Fighting abortion issue, Christians turn to adoption

[DemBones DemBones]

I was glad to see this since we Catholics and other Christians are often accused of not doing anything for unwanted children after they're born. We probably all know people who have adopted children and/or cared for foster children, but the myth is still out there that pro-lifers don't care for babies once they're born. This article gives many examples of those who do. The article is centered on conservative Protestants in the Dallas area, but also mentions Catholic and Mormon initiatives to encourage adoption.

Conservatives open hearts and homes to foster children

08:51 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 24, 2007
By JAMES HOHMANN / The Dallas Morning News

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In the days before Texas had nearly 19,000 abused, abandoned and neglected children on its foster care rolls, the church often helped take care of orphans.

Now, some conservative Christians say an intense focus on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage has come at the expense of caring for needy children. And they're doing something about it.

Dallas-area families are leading by example – by taking in children from around the world. Parents and pastors are starting ministries. A national coalition that includes Focus on the Family aims to persuade thousands of churches to start adoption ministries. And the state of Texas is spending $500,000 this year to encourage churchgoers to adopt and care for foster children.

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"Hillary Clinton said it takes a village to raise a child," said Russell Rogers, senior pastor at Trinity Life Baptist Church in Garland who has three children through adoption and two by birth. "While there's many things Hillary Clinton has done I don't agree with, I would agree with that."



The "village" Rogers is referring to includes support systems organized by churches to help adoptive families and foster families. Churches also sponsor training sessions for those who want to be foster parents, teaching CPR and other skills. This is great and I hope it spreads across the country; hope churches will also help with adoption costs for those who want to adopt but can't pay the high fees.

If you're interested in foster parenting or adopting, the article includes a Q and A section and a list of resources.

http://abortionno.org/dallas.html

(The link leads to the Dallas Morning News page and you can move from it to other parts of the newspaper's site, but I couldn't get the article to come up from the archives. I prefer to list original links but decided not to spend any more time trying to get the direct link; it may be that you have to register to pull up an archived story.)