Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2009

Search, Ponder and Pray; part 3

In part 1 and part 2 we have examined the scriptures and the research data cited by LDS Family Services in support of the church's policy on unwed mothers and adoption. We've also looked for evidence that unwed mothers have received a confirming revelation regarding the policy. Finally, we began the process of examining the policy in light of the life and teachings of Jesus. So far there hasn't been a lot to recommend the policy. This post will continue the examination of the policy in light of Jesus' earthly ministry. I just know that someone is going to argue that encouraging the mother to give the baby up protects her from the stigma and shame of being an unwed mother. It would be fairly easy to dispose of this argument by pointing out that more than a third of the babies born in the United States are to unwed mothers. The social mores of the general society assigns no stigma or shame to being an unwed mother, or to being a single mother. In a bygone era perhaps ther

Search, Ponder & Pray.. Part 2

In yesterday's post we examined the scriptures (all four of the LDS Standard Works) for guidance supporting giving a child born to an unwed mother up for adoption, and found none. We also looked at the "policy" of the LDS Church and the research support contained in articles in the Ensign. Here we found disingenuous use of biased data that by its own definition was inconclusive. Quite a bit to ponder here, but we're not finished with our search quite yet. I could now post excerpts from studies that indicate that adoptions are harmful to the mother, the baby, or both. And like the church likes to do with Ensign articles, I can present anecdotal stories of adoptions that will bolster the position that this is a bad policy. Where the church points to LDS Family Services and other pro-adoption organizations, I can point to organizations of adopted children, relinquishing birth mothers, and even adoptive parents who have experienced failed adoptions that present an very

Searching, Pondering and Praying...

My unmarried 18 year-old step-daughter recently found herself pregnant. The father is absent and wants nothing to do with the child or its mother. Our family is torn in its views of whether she should give the baby up for adoption or keep the child. My wife and I both feel that she should keep the baby; my father-in-law, an LDS Bishop, and his wife feel that the baby should be placed for adoption. Lessa, my step-daughter, claims to have researched and prayed for guidance, but she is unwilling to discuss her research or to consider any of the counsel her mother and I have offered. From the reports I've received, she has not sought counsel from her grandparents, or from the social workers at LDS Family Services. Her decision, made much earlier than necessary appears to be shallow and not well thought out from both sides. This post, then will be about my personal search for guidance in this matter. I am posting it rather than keeping it to myself because I believe that others may ben