Thursday, July 03, 2008
God Loves Adoption . . . Or Does He?
Hi. I’m Mike, and I’m an adoptee.
I’m not an angry adoptee. I’m not a victimized adoptee. Those are response we can choose. However, being an adoptee has helped shape who I am. For years I told myself that being adopted had not affected me. I refused to identify with the angry and wounded adoptees who felt victimized. I embraced the well intentioned and genuinely held beliefs of the Christian community around me that adoption was a wonderful thing. It was mothers choosing choice, putting their child’s best interest ahead of their own desires. It was about loving parents providing better homes and lives. It was about a God who blessed adoption over abortion, who created natural families through love and choice. It is to a large extent, poppycock.
There’s so much to raise questions about, or explain. Far more than a single post can handle. Let me say this. I still believe adoption has its place, if done in certain ways. I’ll share how down the line. I still love the parents who adopted me and raised me. My maturing understanding of adoption doesn’t alter my relationship with them. I still believe God is a God of redemption. I still believe God is sovereign. I still believe that in His sovereignty we have the option to be obedient or sinful. I believe that the church needs to stop buying the warm fuzzy PR. It has developed a theology that is inconsistent with the God of scriptures, even if it feels goods and fits the cultural “Christianity” infecting the USA today. What I don’t believe is that many of our adoption practices are consistent with the love, justice, and provision of the God of scripture.
Today I am coming to terms that I carry the decision of adoption upon me, for better and worse. I’m not angry about it. I’m not helpless before it. It is part of who I am. I’ve taken far too long allow myself to ask the questions I needed to about this part of my life. Some of those questions have left me deeply saddened by some of my fellow Christians. Many have been deceived with false teaching. Some have done the false teaching. Over time, when the mood comes on me, I’ll tell you the story of my journey. Maybe it will help someone else.
mike
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Congratulation Bishop Sites
Bishop Sites receives “Citizen of the Year”