Evangelical adoptions picked up in earnest in the middle of the last decade, when a wave of prominent Christians, including the megachurch pastor Rick Warren and leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, began to promote adoption as a special imperative for believers. Adoption mirrored the Christian salvation experience, they argued, likening the adoption of orphans to Christ\u2019s adoption of the faithful. Adoption also embodied a more holistic \u201cpro-life\u201d\u009d message \u201d\u201d caring for children outside the womb as well as within \u201d\u201d and an emphasis on good deeds, not just belief, that some evangelicals felt had been ceded to mainline Protestant denominations.<\/p>\n
Believers rose to the challenge. The Christian Alliance for Orphans estimates that hundreds of thousands of people worldwide participate in its annual Orphan Sunday (this year\u2019s is Nov. 3). Evangelicals from the Bible Belt to Southern California don wristbands or T-shirts reading \u201corphan addict\u201d\u009d or \u201cserial adopter.\u201d\u009d Ministries have emerged to raise money and award grants to help Christians pay the fees (some $30,000 on average, plus travel) associated with transnational adoption.<\/p>\n
However well intended, this enthusiasm has exacerbated what has become a boom-and-bust market for children that leaps from country to country. In many cases, the influx of money has created incentives to establish or expand orphanages \u201d\u201d and identify children to fill them.<\/p>\n