3 Tough Questions

As I wrote on the blog last week, I am previewing a copy of Johnny Carr's Orphan Justice, which is set to be released March 1.  In it, he tackles some very tough aspects of caring for orphans.

Using his book as a springboard, let me help get your brain stirring today with three tough questions about orphans.  Consider these first through the filter of your own family and then through the filter of your church.

Question #1

How would you respond to a child of a different race?  I know that many of you have already wrestled with this issue and that some of you have already adopted children of another race.  Many of you have children in your churches of a different race already.  Many more, especially here in the South, have not yet wrestled with the issue of race, continuing to propagate stereotypes (if not downright racism) without really considering why.  It is a issue that should be wrestled with, using the Word of God as a guide.  It has much to say about racism. Perhaps start with Luke 10:25-37 and a study of the intensity of the Jews' hatred for the Samaritans.

Question #2

How would you respond to an orphan with AIDS?  This disease carries a stigma within the Christian community because of its origins, so we have largely ignored that HIV/AIDS is the largest cause of orphans in the world.  Orphan Justice tells Carr's personal journey through this tough question.  Would you bring a child with HIV/AIDS into your family?  Would you celebrate a family in your church adopting such a child?  How would you teach your child to interact with that child?

Question #3

What if abortion were made illegal today?  Those of us who say that we value life would certainly celebrate.  But how far does that value of life really go?  If the women who would have aborted their babies -- even a small percentage of them -- still did not want their babies and gave them up for adoption, would you adopt one or more of them?  How would your church respond to that sudden need?

These are not easy questions, and they do not come with easy answers.  Consider that James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (emphasis added)

I choose to remember the condition God found me in: lost, guilty, bound for hell.  He rescued me from that.  I can do no less than to join Him in whatever he calls me to do to rescue others.  After all, when Jesus calls disciples to follow Him, he doesn't tell us where we are going, just what we will be doing.   “Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!” (Matthew 4:19, HCSB)

Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al