Have you seen the new move, “Orphan?” It’s as poor a piece of Hollywood trash as has come out recently. The Washington Post said this about it:
“a depraved, worthless piece of filth…a high-gloss
horror show about a well-meaning couple who bring home a 9-year-old
girl to join their family, only to discover, way too late, that she’s a
homicidal psychopath.”
Who could dream up a plot that depicts an orphan as a villain? Both the Christian press (see Orphans Deserve Better) and the mainstream press (New York Times, New York Times 2) have panned it.
I want to challenge my readers and friends to write 500 positive
blog posts about how an orphan has impacted and changed your life.This
is the heart of defending orphans. Help push back the darkness and
deceit here by holding up as an example the powerful love that adoption
and orphan care can unleash.
Let me ask you to join Tom and I in this protest. Many of you have been positively impacted by an orphan at some point in your life. Some of you may even be an orphan whose life has been impacted by people who cared for you. If you’re one, let’s help Tom reach his goal of 500 positive posts. Please post a comment here (or write your own blog if you have one). Let’s defend the cause of the orphan today.
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seth…
technically i have not been involved with any orphans. in all my years of working with and living with children at risk, the only “orphans” i’ve known are the ones whose parents’ rights have been taken away by the courts.
none the less, each and every one of these children have impacted me tremendously over the years.
i’m mortified that mainstream movie theaters have contracted to show this trash…
My mum put me in a home when I was born. My Dad did a runner when she was 4 months pregnant and I am no homicidal psychopath.I am disgusted that people have such warped minds to depict those that have been rejected and hurt by those that should have loved them in such an evil manner. The people who wrote this script must be very detached from their own conciences and have very dark hearts. I feel sorry for them.
Maybe I should produce a film about movie makers called ” Just how dark is your heart? You REALLY need Jesus! ”
I have been positively impacted by too many orphans to list – but the most recent one was perhaps a lady named Katie living in Rose Hill, VA… She is one of the most faith-filled people I have ever met. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother died when she was just 6 years old. She and her 5 siblings were shuffled around to relatives’ homes, but in the end no one really wanted them, so they were all shipped off to a Methodist Children’s Home in Kentucky when Katie was about to turn 8. Until she turned 18, that was home and she recounted to me how grateful she was for all the love and opportunities they received there…
She is now facing hardship once again with her husband Kenny who lost his job after 19 years, had multiple heart attacks (no insurance) and now must have round-the-clock care. They have $350K in medical bills and live in a camper with no plumbing, no electricity. But God has begun to answer their fervent prayers. My client, Appalachia Service Project, took on repairing the little home on their property – and in a few weeks, they will have running water, electricity, and their little “shantyshack of love” as they call it.
She is so thrilled, you’d have thought they won the lottery – “God’s plans are so much better than ours” she kept saying. She could have bemoaned her life and circumstances – they are hard, for sure. But THAT little orphan’s faith and gratitude shines like a beacon on a hill…
Seth:
One incredibly special little orphan girl from Hunan Province China forever changed our lives when she became part of our family 14 years ago. I can’t imagine life without her and how much we would have missed out on if she wasn’t our daughter. She has been such a precious gift from God. We are so blessed to have her as part of our family.
Kevin
My parents adopted my sister as a baby 5 years before I was born. We grew up as “normal” siblings and have become very close over the years. Our family was dysfunctional in many ways, yet she has shone as an anchor of normality with her upbeat, strong, encouraging & positive attitide. We are very close now, and almost like twins in our attitudes, beliefs, eating habits, taste in clothes & decorating, and compassion & empathy toward others. I love her extremely & she still is an anchor in my life!
I was a FYM in Swaziland about a year ago and my life has been changed completely by an orphan named Rosa. Rosa had a very difficult life but was still full of the joy of the Lord. Her joy was contagious and she has changed my presepective on life completely.
I recently went on the Ambassador two week trip to Puerto Rico and one of our days of ministry our team went to an orpahnage a few miles away from where we were staying. The orphans were definitely not homocidal children but children with pure and sincere joy. They were joyful despite their circumstances and were able to love with their whole hearts. I team went to bless the orphans but we came back being truly blessed. It’s horrible that Hollywood has to make a movie that potrays orphans as homocidal killers because they are completely the opposite!
Thanks, Seth. Appreciate this posting and also the idea you are emulating from Tom. It’s a good one. You know that orphans and the Biblical ethic for that community of the hopeful has been a personal passion since 1987 when I went on the board of Holt International Children’s Services which pioneered inter-country adoption as we know it today. In those days it was difficult to mobilize broad efforts to focus the church on the cause. Many of the board meetings I attended had people who had been around from sometime after the Korean War when the model for international adoption was launched by what became Holt. When you look at the stories of Harry and Bertha Holt it still amazes me how God used this simple couple. He was a lumberman from Creswell, Oregon and she his partner in everything. Unwilling to accept the sadness of Korean war related orphans he jumped on a plane and did something about it. That same spirit of the spiritual “entrepreneur” influences that tribe of Christians who are committed to “make things happen”.
I’m glad for the ongoing work with Holt which continues to be the leader in orphan work worldwide. And I am thankful for the good efforts of AIM and those affiliated with the venture you started years ago.
More than anything our son Samuel (19) and daughter Tatiana (22) are living epistles to the power of Holt’s mission which is, “Every child deserves a home of their own”. George Steiner used to tell some people that observing the patterns of adoption with Sam and Tatiana helped his decision to launch Children’s HopeChest. That was a blessing to hear at the time and is so today as that ministry grows.
Let’s all join in meeting this challenge.
I’ll do my part.
I know a young man who is alone in this world. His mother abandoned him as a child and his father died two years ago. He has had a very sad, tough life, but he has fought through every depressing circumstance and become a caring friend to many. I really admire his courage.
