Paul Random

Anti-Adoption Movement Can Actually Be Anti-Child

To help launch National Adoption Month at the beginning of November, our friends at the Institute for Family Studies have provided a helpful analysis of the anti-adoption movement – and yes, there is such sentiment bubbling about out there.

According to those who oppose it, adoption is exploitive, coercive and downright harmful to children.

If such claims leave you scratching your head, you wouldn’t be alone – especially if you’re a social scientist who studies the data and works to separate the fact from the fiction. As it is, study after study has confirmed adoption’s collective good both corporately and individually.

At the outset, it might be helpful to level set and acknowledge that adoption has existed in some fashion since the beginning of human history. Whether motivated or necessitated by death, desire (altruistic or financial), desertion or the incapacitation of one or more birth parents, or out-of-wedlock births, the transfer of children (or adults) between individuals and families has been an acceptable, albeit exceptional, means of family formation.

Over the years, references to adoption have been recorded in the Bible, numerous historic texts, Greek and Roman mythologies, movies, music, television, and even popular children’s literature.

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, we read about the adoption of Moses and Esther. In ancient Rome, Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire, was adopted – as was Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Marcus Aurelius.

Today, adoption is culturally ubiquitous. Everyone knows someone who was adopted or someone who has adopted. Whether from somewhere overseas or here in the United States, upwards of 120,000 children are adopted every year. That translates to over 5 million individuals here in America who grew up in an adoptive family.

At the heart of the anti-adoption movement is an overwhelming, and some might argue, unrealistic level of support for reunification between the child and their biological parent(s). They hold that resources and efforts should be poured into serving and helping the mothers and fathers who either voluntarily or involuntarily relinquish their children. Those who champion such a position claim adoption is so traumatic that a child is better off in an uneven and dysfunctional biological family than they are in a stable adoptive one.

But as the authors writing for the Institute for Family Studies note, such a position is not supported by social science.

Adoptees’ well-being is generally comparable to that of the general population, with some elevated needs that are offset by greater support. 

While children who are adopted have statistically higher needs, adoptees enjoy greater access to assistance.

National surveys consistently report broadly positive outcomes and family functioning among adoptive families. 

Surveys of adoptive families reveal a high level of warmth and compatibility.

Where gaps persist, pre-adoption experiences explain a great deal.

Studies show adoption doesn’t cause behavioral challenges but they are instead caused by the trauma that led to the adoption itself.

Focus on the Family has long supported pursuit of reunification wherever possible and whenever it’s deemed to be in the best interest of both the child and the biological parent. Yet, in a fallen world, it’s also not always able to happen and many times not even safe. Many of the children adopted or currently in foster care come from drug addicted parents or abusive family situations. While rehabilitation of the parent is a worthy goal, it often proves unattainable.

It’s possible to make reunification such an idol, of sorts, that doing so puts vulnerable children at risk.

To be sure, every adoption isn’t always straight from the script of a family movie with a happy ending. Various difficulties arise. However beautiful it is to welcome a child into a loving new home, the loss suffered by that child is very real and not always without complications or consequences. They deserve our love, prayers and unwavering commitment.

Yet we can confidently and unapologetically still celebrate adoption. That’s because it puts every child on the verge of everything because, in the words of Henry David Thoreau, “Every child begins the world again.”

Image from Shutterstock.

The Saints Triumphant: The Best Awaits

The tradition of All Saints’ Day is believed to date to the eighth or ninth century. While first focused on remembering the martyrs of the early Church, it was expanded to recognize those individuals specially set apart by Rome.

In many Protestant traditions, it’s seen as an opportunity to remember any believer who has preceded us in death.

Of course, Halloween (or All Hallows’ Eve), a day which elicits strong and varied opinions from Christians, has its own origins in name and tradition from this annual sacred observance.

It can be a meaningful and wonderful tradition to remember and give thanks for the Christian saints of yesterday. That’s because we all need heroes – individuals to study, read about, and emulate. We don’t pray to them, but Scripture is very clear that we’re metaphorically encircled by them.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2).

When my father was dying, a chaplain who visited him likened his final days to an Olympic runner entering the stadium for the last mile of a marathon. He encouraged my dad to envision the saints in the stands cheering him on to the finish line. The older we get and the more we invest in our faith, the greater and louder the crowd.

Since nobody is born a Christian, every believer is likely to trace their faith journey back to someone or several people who introduced them to the Lord and helped nurture their young faith. All Saints’ Day is an ideal time to reflect and give thanks for these individuals.

This special day is also an opportunity to gain some perspective. While some people are balancing and battling more difficult circumstances than others, everyone faces their share of challenges. I think that’s what William How, author of the poignant hymn, “For All the Saints,” was alluding to when he wrote:

O blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

However difficult the day, better and more glorious ones are coming. The struggle is real, but it is temporary.

