Guardian
Russian Orthodox church backs Putin’s ban on Russian adoptions by Americans
The Russian Orthodox church has been attacked for supporting a new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, at the end of a year that saw it plagued by scandal and accusations of collusion with an increasingly authoritarian Kremlin.
Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a high-ranking priest and a spokesman for the church, said the law was “a search for a social answer to an elementary question: why should we give, and even sell, our children abroad?”
Speaking to Interfax, a state news agency, last week, Chaplin said the path to heaven would be closed to children adopted by foreigners. “They won’t get a truly Christian upbringing and that means falling away from the church and from the path to eternal life, in God’s kingdom,” he said.
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Somewhere, Obama is furiously scribbling notes on a legal pad.
KingGold on December 30, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Well that is a shock? Guess the church wanted to stay open with putin in power, so they caved too?
Y’all are just hurting the poor children and American parents who would give them a loving home!
L
letget on December 30, 2012 at 1:44 PM
Aside from the children’s travesty, which is not to be discounted, it is high time that the UN and other azzhats, also Obama, promote that Russia, Mexico, India, Africa, and the rest of the world take care of their own children.
340 billion a year is spent by the US for illegal immigrants, just for starters.
Indians take private flight lessons in the US and their relatives die of leprocy in India. The UN denies that it still exists. I know first hand that it does. Only nuns take care of the ill because the UN doesn’t acknowledge its existence.
Wake up entire world. YOU are full of leftist hypocrites who are no more than tyrannical extremists. It offends humanity and destroys the children.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 1:47 PM
Well, it’s not like the Russian Orthodox Church is distinguishable from the government in any meaningful way.
steebo77 on December 30, 2012 at 1:55 PM
Also, AmeriKa should look after her own, legal citizen, children.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Are their no American children that need adopting?
Last time i checked..we didn’t have a shortage.
Why spend 10′s of thousands to adopt over seas
when we have thousands of
our own children here who need a loving home?
Many rotting in group homes and
moved around the foster care system.
I do not agree with this political game and using children as pawns and the bought off Orthodox church chiming in.
Just a question.
A friend in business I have has spent 3 years
trying to adopt a child in Ethiopia. (still no child)
Thousands upon thousands of dollars and dealing with games by their Govt.
They too have a small quota on how many they
let through adoption.
Whats the reasoning behind skipping
children here and adopting over seas?
Apparently, you have to be quite wealthy too.
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 2:17 PM
there
thierbazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Indeed, bazil9, indeed. Expect to be pilloried for thinking/writing this.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 2:24 PM
heh..wouldn’t be the 1st time Shad.
I worked with juveniles after college, in corrections and other area’s.
Many came from growing up in the system.
I had to testify in a few cases as well-when I worked in a diff dept.
I worked closely with the social services division at the county sheriff’s office. I became good friends with one of the foster care case managers. A guardian ad litem too. Eye opening.
SOOOOOOO
How I feel. Fire away.
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 2:38 PM
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 2:17 PM
I’ve always been under the impression that its more costly and more difficult to adopt American kids.
El_Terrible on December 30, 2012 at 2:38 PM
As I understand it, people go over seas to adopt because waiting lists for children in the US are extremely long, it’s no less expensive, and it’s a bureaucratic nightmare.
Blake on December 30, 2012 at 2:42 PM
I have heard that one of the reasons, mothers/dad of said kid here in the US might want the kid back whenever she want them? And lots of times the courts side with the real mother? That could be one reason for overseas adoptions?
In any case, the adoptive parents are being held hostage when countries or courts make things so hard for them.
L
letget on December 30, 2012 at 2:46 PM
There is absolutely a shortage of kids in the US to adopt. First of all, the system always errs on the side of placing kids back with the parent(s) or family member, so the overwhelming number of kids in foster homes are kids who have a family member who are willing to have them back but aren’t deemed ready by the system for whatever reason, drug abuse, domestic violence, etc. But these kids are not up for adoption because the parent or other family custodian will not sign away rights. Also with no stigma on unwed mothers, babies hardly ever come up for adoption.
So many babies and children are adopted from China because in China something simple like a cleft lip that can be treated with surgery is looked upon as a person defect and they do rot in group homes. And the over abundance of unwanted girls of course.
There is absolutely a lot more kids that are open for adoptions from other countries. In the US, the foster parents are really doing the hard work of saving the kids that need it, but they never know when the child may be taken from them. But they are truly providing those foster kids a loving home that might never experience one otherwise.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Expose Obama and the other azzhats who promote it, likely leftists.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 2:54 PM
From the description of the articles on this last couple days and my friends emails asking for prayers about it taking 3 years to adopt a little girl in Ethiopia and thousands of dollars spent..and the effed up Govt games there..
