Should Homosexuals be allowed to Adopt?

This controversial issue has once again been brought to the forefront of public consciousness with the news that Vice President Dick Cheney’s openly lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, is pregnant and plans to raise the child with her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe.

The Conservative Publication, Townhall.com, writes:

“Mary Cheney’s pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation.”

At the Liberal Publication, Huffington Post rebuts:

“Dick and Lynn (Cheney) love their daughter. She’s an actual real person to them. They will stand by her, as they should, and the hell with ideology.

Well, the question by many is whether this “joyous occasion” should become a political question. What is a far more important question is whether or not it should become a moral and religious question? The answer that I give is a resounding yes. To not look at it in a religious light, if you profess religion, is foolish at best. However, if you do not profess Christianity, then I probably have little to say. For I can’t say much of anything without the context of Christ, and I would imagine you are just the opposite. In which case, it would probably be a fairly futile discussion.

So where do I stand on the issue? Honestly, I’m torn on it. One of the most important things that a kid needs is love. And I will admit that there are surely homosexual couples that are better qualified and able to provide loving and supportive relationships with their children then some heterosexual relationships are able to provide. I’ve known some kind and loving homosexuals and some abusive heterosexuals that both had kids. Personally, I don’t think either one is the ideal situation by any means. In my opinion, however, the most important thing that can be provided to children is to teach them in the knowledge of Christ; that’s what it comes down to for me. And that is something that would surely be difficult to convey as to openly live in a homosexual relationship is to openly live in sin. If you don’t agree about homosexuality as a sin, check out these other posts of mine about homosexuality in general and Gays in the Church. I won’t beat a dead horse and talk about that aspect in this blog further.

Now, if I was to stop there, that might not sound different than that presented by the “typical” Christian conservative. However, I don’t think you can stop there. You have to address sin. So first what is sin? GotQuestion.org has a good answer here But in a nutshell, courtesy of the website, sin is “transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) and rebellion against God (Deuteronomy 9:7; Joshua 1:18).” Surely a child that grows up in a homosexual will have a greater chance to grow up partaking in that sin. However, a child that grows up in a house of violence will be more likely to be violent to his family. A child that grows up in a house where the parents repeatedly commit adultery with others will be more likely to himself. Children really are sponges and truly do “absorb” the family environment around them. Will an adopted child of a gay family be more likely to be gay? Well, that is something that is still debated. But one can’t deny that they will probably be much more open and accepting and loving of that lifestyle: a lifestyle of sin. And to a large extent, a sin is a sin. See what GotQuestions has to say about that:

So, although Jesus said that lust and adultery are both sins – that does not mean they are equal. It is much worse to actually murder a person than it is to simply hate them – even though they are both sinful in God’s sight. There are degrees to sin. Some sins are worse than others. At the same time, in regards to both eternal consequences and salvation, all sins are the same. Each and every sin will lead to eternal condemnation (Romans 6:23). All sin, no matter how “small,” is against an infinite and eternal God, and is therefore worthy of an infinite and eternal penalty. Further, this is no sin too “big” that God cannot forgive it. Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin (1 John 2:2). Jesus died for ALL of our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). Are all sins equal to God? Yes and no. In severity? Yes. In forgivability? Yes.

So where does that leave me? Well, it leaves me where I started: torn. Clearly, the best situation for a child would be to grow up with a Godly and loving Mother and Father. And one can’t really dispute that. Men and Women have different strengths, different things they can bring to the table in raising children. And these differences cannot be fully duplicated, even in a loving homosexual home. But if one just stated that people openly living in sin couldn’t adopt to protect the child, well, unfortunately there would be a lot of orphans because a lot of this country could not adopt.

And as much as I might wish it were so, there are not enough blameless couples going around to be able to adopt all the children that need parents, if any. So I will concede that in some cases, homosexual parents may be the best choice among other alternatives for an adopted child to have. I think it is a decision that needs to really be made on a case-by-case basis. A child would probably be better off in a loving homosexual home than on the streets. But that situation is not the ideal choice. And it is not the choice that God intended would have to be made. I saw a flyer once that “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” There is some truth to that. God made man for woman and woman for man. While good things can come from bad people and love can come from homosexual parents, ultimately, the relationship is still a perversion of true marriage.

As Father Jonathan of FoxNews said in this good article:

What we do know is that two lesbian women can’t make babies, and as good as both women may be as caretakers, neither of them can be Dad. We also know there is a dad out there and this child will be deprived of his presence…

This story, however, of Mary Cheney and her partner, allows us the rare opportunity to examine the consequences of redefining the family to include homosexual couples, without getting bogged down with arguments about the moral status of homosexual behavior…

Many single mothers make great moms, but the ones I know are the first to say that nature (God) got it right with the complementary nature of the sexes, for both human reproduction and parenthood.

Trading a father or a mother for a third party lover may seem to make sense for the couple, but it will never make sense for the child.

But what is done is done. We now should celebrate the marvel of new life, a beautiful gift in every circumstance. I can understand why they are “ecstatic.”

I wish Mary, Heather and Mary’s child the very best.

Leave a comment if you feel so inspired, and let me know what you think.
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Update. When I wrote this original blog, I didn’t know what it would start. But this blog has now been viewed over 300 times, and the three blogs that I have written about homosexuality, this one and the other two I link to, have been viewed in total nearly 500 times. Ironically, the one that I think is probably the best, Gays in the Church, has been viewed the least amount of times!

So what does that tell me? Clearly, there are a lot of hurt people in the world that are really searching. I think that’s great that people are searching because it means that we at least still care. Sometimes I almost think we have grown so apathetic it doesn’t matter. But whether you agree with me or disagree, at least, by and large, you have viewpoints and many are passionate about that. Viewpoints need to be discussed. Be it in the comments here or elsewhere. When things aren’t talked about, things definitely don’t get better. When not talked about, suspicions grow, stereotypes reign, and progress don’t happen. At the very least, communication, if don’t honestly and in a real manner, at least will help us to understand why other people think what they do. There are some things, like sin in the Church, abortion, and other things that I am truly passionate about. But it wasn’t until I stopped talking my viewpoints and starting listening to others that I began to at least understand why someone believed something. God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we need to do twice as much listening as talking. Do I agree with those people now? By no means, but at least I understand and can relate and talk with them more now. And I pray that can be the start of something. God bless.

~ by unclewormwood on December 9, 2006.