Data still shows that Christian families in the US are more likely to adopt or foster children and are more likely to be aware of the needs of vulnerable children and families in the child welfare system. Similarly, a significant portion of churches encourages their congregants to engage in foster care and adoption and provide support for families who do.
Over the past two decades, Christians in the US and beyond have mobilized to live out their historic calling to care for vulnerable children and families–part of what James 1:27 describes as “pure religion.”
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27).
While this rekindled engagement in the space of foster care and adoption has included challenges and hard-earned wisdom along the way, data shows that US Christians remain committed to caring for vulnerable children in their communities. While measuring this engagement is challenging, the data paints a consistent picture of high Christian involvement in foster care and adoption at the family, community and church levels.
Christians are more likely to foster or adopt than the general population.
2013 research released by the Barna Group showed that US Christians were engaging in foster care and adoption at higher levels than the general population. At the time, 5% of surveyed Christians had adopted, double rate of the general population (2%). Within the Christian community, Catholics were three times as likely, and evangelicals were five times as likely to adopt as the average adult.
Similarly, Barna research indicated that Christians were more likely to have been foster parents (3%) than the general population (2%).
Christians are more likely to be familiar with the systems of foster care and adoption.
2024 research from the Bipartisan Policy Center showed that people for whom religion plays a major role in life were nearly 50% more likely than those with minimal religious commitments to be familiar with the child welfare system.
For Christians, this familiarity is likely partially because they see caring for vulnerable children as part of their calling and part of a faithful response to Scripture. 77% of practicing Christians believe that people of faith have a personal responsibility to adopt.
In addition, Christians are familiar with foster care and adoption because people in their communities – including their churches – have engaged in foster care and adoption.
Research conducted by Lifeway in 2022 showed that 16% of churchgoers knew someone from their church who had provided foster care over the past year. And 13% said that someone in their congregation had adopted a child from the US in the past year. This survey showed a decline in engagement from a 2017 Lifeway Survey, but still shows significant exposure to the world of child welfare in congregations across the US.
There’s an increasing emphasis by congregational leaders on the importance of foster care and adoption.
44% of churchgoers surveyed by Lifeway in 2022 said their church and its leaders are involved in adoption and foster care in at least one of seven different ways. 45% said they had not seen any involvement, and 11% weren’t sure.
In terms of specific areas of engagement, churchgoers said that they had seen church leaders encourage families to consider adoption (16%), encourage congregants to provide foster care (17%), raise funds for adoptions (18%), and provide training for foster parents (10%). In all four of these areas, churches were more engaged compared to the 2017 Lifeway research.
This data paints a beautiful picture of how Christians in the US are embracing their calling to care for vulnerable families in their own communities, even as current foster care statistics show children and families need Christians to engage at an even greater scale in our communities.
If you’re looking for resources and support to deepen your engagement in the space of US foster care and adoption, check out these initiatives from CAFO:
- More Than Enough – Helping communities in the US work together to transform foster care where they live.
- Pure Religion Project – Inspiring churches to pursue a holy and helpful vision of discipleship and action.
- The Institute for Family-Centered Healing and Health – Promoting the long-term flourishing of Christian foster and adoptive families.
