Live-blogging by Dan Cruver (Together for Adoption).

Join us at 7:30pm tonight to hear from Sergey Demidovich and John Piper.

Live-blogging by Dan Cruver (Together for Adoption):

Live-blogging by Dan Cruver (Director of Together for Adoption):

Join us at 8:30am CST.

Live-blogging by Dan Cruver (Director of Together for Adoption):

The Minneapolis Lausanne Conversation, hosted by the the Christian Alliance for Orphans and the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism, officially kicks off SUMMIT VI tonight.  See video messages on the Lausanne site from Alliance President Jedd Medefind and a host of other Christian leaders from across the country.  We’re thrilled to see everyone in Minneapolis!

Summit VI is just days away, and energy and enthusiasm for the conference is running in high gear.  Meanwhile, the featured article today from Christianity Today’s highlights orphan care and adoption vis-a-vis recent events in Haiti.

The article tags Summit as a key part of the Christian orphan movement, carrying a great quote from Dr. Russell Moore on the commitment of believers to adoption and orphan care:

“There’s more momentum than I’ve ever seen,” Moore said. “We are at the beginning stages of a wave of momentum not just toward adoption but orphan care of various kinds. The church is beginning to have its conscience awakened when it comes to the orphan crisis.”

Kay Warren pulled no punches at the Catalyst West conference yesterday.   “If we are doing little to nothing [to care for orphans], how dare we, how dare we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ,” she said Friday. “Followers of Jesus Christ care about widows and orphans and they understand that it is a litmus test…What our Heavenly Father does for us spiritually, He expects us to do physically.”"  See the full article on Warren’s remarks, here.

April’s edition of Christian Today contains an important editorial on international adoption and the biblical call to care for the fatherless.  Significantly, the editorial holds together two elements that are sometimes falsely presented as being at odds with each other:  support of in-country orphan care efforts, alongside strong affirmation of inter-country adoption for children that otherwise would grow up on the streets or in institutions.

The article pulls no punches in condemning unnecessary barriers to adoption:

The political and cultural barriers [erected by governments to make adoptions very difficult] stem from warped ideas about what is in a poor child’s best interest. It isn’t in the best interest of abandoned children to grow up destitute and barely literate, regardless of the imagined cultural benefit of remaining in their home country. Haiti itself is a vivid example of injustice. The government tolerates a modern form of child slavery by allowing 225,000 children ages 6-14 to work as restavecs (unpaid, indentured domestics).  Adoption, domestic or inter-country, should not be looked down upon as inferior at best or as a last resort.

If the article were to be extended, two small additions would be helpful.  First, given the natural inclination many people have towards seeing orphanages as the solution for kids that can’t be adopted, it’d be helpful to make clear that orphanages should be viewed most of the time as temporary, last-resort solutions.  Children need consistent, personal love and nurture that rarely can be provided in an institutions.   Solutions that are as close to a home environment as possible, ideally via adoption, are most often far preferable to an orphanage.

Second, given the confusion over orphan statistics, it’d be helpful to clarify that current estimates of the number of orphans in the world (whether the numbers the U.N. provides or the 210 million referenced by the article) include children that have lost only one parent.   Thus, the vast majority of these orphans—while often facing great difficulties and in need of help—are not in need of adoption.   Adoption, both in-country and inter-country, is vitally important in situations where children have no parent or relatives that can care for them.   But that portion of the overall orphan statistics is relatively small.  (For a fuller discussion of this topic, see here.)

Coming from a voice with the gravitas of Christianity Today, this article represents a very important affirmation of the Biblical call to “care for orphans in their distress”—via adoption as well as other means.

CNN is preparing to air a potent documentary on orphans in Haiti early next month.   The special, titled Rescued, will share the journey of Haitian orphans through the eyes of two children, also telling the story of American missionaries who’ve given their lives to serving Haiti’s orphans.  The stories and imagery are sure to stir much emotion, as well as much discussion, when it airs on May 8.   The documentary project began long before Haiti’s earthquake, filmed by Alliance Member organization Discover the Journey, which helps tell the stories of orphans worldwide through excellent cinematography.  You can see the CNN trailer here, and remarkable clips of Haitian orphans talking about the earthquake that devastated their country here.   You’ll also be able to see a fuller preview of the documentary during an optional dinner discussion on Friday evening at Summit VI, where one of the filmmakers involved in the project will show clips and lead discussion around the themes raised in the film.

Our friends at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute have released their inaugural In Focus Report on the Adoption Tax Credit.  It provides an excellent background on the history of the adoption tax credit and its current impact.  Click here to read the report on the CCAI website.