answer<\/a> left audiences with their jaws hanging low. \u201cA man doesn\u2019t want to take on the United Nations,\u201d he said, excusing the men, \u201cand this woman\u2019s got all these various children, a blended family. I mean what is it?\u201d<\/p>\nHint: The gospel.<\/em><\/p>\nRobertson went on to provide a reason why the men were justified in backing out. He mentioned a friend who adopted a child with \u201cbrain damage. . . . grew up weird. You just never know what\u2019s been done to a child before you get that child.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right about that much. Adopted kids come from hard places, and you just don\u2019t know what kind of problems they might have. Orphans are often victims of physical, psychological, sometimes even sexual abuse. They are deprived of food, starved for affection, and left to fend for themselves. That kind of maltreatment and deprivation can add up to serious social, psychological, and neurochemical problems for these kids.<\/p>\n
Bringing kids from hard places into your home isn\u2019t easy. As an adoptive father, I speak from some experience.<\/p>\n
For Robertson these problems excuse the men in question. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to take on someone else\u2019s problems. I mean you really don\u2019t. You can go help people. You can minister to people . . . but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that I\u2019m going to take all the orphans around the world into my home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some measure, that\u2019s a copout. Orphans don\u2019t need people to help them or minister to them, not primarily. They need families, especially the kids who are \u2014 in Robertson\u2019s indelicate word \u2014 \u201cweird.\u201d The reason they face maltreatment and deprivation in the first place is because they don\u2019t have mothers and fathers to protect and care for them. Families are the only solution for these kids.<\/p>\n
If the men Susan is dating aren\u2019t up for that, then she\u2019s obviously dating the wrong men. And she\u2019s also evidently asking the wrong people for advice. Robertson\u2019s answer does\u2019t work. If we\u2019re going to live the gospel, it\u2019s absurd to say that it\u2019s really hard so it\u2019s reasonable to disengage. You don\u2019t have to die on every hill, but Calvary requires your life nonetheless. What else does picking up your cross mean?<\/p>\n
When Jesus clues us into the final exam in Matthew 25, he says something that applies directly to the situation. After the Lord returns in glory, he separates the righteous from the unrighteous. He then turns to the former and says, \u201cI was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me. . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
The righteous are amazed. \u201cLord,\u201d they say, \u201cwhen did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAssuredly, I say to you,\u201d answers Jesus, \u201cinasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kids from hard places bear the image of God just like any other child, and no matter their age, sex, or color they look like Jesus.<\/p>\n
Robertson prays for folks on air all the time. Instead of his baffling screed, he should have commended Susan and prayed that she find a man who can look upon these precious daughters as sisters in Christ and take them to his heart as readily as his own.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When a woman named Susan wrote the 700 Club looking for answers, she surely wasn\u2019t expecting the kind she received. The mother of three adopted daughters, each from different countries, wrote to say that the men she was dating invariably got cold feet when it came to the subject of her children. \u201cWhy,\u201d she asked, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1270,"featured_media":4088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27,513],"class_list":["post-4087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-adoption","tag-pat-robertson"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Pat](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/276\/2012\/08\/Pat-Robertson.jpg\")
<\/a>