How touching

Krista Kapralos of the Religion News Service describes advocacy efforts aimed at embryos created through in vitro fertilization programs ("Evangelicals seek a future for thousands of frozen embryos"). This efforts are presented as having a seamless link to anti-abortion activism. Perhaps we should look at them through a much broader lens.

Mother Teresa is one of my personal heroes. She expressed her opposition to abortion on numerous occasions. In her case, opposing abortion was just the icing on the cake of a life devoted to serving the already born. No one can question her dedication to improve the quality of life for the most vulnerable.

More often than not, I run across people whose advocacy for the lives of others is limited to opposing abortion. I have no idea about whether that is true for the folks from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals in the article. However, there are many out there where they are strong advocates for unborn and barely lift a finger for the already born. That smells like hypocrisy.

It smells like hypocrisy for several reasons. First, no one can truly be separated from God before they are born. There is no free will and sinful disobedience. The already born can be easily separated from God through sin and disbelief. If you turn your back on the already born, then you failed in your service to Christ. Second, you do not have make any personal sacrifice to oppose abortion. If you want to help the already born, you have to be generous with your time and treasure.

The interesting thing about the article is that the people spearheading the effort from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals personally benefited from their push for adoption of embryos created in vitro fertilization clinics and frozen in vaults. Grabriel Fluhrer, the public relations director at the Alliance, and his wife were able to have a child by implanting a frozen embryo from a clinic.

But to the Fluhrers, it was worth the risk. That tiny collection of cells was a baby, they believed. And if they didn’t pluck it from the warehouse where it had been stored since its biological parents decided they didn’t need or want it any longer, it was likely to die.

It is nice that it worked out for them, but it makes their advocacy efforts through the Alliance seem a bit self-serving.

The other interesting thing is that advocacy organizations like the Alliance received $21 million from the federal government.

During a decade-long stretch of federal funding to promote embryo adoption, evangelical organizations received most of the $21 million doled out. That funding was cut in July, but leaders at those organizations say the word is spreading about embryo adoption.

These annoying little details make one question the sincerity of the concern for life, particularly if efforts to help the already born are limited to family, friends, and professional colleagues.

There is no shortage of people in our society that are struggling. The poor, sick, disabled, and elderly are numerous. Easing their burdens is an obligation for those of us that follow Christ.

Ever talked to at-risk kid? These are kids that have grown up in poverty and see few opportunities for them to ever escape. They have gone to overcrowded and underfunded schools. The only jobs available to them do not pay enough to live on. Many seem to be hopeless, not to mention down on themselves and life. They need a helping hand in living day to day and real opportunities to escape poverty, gangs, and crime. They deserve as much, if not much more, advocacy from Christians as given to opposing abortion and promoting adoption.

One challenge is to change the mindset of despair in these at-risk kids. A recent study looked at the relationship between hopelessness in adolescents and self-destructive behavior in adults. They found that adolescents that were pessimistic about their future were more likely to struggle with substance abuse, have suicidal thoughts, and commit suicide as adults. That is a level of despair that demands attention, but helping these kids requires hard work and commitment.

Which would be harder - raising a healthy embryo from carefully screening clinic stock or raising a troubled kid needing foster parents? Which adoption would meet the greatest need?

The hurdles to help the most vulnerable among the already born are enormous. Yet there are calls to cut government funding with no clear vision how congregations and other organizations can pick up the slack. It is unsettling and deserves closer scrutiny.

The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and other organizations that focus on abortion and adoption claim their issues should take precedence.

Embryo adoption is not a chief issue for many Christians, said Fluhrer, but that may be changing. He has blogged about embryo adoption on Reformation 21, a theology website he edits, and he encourages his church members to consider the option.

“The earliest Christians were distinguished by their care for those society discarded,” he wrote on his blog. “Embryo adoption seems to me a seminal way to do such a thing here in the third millennium.”

They think that opposing abortion and promoting adoption will satisfy the demands of Christ to care for others in His name. For their sake, I hope they are right.