You Probably Don't Want to Read This One

Did you know that 100 000 babies are killed every year in Canada as a result of abortion?

Now you know.

So what are you going to do about it?

I am not here right now to have a pro-life/pro-choice debate. I’ll save that for another time and place. Right now, I want to know what you are doing about the fact that 100 000 babies are being disposed of, regardless of why.

Because the fact is, I believe, we as Christians have messed this one up.

Many of us sponsor children overseas, in developing countries, to give them food, education, life. This is good. Don’t stop. But ask yourself: why will I not make the same effort to giving life to children in my very own country?

If, like myself, you are unashamedly pro-life, you might have ideas coming to your head already. Things like:

• ·     Protest outside of abortion clinics
• ·     Vote for the political candidate whose official stance is anti-abortion
• ·     Educate people about the fact that a fetus’ heart starts beating at 18 days after conception

Just stop.

Because my heart is broken, and I’m tired of trite answers and finger pointing.

Has it occurred to anyone that maybe these babies, these mothers, aren’t receiving the love of Christ? Who’s supposed to be in charge of that?

A single, young lady has been in and out of the system her whole life. She's been placed in and torn out of homes for as long as she can remember. She has been assaulted, abused, and taken advantage of since she was an infant. She wouldn’t wish her life on her worst enemy, let alone her own child. She thinks life isn’t worth living if you spend it wishing you were dead.

Maybe we should tell her that her baby’s heart is already beating and that she’s a murderer for terminating the infant’s life.

Wow, that’s a bit harsh Lauren.

Maybe. But I’m tired of arguing with people. I want to put my money where my mouth is.

We tell people not to abort their babies, but according to Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal, “[i]n 2013, there were an estimated 62,428 children in out-of-home care across Canada.”* Imagine adding tens of thousands of more children to that number, every year.

Do I think abortion is the answer to decreasing the number of orphans or children in the foster care system in Canada? Absolutely 100% not. So what is the answer?

The Church.

Shouldn’t that be obvious? Yet for some reason, it doesn’t appear to be.

The Bible is full of verses about protecting the orphaned and the widowed. I don’t need to cite them to you. You probably already know them, and if not, just go to Biblegateway.com and type in “orphan.”

Now type in “adoption.”

We forget that as Christians we are adoptees. The Bible makes it pretty clear that we were not born into our inheritance as children of God. We were adopted. The New Testament is as full as the idea of adoption as the Old Testament is of protecting orphans. Yet we make it so spiritual, and limit it to something that has been done for us. We forget that what God has done for us is an example of how we should treat other people. We apply this concept to so many areas of our lives: forgive, as God has forgiven us; love, as God has loved us.

Adopt, as God has adopted us.

Woah. Why have I never heard that before?

Wait, Lauren. You’re telling me that you think I should literally adopt? That the answer to this issue is me and my spouse literally adopting a child, and taking him or her into my home and loving and raising them such as my own?

My response to you is, why not?

I’m too old. Then donate some money to one of the many Christian adoption organizations out there who help make if affordable for younger couples who would like to adopt.

 I don’t have enough money. Then volunteer at a pregnancy center and offer love and support to women faced with this decision

I already have children of my own. Consider fostering, or doing respite for foster parents.

I’m not ready for that kind of extreme commitment. Okay, but then I would like to ask you if you have any right to tell that single, teenage mother that she is ready.

I’m being brutally harsh, I know. I know that there are many reasons that couples or families feel that adoption would not be a responsible decision at this stage in their lives. But my point is, I think there are in reality fewer reasons than we as a church would really like to think. How many young couples have ever even considered adoption as a way to start their families? More than anything, I would like this to be something Christians talked about, considered, and even preached about in churches. The way I see it, we have some obligation to set an example. As representatives of Christ on this earth, we have a calling to love others radically, to act as Christ did in offering his life so we could experience what it meant to be adopted. Why are we so keen to imitate some parts of the story, and not others?

I once read a stat that said if 3 families in every church in the United States adopted one child, there would be no more children in their foster care system. Wow. I imagine the numbers would be similar in Canada. Now, can you think of what would happen if our nation could see the church of Jesus Christ take the initiative and make it so that we had no more children without homes in Canada?

Don’t you think that that would be more effective than protesting? Harder, definitely. But So. Much. More. Effective.

I am not here to judge you. I am not going to look at any one couple and inwardly seethe at them not having any adopted children. You could look at my husband and I and challenge us the same way I have attempted to challenge you. We all have different callings, and are at different stages of our lives. But please, PLEASE, start this conversation. Start it in your family, in your church, in your community. And if adoption is simply impossible for you, consider other ways you can contribute to a long term solution for the infanticide taking place in our very own country. I beg you. Let’s finally pick up our slack and put our words into actions.

*http://cwrp.ca/statistics