Transracial Adoption & the Gospel

There was quite a bit of buzz a few weeks back on the stated position of the Evan B. Adoption Institute against transracial adoption. That is, they believe it is, in the end, unprofitable to place African-American children in the adoptive care of white parents. In light of a study they did, they concluded, according to the NY Times, that

Transracial adoption itself does not produce psychological or other social problems in children, but that these children often face major challenges as the only person of color in an all-white environment, trying to cope with being different.

Their hope is that they will be able to change the Multiethnic Placement Act which gives federal monies to adoption agencies that adopt a color-blind approach when placing children with adoptive parents.

This is an interesting dilemma. Anthony Bradley, an African-American Christian scholar, understands the difficulties with transracial adoption. He wrote:

Every black kid I've ever known who was adopted by a white family had a huge identity crisis at some point between the ages of 13 to 25-years-old. Here's why: race matters A LOT. And black kids raised by whites are usually are NOT prepared for two things: (1) dealing with anxiety of being ignorant of some of the norms of black culture and (2) learning the intricacies of what it means to be black in a white dominated society and how to prepare to be a minority--there are specific things that need to be taught about surviving in a country where you are a part of a sub-dominant minority group that's usually scorned.

One can assume that any transracial adoption would present its own difficulties, and this includes all international adoptions. So how are we to respond? Russel D. Moore, an adoptee and adopter himself, cuts through the sociology and, rightly, points to the Gospel:

I'm not surprised that a group of secular social workers believe racial identity is more important than familial love. The Scripture tells us we always, if left to ourselves, want to categorize ourselves 'according to the flesh.' Whether it is the Athenians clinging to their myth of superior origins or Judaizers insisting on circumcision or Peter refusing to eat with pig-devouring Gentiles, we love to see ourselves first and foremost in fleshly categories -- because it keeps us from seeing ourselves in Christ.

The gospel, though, drives us away from our identity in the flesh, and toward a new identity, indeed a new family, defined by the Spirit. This new family solidarity is much less visibly obvious; it's not based on marks in the flesh or skin color or carefully kept genealogies. It's based on a Spirit that blows invisibly where he wills, showing up in less visible characteristics such as peace, joy, love, righteousness, gentleness, kindness, self-control.

He concludes:

But all of us need to pray, and hard, for transracial -- and trans-economic and trans-generational -- churches. The social workers will divide us up into categories of race -- and some of the church-people will too. Jesus will do otherwise, though. He'll sit us right down at the same table, in a common household, and he'll feed us bread and wine -- together.

What if the outside world could see church directories and family albums filled with people who look nothing alike -- but who call each other "brother" and "sister" and mean it, and who unabashedly hug and kiss one another?

Perhaps the outside world would be better able to understand how black parents can love and raise an Asian daughter, how a Latino child can love his white Iowan mother, if they were to see our churches filled with people, red and yellow, black, and white, who are precious in the sight of one another.

Read his whole piece here. He was also interviewed by Al Mohler. Listen to that here (starting at 11:20):



I hope we all seriously consider adoption. Seriously. My wife and I say over and over that we will eventually adopt. I hope you hold us to that. For the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of Christ.

If you'd like to read more on this, check out this Washington Post editorial and this blog.