Join us today at 1PM CST for Home School Talk. I will be interviewing Jube Dankworth of The Homeschooler Next Door. She used to do her own podcast so it was interesting to talk to her awhile before the show.
The show should also be available via iTunes now.
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Hey Dana, check your e-mail. The Scientist sent a message for Mouse. It went to your yahoo account; I don’t know if that’s still active, but it was the address I had for you.
Rebecca
Hi
I just read a comment you posted on Acceptance with Joy’s blog about foster parenting.
“Fears regarding the state overseeing your parenting and having to submit to home visits were major concerns and it sort of baffled me. Where does the bible say to help one another so long as it is convenient? And so long as the state doesn’t keep track?”
I am an 43 y/o adoptive mom of 4 children, one of those children came from the state, 2 were private and one international. My inlaws are foster parents and I have a degree in Social Work. I also know several other adoptive/foster families, and have kept fairly current with adoption issues in the recent years. I have been a solid Christian for nearly 20 years. I thought I’d answer your question from my perspective.
For my husband and myself, it is a matter of protecting the children God has blessed us with, not a matter of “inconvenience” or the state “keeping track”. From my observations, the state is truly unconcerned with protecting our children, nor keeping families together. They have removed uncounted numbers of children on false charges from their homes. Many of them are returned, but emotional damage has already been done. DFS is an unconstitutional entity that violates rights of our country’s citizens every day. Foster parents have no more protection than any of us even though social workers are in and out of foster homes on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. As parents, our first and foremost responsibility is to the children God has blessed us with. The Bible tells us to be wise, imo, allowing the state in your home, unless you have been spefically called by God to adopt/foster is foolishness. As far as sexual abuse, statistics show that sexually abused children are more likely to sexually abuse. Why would I subject my children to that possibility? Children are unable to protect themselves, and if as parents, we are unwilling to protect them, who will? (Yes, I understand God is ultimately responsible, but would we knowingly push our child into the path of an oncoming car?) Mary Pride wrote an excellent book several years ago, the statistics are outdated, but the information is still compelling. It is called “The Child Abuse Industry” I highly recommend it.
Not only that, but many if not all children in state’s custody come with a lot of baggage. Most people are not equipped to deal with this baggage–ever heard of Reactive Attachement Disorder? Not to mention just the general greiving process of every adopted child. They’ve lost a family already…
In addition, you made a comment about corporal punishment on AWJ’s blog as well.
“My least favorite response was something that went along the lines of, “not until the state lets you discipline these kids.”
Which basically amounted to spanking, as if 1) there were absolutely no other way to teach a child and 2) as if spanking were the best way to deal with a child who has in all likelihood been beaten regularly his whole life.”
Many children in state’s custody have not been “beaten “their” whole life(s)” in fact most have not. Many of these children never even live with their bio parents (usually the mother). In addition to that spanking is Biblical! Yes, there are other ways to train up a child in the way they should go” but sometimes a controlled Biblical spanking is necessary. It is legal in every state in this country to spank a child. Furthermore, there is a great difference in a controlled spanking done in love, and “beating” a child!
Not only that, but adopted children need boundaries more than “normal” children. They need a clear line, and sometimes a loving, controlled spanking can be that clear line.
Please forgive me for leaving such a long comment on an unrelated blog entry. I could find no entry on your blog regarding adoption, otherwise I would have left it there. Please understand I did not post write this with ill-intent. And I pray that it will not be taken that way (although this is a matter close to my heart and I am vocal and straight-forward about it). It is my hope to give you a different perspective.
God bless,
Christine
Christine, I never said that every parent should foster a child, but people’s reasons they give are often more excuses than reasons for not involving themselves in other people’s lives.
Yes, a foster child needs boundaries, but no, they do not always need spanking, especially when they have been abused. My comment was not about spanking in general, but spanking abused children. When you strike a child who has been abused, you are placing yourself in the position of the abuser. And it is not legal in every state to spank foster children…it is illegal here, for example, for this very reason.
I never said that you don’t have a duty to protect your own children, and certainly did not mean to imply that everyone should take in foster children. But Julie’s post was about how the church can open itself to children in need, especially when it encourages adoption but doesn’t seem to be willing to deal with children with the kinds of issues adopted children have.
The church failed on this one when child abuse was first coming to light in America and continues to fail. It disturbs me greatly that CPS was essentially born out of a failure of the church to respond to a severe case of child abuse, and that those who desired to protect her had to compare her to an animal worthy of the same protection as an abused animal as per the model of the relatively newly formed SPCA-type organizations. We can complain about CPS being “unconstitutional” but where were those morally bound to protect children? Claiming that the family was sacred and that no one could intervene between parent and child, even as the child was beaten nearly to death.
And I really don’t see how CPS is in and of itself unconstitutional. It would be a state issue and largely handled on a state level, although there are now federal laws and regulations aimed at improving the system, although I doubt that is the effect. I do believe they act too quickly in some cases, but they also act too slowly with 39% of child death cases being from families previously investigated by CPS. They need cause, and families need to have a right to defend themselves which doesn’t always seem to be the way things work, but there needs to be something in place to protect children from those who would abuse, torture and even murder them.