by Russ Rankin, posted Thursday, March 07, 2013 (11 years ago)
NASHVILLE (BP) -- For too long there has been a disconnect between the church and issues surrounding orphan care, according to Johnny Carr, national director of church partnerships at Bethany Christian Services.
Carr addresses the issues in "Orphan Justice: How to Care for Orphans Beyond Adopting," a book from B&H Publishing Group designed to provide education about and action plans to care for the estimated 153 million orphaned and vulnerable children in the world.
"Many churches have started orphan ministries, but this movement among churches is still very much in its infancy," Carr said in an interview. "It is my hope that this book challenges churches to take their involvement further."
Carr said he wrote Orphan Justice based on his own journey in understanding the instruction for "pure religion" defined in James 1:27, which calls believers to care for orphans. As a former pastor, Carr said he believes the church -- not government programs or social service agencies -- has the most potential and the mandate to take the lead in addressing the world's orphan crisis.
Adoption is only part of orphan care, he said. HIV/AIDS, human trafficking and poverty are all in the picture.
"I hope to see adoption move from being 'something some people do' to 'it's what we do as the church.'" -- Johnny Carr
"We (the church) honestly have not done well in the past with orphan ministry, just like HIV/AIDS ministries haven't done well (through the church)," he said. "But it's all tied together. It's all related. We can't care about orphans without caring about AIDS."
Carr, who has three children who were adopted, weaves first-hand stories throughout Orphan Justice to explain data on the needs of orphaned and vulnerable children and to connect what many consider "liberal issues" together as critical aspects of orphan care.
His overall theme throughout the book is to help the church discover its role in meeting these needs and to help develop an action plan using worldwide partnerships.
"I wanted to write about the complex issues and put them in terms that are simple to understand, [so] that we can make a difference -- whether it's something very small that an individual can do or something large that a church can take on," Carr said.
The disconnect between orphan care and the church grew as evangelical churches distanced themselves from the social gospel movement, Carr said.
"Churches grew to interpret the social gospel as 'liberal' and for people who don't witness," Carr said. "But it's not either/or. It's both/and. We can't witness and leave people starving. Read More