If we’re fortunate enough, we lose loved ones in old age. But it’s still difficult to see a once vibrant parent slowly fade. You want to remember them at their peak, but time and age can take a toll. Once again, How’s lyrics reinforce the idea that the saints above bear no resemblance to the weakened ones below:

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong,

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Saints in Heaven are once more renewed and robust. The once emaciated saint with cancer will be stronger than ever before. The saint who now walks with a limp will leap with joy and ease.

C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity, “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been. How gloriously different are the saints.”

All Saints’ Day reminds us that a Heaven full of saints is very different – and something very wonderful for us to look forward to with great wonderment and anticipation.

But then there breaks a still more glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of Glory passes on His way.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

And Amen!

Allie Beth Stuckey: Some Christians Think They’re Nicer Than Jesus

Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey headlined Turning Point USA’s most recent “American Comeback Tour” stop on Monday at LSU in Baton Rouge.

Speaking before 1,500 attendees, Stuckey paid tribute to the late Charlie Kirk, identifying the five most controversial truths the slain commentator taught during his ministry career:

  1. Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
  2. America is a Christian nation.
  3. Feminism has failed women.
  4. Porn has weakened men.
  5. Merit trumps DEI.

“What a movement that Charlie started,” Stuckey observed. “To be able to have a legacy that lives on and actually multiplies after you die, that is the most that any of us could ask for.”

Despite the death of the Turning Point USA founder, the organization’s previously planned events are drawing large and enthusiastic crowds.

One of the most popular segments of each gathering is the “Question and Answer” session, a free spirited, unscripted dialogue with students. Traditionally, Charlie would allow those who disagreed with him to go to the front of the line.

On Monday, one student asked Stuckey to address pastors who are reluctant to talk about “politics” from the pulpit.

“It’s not that our theology as Christians has become political,” Stuckey replied. “It’s that politics have become theological. We’re not just talking about the nitty-gritty of immigration and economic policy anymore or the benefits or the cons of unions. “

She continued,

“We are talking about things that the Bible directly addresses, like whether or not we should kill babies. The Bible directly addresses what a woman is. The Bible directly addresses what a marriage is. So when politics enters the realm of the pulpit, which is theology and the Bible, pastors better talk about it. When a pastor says, ‘I don’t want to talk about gender. I don’t want to talk about abortion. I don’t want to talk about the evils of Islam. I don’t want to talk about those things’ – it’s not politics you’re scared of. It’s the Bible that you’re ashamed of, because the Bible answers those things.”

Stuckey eventually drove to what she believes is the root of the reluctance or refusal to address these critically important and relevant issues.

“A lot of Christians and a lot of pastors believe that they are nicer than God, that God is too mean when it comes to defining marriage,” she said. “He’s too mean when it comes to defining gender. So, we just won’t talk about it.”

Those who make God one-dimensional are often guilty of either sloppy theology or short on backbone, fearful of either being disliked or ostracized.

You can’t point to the love of God without also acknowledging the wrath of God. Some incorrectly suggest the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament, but that’s just not true. Even the Apostle Paul acknowledges His timelessness when writing to believers in Rome:

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:5)

Pastor Josh Howerton recently challenged other pastors reluctant to address the pressing issues of the day. He said, “There’s no way to read about Daniel, Esther, Joseph, Moses, Nehemiah, and John the Baptist and think Christians should avoid politics.”

On Monday at LSU, Stuckey relieved anyone of the notion that they’re to somehow outshine the Lord in attitude and winsomeness.

“You’re not nicer than God,” she said. “You can’t out-mercy Him. You can’t out-love Him. God is Love (1 John 4:8). The most loving thing that you can do is agree with God.”

Allie Beth Stuckey and pastor Josh Howerton are right. Holiness never conflicts with the grace of Jesus. Don’t try and outshine the Son of God.

Image credit: Allie Beth Stuckey / X

Bill Gates: Go Ahead and Snooze the Doomsday Clock

According to Bill Gates, a once outspoken and highly resourced climate alarmist, you can hit the snooze button on the “Doomsday” alarm clock.

On Tuesday, the Microsoft co-founder wrote a blog post on what he wants the world – specifically everyone at COP30 – to know. Ironically, though, Gates not only suggests we don’t need to worry just yet about the end of the world, but that most of us will enjoy living in a prosperous era and place for years to come.

“Although climate change will have serious consequences — particularly for people in the poorest countries — it will not lead to humanity’s demise,” Gates wrote. “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”

Gates’ admission is in stark contrast to years of warning about climate change; we’ve all been on the brink of physical annihilation due to global warming for years.

“Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved,” Gates famously warned. “It deserves to be a huge priority.”

For more than a decade, Gates has used a significant amount of his fortune investing in efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions. His goal was to try to lower atmospheric temperatures, believing that by doing so, certain catastrophe could either be slowed down or prevented completely.

