risk.
Historically, Christians have led the way in adoption, seeing it as a privilege and as a Biblical command (James 1:27). In ancient culture, it was not uncommon for parents to abandon baby girls simply because they were girls. Often it was the church that rescued those precious infants. Over the centuries, Christians have continued to care for orphans in numerous ways, and that holds true today. One 2013 study revealed that practicing Christians were more than twice as likely to adopt than the general adult population.
And there’s great need for adoption (and foster care) right here in America. As of April 2019, an estimated 443,000 children were in the U.S. foster care system. That’s significant. Those children could replace the population of Minneapolis. Of those, over 123,000 are considered to be available for or awaiting adoption. Each of those children is precious. And many Christians are eager to adopt or care for them!
Sadly, though, faith-based adoption and foster care agencies are under attack. As some localities begin to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination laws, those laws can be used as a weapon against faith-based agencies and families, the very people who are statistically more likely to adopt than the general population. Why? Because as matters of faith and conscience, they may decline to tell a girl that she is a boy or they may try to place children in homes with one mother and one father. These simple principles – driven by faith and the best intentions for children – do not align with radical LGBT ideology, and local governments may ask agencies to either violate their consciences or stop serving children in their communities.
That’s not right, and the issue is so important it went before the Supreme Court earlier this month. You can read a little about that case here. We pray for an outcome that affirms the right of these foster agencies and families to live according to their consciences while serving children in need.
- Adoption is critical to who we are as Christians.
Most importantly, adoption is critical to our identity as followers of Christ. We believe that without the hope of the Gospel, we are spiritual orphans, eternally separated from God, and unable to get to him on our own, much less to participate in his kingdom or inheritance.
Yet we rejoice that God, in his love and mercy, sent his Son to live and die on our behalf and to raise him from the dead so that we could be called children of God. As Paul says in Galatians 4:4-6, “…God sent forth his Son … so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’”
By his grace alone, we can call God our father. We can share in the eternal inheritance and glorious kingdom he has for his children. We can live not as orphans, but as the fully loved children of God through his gift of adoption.
That’s why adoption means so much to us. Some of us have taken part in an earthly adoption process. All of us rejoice in our spiritual adoption as children of God.
As you may know, we often like to conclude our emails with some call to action, often of a political nature. But this time, our call is a more contemplative one. In this National Adoption Month, would you prayerfully consider how the Lord would have you involved in adoption, whether spiritual or physical? Perhaps he’s called you to adopt a child or support a family or agency involved in that process. Perhaps he wants you to embrace the spirit of adoption that you have as a follower of Christ—to know that you are fully loved and can live with the freeing knowledge that you will inherit a heavenly kingdom. Or perhaps, you realize that you can’t call yourself a child of God – and God is just waiting for you to ask him.
We praise God that he adopts us, and that we at Family Policy Alliance can share in that vision of adoption – both spiritual and on earth as it is heaven.
In Him,
Meridian Baldacci
Policy and Communications Strategist 
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