He's Right...and Yet So Wrong

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver:

Our Oksana (adopted from Russia 2010) and friend, Meddie Grace (adopted from Ethiopia 2011)

The two of us haven't composed a post together for some time, but today we both feel called to speak out. Pat Robertson has done it again...

He has spoken out against "taking on the problems of others" through adoption. His reason? Robertson says there is too much risk of getting kids that are "damaged."

What's our take on this after eleven years of parenting older-child adoptees?

This may surprise you, but we'd say he's right. We'd also argue that Roberston is terribly, sadly wrong!

Pat Robertson is right that orphaned children are damaged. Many of them have been damaged by the sinful actions of their biological parents. Some have been damaged by the death of their biological parents. All have been terribly hurt by living through tragic circumstances of some kind.

However, Robertson strays from biblical Christianity when he says we don't have to take on the problems of those who hurt. Christ calls us not to avoid the pain of others, but to move right into their hurt, dying to self in ministering to them. We are called to care for the vulnerable, including orphans--even to the point of our own hurt. God doesn't call us to do easy things in following Him. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). And Christ modeled this all the way to the cross.

We are all damaged goods. We are sinners living in a fallen world, inevitably damaged by our sin and the sins of others. But fortunately, God's plan all along was to rescue, not avoid, His damaged children. Imagine our lives if Christ had looked at us and said "I don't have to take on their problems", as Pat Robertson says of orphans. We would be doomed to an eternity of separation from God and suffering for our sin.

So let us be like Christ and answer the call to care for the damaged for the glory of God. Let us move into their pain, not because it's easy, but because it's right. And let us move into their pain not with the misguided idea that we can "handle it" ourselves, but with full dependence on God to provide the grace we need to do amazingly, crazy-hard things in following Him.

Oksana's older sister, Amy, adopted from Russia 2005