Church roles - subsidizing adoptions or helping to preserve families?

Churches should not be the stand in to pay for somebodies desire to adopt children.

Churches should be the lead in assisting needy families.

If I tithe to a church and then find out church funds are going to finance a trip to South America or China for someone to adopt a baby....I believe I would make a big scene. God in the equation or not.

There are plenty of children in this country to adopt and there are far more families who will benefit from the church as they seek to provide for their family.

ETA:

I guess there are folks on this forum who beleive the church should now step in an pay for couples to adopt babies even though there are plenty of children in need of homes who are in foster care. I would have to re define what church I would want to be involved with if this were to happen in my church.....

I am a strong believer that churches should support families so they stay together. The only time they should show support over adoption is if a mother to be is adamant her child is adopted and asks for support. When I was born and for the first four years of my life I went to a Catholic Sunday school even though I'm not catholic. My mum is asthmatic so if my sister and I ever missed going the priest and a nun would be round the next day to make sure we were all okay and would help out if asked so that has always stuck in my mind.

First of all...thank you for thinking of adoption vs abortion. I was adopted at 2 months old. I have since met my biological family. I will say that it was the biggest and most wondeful blessing of my life to have been given up for adoption. As a child I didn't understand as much, but as an adult - I realize the impact my bio-mom had on my life. I ended up with the MOST AMAZING parents and life. I am so grateful. There is always a choice. Adoption is absolutely a wonderful one. People want babies so badly who can't have them and this is a way.

No, I don't think that churches should have anything to do with financing a couple's adoption. I think if the church wants to do something, they should most definitely use the resources to help people in need, rather than people in a state of want. The money needed to fund an international adoption say, could be much better spent on putting it towards those living in poverty, or having a real crisis.

Should they be expected to subsidize adoptions? no.

Would it be wiser to help existing families stay together? In my opinion, yes.

Regarding appropriate roles for churches, the church is not controlled by the government, and I for one am thankful for that. Although I am not religious, I do believe in free exercise. People are free to follow their own conscience and attend the church of their choice. If they disagree with the policies of a church, they are free to transfer their membership.

As long as their 'charity' does not violate adoption laws, they should be free to chose whichever course they believe is best. In cases where the church oversteps and coerces adoptions through maternity homes, not-for-profit agencies, or by any other means, they should be held accountable. They should not be allowed to hide behind their religion to violate the law.

I would say that they do both where possible. I was on the chapel committee a few years ago, filling roles from secretary up to chairman and we never had anyone come to us with a request for assistance in an adoption matter but I'm sure if they did then it would have been assessed on it's own merits. At the same time though, we did donate plenty of funds to everything from local food banks and soup kitchens to various family support programs run through our local community center. This particular chapel was lucky in that it was a military chapel and therefore fully supported so that virtually 90% of what we collected was sent out in community. In essence we did support programs to keep families together and at the same time we would have been prepared to support those trying to adopt.

I think Church's have no role in financing individual adoptions. That is not what Church money is for. For the $20000 or so they could collect for one adoption, they could help many families, provide parenting classes, mentorship including household management, provide free babysitting by matching stay at home parents with a young mother who needs to work, and work out an arrangement of support etc. etc. etc.

Asking a church to fund an adoption is asking for the church to fund the needs of the PAP. Asking a church to help children and families stay together, grow together, and provide food, support, jobs etc. well that is Christ's work. (from what I have read of the Bible)

I don't think that churches should fund adoptions, typically, I'm sure there "could" be an instance where a church may choose to sponsor a CHILD and help get them to a family they need, but not to fill a slot in a family who just wants a kid.

For instance:

One of the ladies who went to India last month met a young boy who she just fell in love with. He suffered with Spina Bifida and because of their location he went undiagnosed and untreated. She wanted so bad just to take this child from the a place where he had to crawl through dirt and sleep on the floor and love him for ever. She didn't go there expecting to be touched like she was. None of children were available for adoption or anything, but had this boy been available for adoption and the lady willing to adopt him to bring him here for a surgery and possibly a life 10X longer they he is likely to have there, then I would be more than happy to support that. I don't think she's the kind of person to ask for hand outs though. When she decided to go on the missions trip, she held bake sales, basket autions and offered her self in any way to make what she needed. (nothing dirty)

Our church supports feeding centers, orphanages (particularly one who house children who are not adoptable because the lack the most resources) and for the most part we support out community, not with monetary hand outs, but with food, events, love, transportation, support and sometimes just a shoulder to cry on when things are tough. Our church has never funded anything to do with adoption, but regularly sponsors single mothers and father to get them in a better place. One family was a mother with 3 disables children, our church renovated her home from the drywall to the food in her fridge, it was such a blessing just to be a part of making her life just a little better.

I was raised in the catholic church and raised my children in the catholic church. Three years ago I could no longer reconcile the catholic church's official collusion in the baby snatch era and their claims of being an organization that supports social justice. I cut off my family's very generous donations to "the church" and now send the money to a residence for teen mothers and their children (NO adoption allowed). The center includes a day care center for low income families, a health clinic, and a shelter for homeless people. I sleep MUCH better at night now.

Ironically,the center is a former catholic house of shame where babies were snatched from their mothers. Sometime in the past 10 years, the director had an epiphany and realized that the best way to prevent abortion was to encourage parenting (duh). I guess the game of beating preggos over the head with the adoption stick was bad for business.

I gag when I see "networking" advice that sends adoptive parents to their pastors for the purpose of tracking down a vulnerable pregnant mother. So now they also want church members to donate to put money in the pockets of the corrupt adoption industry??

Give me a break. If this is the purpose of a "church", there is no god.

The 2 are not, necessarily, mutually exclusive.

It is, of course, ideal that a family stay together, wherever possible. If the church is able to facilitate that, that is perfect.

However, it is simply not always the case. Sometimes, circumstances practically demand that the mother place her child for adoption. In this case, it is perfectly OK for the church to help in this process.

The theme of adoption runs throughout the Bible. Many of the main figures throughout Biblical history, were adopted. Even God, in the form of Jesus Christ, was adopted by Joseph, who was His stepfather.

Adoption is a legitimate ministry of the church.