A CHRISTIAN businessman examines the moral, financial, and psychological complications of international adoptions in this thoughtful article. On this issue, he contends, reason “is seen as unspiritual while following the wisps of one’s emotions is seen as very spiritual.” 

The anonymous writer states:

I have observed with some alarm the Christian fad of interracial adoption. More and more people I know are doing this and I thought a contrary perspective might be useful. Since the spirit of our postmodern age is to meet any disagreement with one’s lifestyle choices with personal offense, it is best that this critique is offered anonymously here.

He argues that men are often hesitant about international adoption, but are over-ridden by the strong maternal desires and unchecked compassion of their wives. Both men and women, he says, do not fully consider the perspective of the foreign child:

One obvious problem with interracial adoption is that the child knows they are obviously different from the rest of the family from a very young age. One benefit of intra-racial adoption from birth is that the tender child enjoys a time of “plausible deniability” and the fact of their adoption can be dealt with when the child is more mature and able to handle the situation.

Race and tribe are also fundamental parts of who we are. The child already has the emotional burden of not being raised by their biological family, but also the burden of not even being raised among their own people, but being raised by strangers in a strange land. Since everyone wants to have an ethnic identity, this could lead to serious problems as the child approaches adulthood and starts to form their self-image.

The writer contends many families go into debt to fund these adoptions and, in the case of special needs children, costs can be extremely high. As a businessman, he considers the presumption that insurers (and thus the insured) will cover costs for acts of charity by others immoral. He writes:

Part of the reasoning of international, transracial adoption is the idea that we as Christians in America are very “blessed” and we should seek to share this blessing. You would think America was a nation of people living on majestic estates, nobly allowing foreign peasants to work their fields. In reality, the middle class lifestyle enjoyed by many American Christians is a hollow edifice built on easy credit and debt.

These adoptions can cost north of $20,000 net of travel, fees, etc. Most of the people paying this outrageous amount don’t even own their house, not to mention car notes and student loans. American Christians assume the good times will go on forever and so think nothing of spending this kind of money on an adoption. The fantasy of being someone’s benefactor is irresistible to people who are in reality debt and wage slaves in need of liberation themselves. If the family’s income were cut in half, how long could these “rich” American Christians maintain their lifestyle?

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