Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care, by Tony Merida & Rick Morton, has been an encouraging read. Merida and Morton lay out mature thinking on Biblical principles that should guide our orphan-care activity. In turn, they give practical suggestions for applying these great truths.
This is the kind of book that I want to buy in mass and ship to thirty different people for Christmas. Then I remember that this-will-change-your-life-Christmas-presents aren’t generally well received.
So, I’ll just give you just a few quotes to wet your appetite
“Today, upwards of a half-million children are in the foster-care system in America, and approximately130 thousand of those children are immediately adoptable. With nearly 225 million professing Christian adults in America, no identifiable reason exists that all of these children cannot be placed immediately in the care of loving Christian families who can nurture them with the love of Christ as they grow to adulthood.” p. 51.
“Many champion life—and rightly so—but fail to act on behalf of the millions of children existing with no mama or pap. My question for the anti-abortion protestors is: Would you be willing to adopt these kids if they were not aborted?” p. 60.
“In Psalm 82, God tells Israel to give justice to those who have no voice. Here we find one of the purposes of influence: to speak up for those who have no influence. The psalmist writes:
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. –Psalm 82:3-4
Likewise, Proverbs 31, a godly mother speaks to her kingly son saying:
Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. –Proverbs 31:9
We seldom hear about the great needs of the poor and the orphan because we don’t hear them. They don’t speak at conferences. We don’t see them on broadcast news. This makes the situation worse. We actually can live comfortably and ignore them as if they don’t exist. But they do exist! And God’s people are called to defend, protect, and deliver them from the oppressors.” p. 68.
“In God, Marriage, and Family, author Andreas Kostenberger reminds us:
Dan and Naphtali, and later Ephraim and Manasseh, were adopted by Jacob (Gen. 30:1-13; 48:5); Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter (Ex. 2:10); and Esther was adopted by Mordecai (Est. 2:7) . . . .
In the New Testament, the most prominent example is Jesus’ adoption by Joseph, who served as his earthly father, participating in his naming (Matt. 1:25), presenting him in the temple (Luke 2:22-24), protecting him from danger by taking him and his mother to Egypt (Matt. 2:13-15), and by teaching him a trade (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3).” p. 70.
