The Christian Case Against the Orphanage

Aug 9, 2019 by

Children need a stable family, not institutional care.

KRISH KANDIAH, Christianity Today:

[…] According to figures from the United Nations, by a conservative estimate, there are around 8 million children living in orphanages around the world. Additionally, there are over 70 million people living as refugees or internally displaced due to war, conflict, and natural disaster and many of these are children who have lost parents or family or both. There have also been many children affected by the AIDS epidemic, and even today despite huge economic advances around the world, children are over-represented among the “bottom billion” poorest people. According to UNICEF, there could be as many as 140 million children around the world .

With such shockingly huge statistics, it is not surprising that occasionally terrible reports emerge. However, it does seem rather extreme to react by suggesting that all orphanages should be shut down because of isolated cases of trafficking and abuse. Is it simply a case of finding an angle to scapegoat Christians?

It should not surprise us that Christians are highly involved in a response to the global challenge to help vulnerable children. There are more than 40 occasions where the Bible refers specifically to God’s concern for orphans or the fatherless (Deut. 10:17–18, 24:17, 27:19, James 1:27, etc).

Historically, Christians have also often been at the forefront of the care, protection, and championing of vulnerable children. Until now, many people have seen Christian orphanage support as a key component of championing the cause of the most vulnerable.

My charity, Home for Good, conducted a parallel study among British adults, asking 6,000 people for their perceptions and practices regarding the support of orphanages. We found that churchgoers were seven times more likely to support an orphanage through visiting or volunteering than other British adults. It is undoubtedly true that the world’s orphanages owe much to Christian support. But whereas orphanages used to be seen as an honorable cause, they are now being implicated in a global scandal.

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