Sounds like a nightmare to me.
Many become a foster parent and then go from there.
I believe it is new born babies where it is costly and difficult w/
private adoption.
babies without disabilities,defects or drug addicted.
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 2:56 PM
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 2:48 PM
Plenty of misery to solve in the US.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 2:57 PM
No one will say it – white kids from Russia.
Schadenfreude on December 30, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Yes, foreign adoption can be expensive and a long process as well. But it is not due to a lack of demand. Yes there is misery in the US, but being a foster parents is a hard road to travel and not for everyone, I commend those who can. But there are many, many parents in the US who would love to raise an unwanted child from another country as their own giving them all the love and financial benefits thy have to offer, and a lot of unwanted children in other countries who need that. I don’t get your point that there is something wrong with that because there are other irrelevant unhappiness here in this country? Like parents who want kids to love and raise shouldn’t be allowed to adopt unwanted kids from other countries until they’ve made the US 100% perfect? It makes no sense.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 3:04 PM
Marriage of Church and State. What conservatives want for America.
lester on December 30, 2012 at 3:05 PM
And it had nothing to do with white kids from Russia. My pastor adopted a girl from China and twins from Africa, most countries there don’t allow adoption. Most people who can’t bear children and want them desperately could care less the color and would give anything for African countries to open to adoption.
Ironically I have another friend who is white with an Asian husband with two mixed race little girls and adopted a white boy from Russia. They obviously could care less about skin color.
Stop talking about stuff you know nothing about.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 3:09 PM
Nothing but the state. What leftist moe-lesters want for
Americathe world.andycanuck on December 30, 2012 at 3:11 PM
You bring up an interesting and relevant topic. But, to remain reality based, we need to observe that at the moment it’s American conservatives that are fighting against the marriage of Church and State with regards to Hobby Lobby and the Catholic Church (among others) fighting mandates from the Federal Government. So, in practice, the Left is currently pushing for this marriage – not the right (libertarians or conservatives).
aryeung on December 30, 2012 at 3:19 PM
Greetings, professor.
22044 on December 30, 2012 at 3:23 PM
people like to adopt babies and babies are in short supply in the US adoption system, especially white babies, which are the highest preference of the adopting population.
Lots of kids in the US system are older, from ‘troubled’ backgrounds, and are black. That makes them harder to place since most people adopting don’t want to deal with that combination.
None of this says anything about the motives of any one set of adoptive parents, or that their bad people or anything. I’m speaking in aggregate terms. White Russian baby is easier than Chinese toddler is easier than Black American child. That’s just the reality of it.
theblackcommenter on December 30, 2012 at 3:36 PM
Kids without families don’t much care what color skin their parents have, just that they have secure arms to wrap around them. The reason many of us go overseas is because of misery wrought by the gov’t. The children are used as pawns between inept social workers, judges with good intentions but little horse sense, and birth parents looking for yet one more second chance to get their stuff stacked. By the time parental rights are severed, these children have been emotionally and physically been through a wringer and may never recover. Giving them “back” is not as difficult as what you’re giving them back to. That said, a child in foster care is nowhere near the tragedy of a child left to the Darwinian communist subsistence at 14-16, left on their own with no connections, no skills, no social welfare system.
As someone who has spent extensive time behind the doors of an orphanage, and having children who were almost ruined by it, I can’t expect you to see it the same way I do. The tragedy of it is seeing that apparently some kids are seen as less deserving of love and adoption than others in your eyes and many others’, simply because of where they were born. That’s pretty bigoted and myopic. Also the blanket assumption that we are all adopting infants who “match” us. Most of us just see children who need families, and we meet the physical, emotional, and medical needs they bring with them. My children were adopted with special needs, don’t match me, and neither of us much care. They have a family, and there are a couple fewer orphans in the world. And there are thousands of families like mine, just doing what we can, one at a time, regardless of where they were born.
hoosiermama on December 30, 2012 at 3:52 PM
I beg to differ. Many that adopt from Russia to so to save the hard children that dont get the opportunities there they would in the us. Read this, every word, brazil9 and schad especially.
http://oureyesopened.org/2012/12/618.html
Especially note this paragraph near the end.
You might ask, “Why can’t Russian families
Putin is a monster.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Just to clarify, my beg to differ was to theblackcommenter that people make adoptive decisions based on ease or color. Many do to save the children they think have the least chance otherwise. Given, some want the most “normal” child because they don’t believe they have the ability to raise a special needs child, so I guess you are saying more to the extent it effects the situation they feel they are able to handle, but even there I don’t think that is contributing to an unfilled need in the US. Maybe as far as a need for foster parents, but that is a really hard thing most don’t feel they can handle emotionally, getting attached to a child that might be taken away.
