I’m in a questioning mode. Consistent readers of Cerulean Sanctum will probably ask when I’m not in a questioning mode, but that’s beside the point. 😉

This time, I’m not the one asking the hard question, Anthony Bradley is. His is one of those stunners that can’t be avoided, a sort of “now that you have heard, you have no excuse” truth.

Here’s the opening lines of “Orphans vs. American Dream“:

Why Does America Have Orphans If It Has Christian Churches?

America has nearly 115,000 orphaned kids in foster care waiting to be adopted. Some wonder how this is possible in a country with Christian families. Surely, there are 115,000 missional families in America, right? Missional families, for example, embrace the redemptive mission of God and practice “true religion” in their local communities (James 1:27). Missional Christians in America could eliminate the foster care system tomorrow if we would stop “shootin’ up” with the American Dream (heroin) in order to get high on a lame life lived for the sake of comfort and ease.

Word.

As with anything deep, read the whole thing.

We’ve thought about going this route ourselves. We’ve asked the same question.

But saying yes isn’t easy. The bureaucratic, politically-correct adoption system creates nightmarish roadblocks for anyone seeking to adopt. We know because we watched friends go through the emotionally devastating process of being rejected time and again in their attempts to adopt. Then they got involved in the foster care system, itself a bad dream, and received a child quickly, a child they later adopted.

Yes, we’ve made the system maddeningly hard to navigate, but when were Christians excused from bearing up under duress? Our Lord went to the cross. We just have to fill out countless forms, answer some sensitive questions, jump through political hoops, and pray big prayers before we can make a foster care orphan our own.

Christianity can’t become mere talk. Most of the world already views us as folks who talk big but can’t back up our message through our actions.

I think Anthony Bradley nails this one. Now what are we going to do about it?