Mother Jones’ Shameful Attack on the Christian Adoption Movement
No one will ever accuse Mother Jones of being friendly to Christians, but you know their disdain for the faithful has reached fever pitch when they begin attacking Christians for the good things they’re doing. According to the liberal publication, Christians are apparently too concerned with adoption. The article, "Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement's Adoption Obsession," argues that as a result of Christians' efforts to adopt orphaned children, kids who may have been illegally obtained are being placed in oppressive, fundamentalist homes in order for parents to evangelize them. The problem is that the writer—Kathryn Joyce, author of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, which not-so-coincidentally releases next week—relies on weak sources to paint a partial and distorted picture.
The article tells of Sam and Serene Allison, a Tennessee couple who adopted four children from an orphanage outside of Monrovia, Liberia. Their adopted kids were reportedly physically abused and denied a proper education. In fact, according to Joyce, “all but 3 of the Campbell’s and [Serena’s parent’s] 10 adoptions ran into serious problems.”
Allegations of child abuse should not be ignored or minimized by anyone for any reason. The proper authorities need to investigate these allegations, and they should not only punish anyone at fault, but also take appropriate measures to prevent this sort of occurrence in the future.
At the same time, one has to make a logical leap of stratospheric proportions to assume that the behaviors of this family are somehow representative of the thousands of Christians who adopt each year. Joyce presumably knows this, so to build her case, she leans on a slew of fringe ministries, publications, and personalities.
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