It would seem Bill Gates remains committed to many of these priorities. Now, he’s acknowledging the importance of helping people over lowering the air or sea temperatures by a few degrees.

“Our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries,” Gates wrote.

One of the most sad and unfortunate ironies of the environmental extremist movement is that, in many cases, scientists have pushed for policies which have hurt more people than they’ve helped.

Beginning in the late 1960s, one of the worst offenders has been Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb. He claimed that by the 1970s, “hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.” He predicted England would become “a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people.”

The environmental extremist also suggested “all important life in the sea will be extinct.”

Ehrlich has been so wrong for so long you’d think his words wouldn’t be heeded anymore – yet he’s still regularly quoted and held in high esteem by scientists and in the media.

It’s one thing to make ridiculously uninformed and radical predictions, but it’s a different story when such claims cause countries and people to change behaviors and lifestyles for the worse. The radical environmental movement caused countries to spend money they don’t have to make changes that won’t change anything in our climate.

In the past, Ehrlich called on families to have fewer children because he sees large families as unduly burdening the environment and quickening its collapse.

“We must have population control at home, hopefully through a system of incentives and penalties, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail,” he once wrote. “We must use our political power to push other countries into programs which combine agricultural development and population control.”

Gates’ recent post makes it clear he’s still on the climate change policy train, but with a twist.

“In short, climate change, disease, and poverty are all major problems. We should deal with them in proportion to the suffering they cause,” he wrote.

While having grown up in a Christian family, Bill Gates has most recently described himself as being agnostic. At the same time, his philosophical shift here, at least at its edges, appears to comport with what we’re called to prioritize as believers when it comes to the environment. God calls us to be good stewards of His creation (Gen. 2:15) – but to also care for the poor and needy (Proverbs 19:17, Isaiah 58:10).

Christians can rest easy, despite the claims of people who catastrophize, including Paul Ehrlich. The Earth’s end isn’t in mankind’s hands, but rather a matter of God’s sovereignty and a piece of His perfect plan. 

Image from Shutterstock.

Auburn’s Alex McPherson: ‘I Praise the Lord Whenever I Miss and Whenever I Make’

A lot can change in one week.

For Auburn’s Alex McPherson, Saturday was a day to remember as the Fort Payne, Alabama, native kicked a school-tying six field goals in the team’s 33-24 win over Arkansas.

Just seven days earlier, the Tigers lost to Missouri in double overtime – a defeat that included three missed field goals by Alex, who is usually highly accurate.

Moments after that loss, Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy took issue with McPherson’s habit of pointing to Heaven after each kick.

“This bothers me,” Portnoy wrote. “You shouldn’t be allowed to pretend you hit a Fg when you missed your 19th chip shot of the game.”

What the internet sports guru didn’t seem to know was that McPherson had spent months last year dealing with major medical problems – including the removal of his large intestine. He was throwing up every day for two months. Initially diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, Alex lost 55 pounds before doctors took action to save his life. He was down to 110 pounds.

As a result of the surgery in December of 2024, he was outfitted with a colostomy bag, which was deliberately placed on his left side to not interfere with his kicking leg.

“My small intestine sticks out of my stomach,” Alex revealed. “The whole entire time I was going through this, I thought, ‘I’m getting better so I can play football.’”

He did get better – but then another setback struck this past August when he lost 30 pounds and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease – a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Once more, he fought back into playing shape.

After getting strafed on social media for the poor performance against Missouri, how did Alex respond to Portnoy?

He wrote, “All I’m gonna say is I praise the Lord whenever I miss and whenever I make. You praise Him in the highs as well as the lows. That’s what I’m going to continue to do. He’s the reason I’m back on that field.”

Raised in a Christian home with two brothers, Alex and his family attended First Baptist Church in Fort Payne. He was in the seventh grade in youth group when he met Hannah, who is now his wife.

Hannah told the journalist Rick Karle, “Having full faith in His perfect plan has made Alex’s latest sickness so much less burdening on us. It can be so hard to see any good coming from situations like these, but we have seen Alex’s story inspire others and our relationship with God grow.”

Evan McPherson, Alex’s brother, kicked for the University of Florida and now kicks for the Cincinnati Bengals.

“You can’t have a testimony without a test,” Alex told Karle. “I knew that God would never give up on me. I just had to trust Him.”

On Saturday, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said McPherson is the kind of player you want on your team.

“He’s the first one in my office Monday to say ‘I’m sorry. Coach I lost that game for you.’ I said ‘Dude I believe in you. You’ll make the next one,’” Freeze said while fighting back tears. “Then he ties the school record today with 6, so what a redemption story that is. I’m thrilled for him.”

Saturday’s win broke a four-game losing streak for Auburn. At 4-4 on the season, the team’s fate hangs in the balance – but Alex McPherson’s assurance in how to manage whatever comes next leaves him in a position of strength.

“I have always believed God is with me,” he said.  

Image credit: Amber McPherson