The interviews were framed with emphasis on the negatives of the movement—both real and perceived.  But it seemed to me the interviewer, Maureen Fiedler, did her best to enable expression of both harsh criticism and honest response.

If you don’t catch the interview via your local station, you can stream them.  Here is the link for Kathryn Joyce’s Interview, and my response is below.

As I’ve expressed since my first response to some of Joyce’s early criticisms (here), I strongly believe that her criticisms contain many important critiques that the movement must take with utmost seriousness.   At the same time, Joyce’s criticisms also frequently distort much more than they reveal.   Over the weeks ahead, I’ll be working on a more in-depth analysis and response to the book.  For now, these two interviewers offer a first taste of at least some of the key issues.

If you haven’t yet seen the film, we’d encourage you to do so—and engage the deep issues it raises with the CAFO “STUCK Discussion Guide.”

Many friends who had the privilege of joining in the march felt it they’d never forget that day:  it was a rich experience in itself…and also represented powerful first steps in ongoing efforts to remind government leaders that children need families.

But most meaningful of all for me are the notes from individuals who’ve at times been especially critical of their fellow Christians’ approach to orphan care and adoption…often with good reason.  As with any budding movement, this one is often overflows with both wisdom and naiveté, balance and excess, effective enthusiasm and misguided zeal.

What I heard from a good number of individuals who’ve been most aware of these blind spots, however, is that they felt truly encouraged by Summit.  They saw a clear desire among those teaching and participating to dig deep into tough issues…to self-critique…to correct excesses…to continually learn and refine even as we boldly act.

That is my prayer for this movement, too.  And it brings me joy to hear thoughtful critics express a sincere sense that the movement is not just growing larger, but truly maturing also.

Certainly, this pursuit of “wisdom-guided love” is a life-long journey.  And no doubt all of us will slip into certain excesses and blind spots at times.  That’s why we must always make a relentless practice of listening and learning.  But the fact that this movement is doing that is truly encouraging…and I pray this maturing will only continue to deepen.

Here’s an excerpt from one thoughtful and refreshingly blunt first-time attendee who champions family preservation efforts in Haiti:

To be honest, when I came to Summit, I thought I would see a lot of wonton encouragement to the church to just blast out into the wide fields of the fatherless to go dump sloppy agape on all those poor orphans….a carnival of spiritualized feel-good slacktivism and incautious bulldozer approaches at launching orphan care.

I AM SO GLAD I WAS WRONG!!!!!!!!!

…I was so happy to see all these efforts and many more to bring compassionate justice and an urge for clever discernment into the conversation. I was happy to see the inclusion of “family preservation” as an attendee mission description.  I am really pleased to see this wisdom in the movement. 

One particular blog post summed up so well what I think many of us have felt as we’ve sought to grow.  Even as we grapple with the many difficult questions that always will come with orphan care, we can yield to the human tendency to look down on those who don’t see things exactly as we do…or haven’t reached our “higher” level of knowledge.

Kim Van Brunt wrote of her first experience of Summit this year, “It’s taken a couple of years, but I’m finally starting to see that it’s not as simple as I’m right and you’re wrong. In fact, I’m seeing that I’m chief among offenders. I see so clearly now how I need other opinions and varied perspectives to be able to zoom out and take in the big picture. It’s hard to write this, but I need to confess: I thought I knew better than you. Will you forgive me?”  (See Kim’s compelling post, “Reflections on Summit 9.”)

That is wisdom-guided love.   May we all embrace this heart—in listening…in hospitality…and in choosing to still act amidst the complexity.

A second video also helps bring the memories to life…this one with special thanks to our amazing host church, Brentwood Baptist!

As much as anything else, the article reveals the tangled complexity one encounters whenever approaching the needs of orphans.  A large portion of the children living in institutions in Russia have living parents…but in most cases those parents have little interest in receiving their children home.  Said one girl named Sonya, “When I was born I had some problems, and in the hospital they said I was dead, or I wouldn’t live long, so my parents refused to take me.”

The situation is especially dire for children with special needs.  Few orphanages provide more than very basic care to help kids overcome handicaps.  Some reformers are working to see more orphans placed in home-based care, and the government’s new “Russia Without Orphans” program is purportedly designed to encourage adoption and foster care.  But the orphanage system in Russia, like bureaucracy the world over, is highly resistant to change.  Meanwhile, only about 7,000 children were adopted in all of Russia last year.  Reforms and culture change won’t be easy.

Meanwhile, even initially healthy children languish in state-run institutions.  Abuse by adults and older children, sever neglect, and other damaging experiences are common.  One orphanage noted in the article saw least 41 children die over 10 years, apparently of neglect.  And critics charge that such situations are far from uncommon.

What’s the answer?  As the article makes clear, there certainly isn’t any single solution, nor any easy ones.  Shifting from government institutions to small group homes and family-based care?  Local adoptions?  International adoptions?  Effective local and foreign NGOs doing all they can? Let’s pray for all of the above—and especially that the Russian church will rise as the biggest answer of all!

The webinar will draw from the themes of my book, UPENDED, with a focus on organizational leaders, missional influencers and issue advocates.  We’ll explore communication choices that help us cut through the noise and clutter of a media saturated age.  Ultimately, it’s all about communication practices—and most importantly a character—that flow from the unparalleled ways of the Master himself.

You can see more about this CLA webinar and register for it HERE.

Such is the case with several of the Christian orphan care movement’s detractors.  As champions of the idea that children need families, we can still learn from criticism—even when it carries distortions or springs from past hurts or harsh feelings toward Christianity.

At the same time, it often seems that some critics aren’t sincerely seeking to understand and report the true story of Christian adoption and orphan care.  Rather, articles relish highlighting the most tragic stories, fringe voices and scenarios that even most within the movement would strongly criticize.  When thoughtful adoption advocates are referenced, their quotes and ideas are often severely misrepresented.

One of the movements’ most aggressive detractors appeared on NPR this week.  The NPR transcript is available HERE.  The interview is part of promotion efforts for a new book by Kathryn Joyce claiming to describe the Christian orphan care movement, titled, “The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption.”  Joyce also has has an article in this month’s Mother Jones called “Orphan Fever.”

(As a small but significant side note, it’s telling that despite the dramatic growth of Christian engagement in orphan care—which the NPR interview depicts using words like “powerful” and “outsized”—I’m not aware of NPR ever inviting anyone from within the movement to describe what’s happening.  One can’t help wondering how people would react if NPR reported on the “realities” of life growing up as an African American woman by interviewing only white male professors.  I listen to NPR as much as any radio station and hope they’d be willing to correct this oversight.)

Summit IX is bearing down on us, which once again this year will be the largest gathering of the Christian orphan care movement yet, including individuals from more than 20 countries.  So unfortunately I don’t have time to read Joyce’s book this week for a thorough response.  Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to do that soon after Summit.

For now, I thought it’d be worthwhile sharing an article I wrote previously for Christianity Today responding to similar criticisms that Kathryn Joyce lodged in an article she released two years ago (perhaps not coincidentally right before Summit that year, too):

What a misleading article in the ‘The Nation’ can teach evangelicals

I’d also want to highlight a sharp response to Joyce’s Orphan Fever article written this week by Jonathan Merritt:  Mother Jones’ shameful attack on the Christian adoption movement.