God, save us from Facebook, Twitter, and the hyper-simplicity of meme-speak.  Shane Cailbourne, a Christian activist and writer who I normally very much respect, Tweeted the following, which ended up as a meme on Facebook:  "There are 120,000 US children waiting for an adoptive family. There are over 3,500 in Texas alone. The average wait for a child in foster care to be adopted is 3 years. Imagine if every pro-life Christian cared as much about life after birth as life before birth."  At first reading, I gave it a thumbs up; being prolife is certainly about so much more than stopping abortions, then letting mother and child struggle through poverty, disabilities, and other hardships.  It's about supporting the new born by supporting the parents if they choose to raise the child, and supporting the child all the more if they are available for adoption or foster care. Yet on second reading, I'm not so sure the tweet deserves the  'like' I had given it.

I recalled something I had heard John Stotsel report on "20/20" some years back.  I looked it up, and it is still true: in spite of Brother Shane's implications, practicing pro-life Christians are 250% more likely to adopt than their secularist counterparts (Adoption.org)  Furthermore, most adopting families who are not practicing Christians adopt primarily because they are unable to concieve biological children.  Yet most Christians who adopt do so even while raising their own birth children.  It turns out, these 'heartless, woman-oppressing prolifers' are 500% more likely to adopt simply because there are children who need a home and it's the right thing to do.

I still respect Mr. Claibourne for many things, but the above simplistic tweet is truly 'fake news'.  I know there are those of the born again community who live out the indifference he described in the meme above.  There are definitely many more conservative politicians- Christian in name-for-the-sake-of-manipulation-only, who it describes to a T.  But, the underlying premise of his post does not stand up to the very clear data.  The problem isn't so much that pro-life Christians aren't concerned about the future of the unborn.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say secular pro-choicers just want the problem of unwanted pregnancies to go away by casting a vote, but aren't willing to do anything to help on a more personal level than protest and post hollow memes on social media.