I know some do worry about providing the best cultural experience for a child of different color, but I really do not think that is common and among the handful friends I have that have adopted, actually all have been different races and really no qualms about that aspect. Now that I think of it, white friends of ours that live in the deep south also adopted two Hispanic boys as toddlers (talk about from 0 to 60 in seconds) and I asked them if they encounter much bigotry because of it and they said not really.
So I have white friends that adopted from china, Africa, and even native American territories, crazy paperwork process with that one! And then the friend who adopted from Russia is an interacial couple, white/Asian. I think the racial aspect is over stated. I agree with hoosiermama there.
Anyone with money that cares about that stuff is just going to pay for tons of in vitro fertilization or a surrogate mother.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 4:49 PM
You lost me with the sanctimonious attitude to Shad.
And how do you know what he knows? So he should just shut up?
He made a valid point.
1/2 the children in our system are black. A large # of all the children from birth on have behavioral and developmental issues. That is exceeding difficult and takes a special couple to handle it and harder to place those children.
Your experience doesn’t make what he said irrelevant. I am genuinely happy for the children your pastor and friends decided to raise.
This is an inconvenient truth-right here..part of the problem.
theblackcommenter on December 30, 2012 at 3:36 PM
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 3:53 PM
Yeah..I read every word..thanks..I usually read every other word of a post.
I don’t deny Putin is filth in a suit. Look at the entire planet. Suffering and misery across the globe. I didn’t ask why Russians aren’t adopting their own. Or any other country-I get it. My point was that we are not even taking care of our own children here. I’ve walked in neighborhoods that resembled 3rd world hell holes I had the pleasure of traveling to.
Children right here living in squalor,war zones,violence, raised by the streets,institutions, group homes and foster care placements-on and on. What about OUR children? I worked in it and it left me disgusted.
I have no problem with people who adopt out side the US and want to give children a loving,secure home and life. Or Charity abroad. God Bless them and all that foster families do here and those who continue to fight. What pisses me off is that some people conjure up outrage about what goes on in other countries but cant seem to muster giving a damn about our own dirty house. This isn’t about you or directed at you personally.
So, yet again-we have another broken system that doesn’t change
- just another bureaucratic mess. Fails our children. Another problem to turn a blind eye to. To hard here..go somewhere else. Nice message to our children in need.
The fact that Putin is a monster doesn’t change the fact our system is broken and an embarrassing failure.
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 5:17 PM
On the issue of the disproportionate number black kids in the system, and why there aren’t more white families adopting them, perhaps you need to ask the National Association of Black Social Workers that question, as to why it’s discouraged. Apparently, skin color IS an issue–to social workers. And they have a very hard time finding enough black foster families to foster/adopt these kids the “correct” way, that preserves and celebrates their culture–the culture that put them into this situation in the first place. The breakdown of the black family unit has been one of the most discouraging things to witness.
Yes, it would be ideal if no children here needed forever families, but at some point families just get tired of fighting bureaucracy.
hoosiermama on December 30, 2012 at 5:30 PM
Brazil9, when you said this
Is when you proved you didn’t know what you are talking about. And when Shad said it had anything to do about white kids from russia I got pissed off. A shortage of adoptable kids is exactly why people are adopting overseas, also to save them from the horrid conditions thy are in there, the likes of which is nothing like any personnor animal receives in Thai contry.
No we are not perfect here. But to imply what’s the big deal about adopting overseas when there are so many kids that need help here is ridiculous. First of all, many of the kids need help here are not up for adoption. And it’s not like no one here is willing to help them, there are tons of people and organizations publically and privately giving of their time any money to help those in need in inner cities and other awful conditions in this country. No society will ever be perfect, there will always be sufferig, some will be able to be eased, some won’t. It’s just stupid to bring it into the actual topic here.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 6:01 PM
To reiterate, this is a straw man. I have confidence we as a society can work to fix broken systems here while still allowing childless families to adopt overseas orphans. It’s not like one or the other. Moron.
rose-of-sharon on December 30, 2012 at 6:06 PM
“I have no problem with people who adopt out side the US and want to give children a loving,secure home and life. Or Charity abroad. God Bless them and all that foster families do here and those who continue to fight.”
Miss this ya stupid sanctimonious bi$ch?
I gave you respect..mistake.
Later rose full of thorns.
bazil9 on December 30, 2012 at 6:39 PM