Orphan advocacy is the mission of my blog. The fact that a movie like this is even made just shows the depravity of our current film industry.
I almost don’t know where to start! Orphans have had a huge impact on my life! I think first of the many foster children who lived with my parents while I was growing up. Most were not literal orphans, but rather those whose parents could not care for them for whatever reason. One of those babies was abandoned completely by his natural parents and became my adopted brother. He has many mental and physical disabilities and can be challenging (he is 19 yrs old now), but he has probably impacted more people than any of the rest of us simply through his joy and enthusiasm for others!
Another groups of orphans close to my heart are those living at the Tijuana Christian Mission. For seventeen years Gabe and I have been involved with the ministry there, and many of the kids have been close to our hearts as we have watched them grow up. Some of my best times with God have been during my times of serving and loving in that ministry. True joy and peace often elude me in my spoiled American life, and yet I find it in the children’s faces and hugs there!
Truly, when God calls us to love the orphans, He knows that it teaches us more about God’s heart and love for us and the world around us. We have the chance to be Jesus to the orphans, and they have the chance to be Jesus to us. “For as much as you did for one of those, you did it for me!”
One of my best friends was orphaned and given up for adoption by her mother when her biological father committed suicide. Her then adoptive father committed suicide, to which, her beautiful adopted mother remarried a wonderful man. Through this horrible chain of extreme circumstances, my friend, is one of the most caring, gifted, beautiful, generous, lively, kind, balanced, mature and most wise people I know, not to mention hilarious! I also was put in a foster home for 6 weeks as a new born until my mother and her sisters came and got me, so I too was nearly an orphan!! There’s nothing crazy about me except my heart for God lol!
I’m in Australia, and it hasn’t hit us yet and maybe it won’t, but the fact that it has still been produced and shown is disgusting!
These warped messages through media make for warped minds for the immature, impressionable and unguided. I fully support this blog petition against this movie.
Warner Brothers new horror movie, “Orphan” proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. Let me tell you about how an orphan changed my life…
When I was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2007 for a mission trip to minister to the orphans and widows of Africa, I became ill. I was in my motel room throwing up, with fever, etc… Our mission team had to fly out that morning because we were returning back to the city to visit an orphanage that took in newborns and very young orphans. I was so upset because when I finally got the strength to get out of bed and pack up, I found my suitcase engulfed with thousands of ants. They were all over everything and I barely had the strength to shake them off all of my things and get my suitcase down the stairs to get in a van to the airport. What in the world!!! Could I have had a worse start to my day?!? Needless to say, I made it through the flight and soon began to feel a little better.
Later that afternoon we went to the orphanage. I could barely go in because of the stench. I looked in the infant room and there laid 15-20 crying babies. Many of them were hungry, and many were soiled because there was not enough staff to change them, much less hold them.
I held a few babies but then felt compelled to go on. I proceeded on to another room where the toddlers were kept. As I turned the corner and looked in the room, there was this joyful little girl reaching up to me with open arms. She was about 4-5 months old. She was a happy baby despite being left there to lay hooked up to an IV all alone. I could not take my eyes off of her and she was waving and kicking with a huge smile inviting me to hold her. I found a nurse and asked if I could pick her up. The nurse translated that it would be best not to because she was so weak and needed fluids. When I reluctantly looked down at the little girl, I noticed that she had red marks/whelps all over her body. I asked the nurse what was exactly wrong with this little one. The nurse told me that one of the staff had found this little girl about a week ago in an alley. The little girl had been found wrapped up in a trash bag and left for dead. Luckily the hyenas had not eaten her, but when they got the little girl out of the trash bag, she had almost been bitten to death by ANTS!!!! I just fought with ants earlier that morning- what in the world…. Not only did this little girl survive suffocating to death, hyenas, but also being eaten alive by ants!
I almost dropped to my knees. The pain that suddenly pierced my heart was too much. I ran into a nearby closet and wept. HERE was this beautiful, smiling little girl that was full of joy to see me- after suffering a tremendous, hideous experience…. and what had I just been complaining about? A little stomach virus and ANTS in my suitcase- what an inconvenience for me! The feelings of guilt, of complete helplessness, conviction, and of humbleness overwhelmed me. WHO was I to complain about one inch of pain in MY life!!!! I went back to look at this little angel and thank her. I thanked her for being Jesus to me. Despite her stripes, she showed love and joy towards me and towards life. Where would this little girl go? Would she make it through the infection? Or would she go home to be with her heavenly daddy or stay in this orphanage to live a life alone? Did God save her to teach me a lesson? Why did she survive when so many babies left in the streets do not?
All that I knew was that this orphan changed my life. She showed me Jesus, she was Jesus. I had come to Africa to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and instead found Him here in this little girl. I will NEVER forget that angel’s face and the lesson she taught me. I am blessed, and no matter how bad my day may seem or how sick I feel, there are orphans that are experiencing a living hell each day. I am changed forever and have seen the face of God in these children, but especially that day, in that precious little girl.
As a foster mom i know some kids are more challenging than others, but all worthwhile.
It is not possible to chronicle the ways these children have enhanced my life and the lives of my daughter and husband.
I can tell you the most important lesson I learned, a broken heart does heal. Each time my kids were reunited with their parents my heart broke a little more. I’d never trade it. I rest in the fact that God knows the path of these children and that helps heal my broken heart.
This movie concept is wretched and disgusting. Did anyone wonder at all how the adopted or waiting to be adopted kids would process this film?
We are planning to adopt soon. Only a select few will adopt a child. I just hope that this movie doesn’t increase the number of families that won’t adopt. There are already too many orphans out there as it is.
An orphan will face so many things in her/his childhood than we will ever face in a lifetime. Many of us have no idea what it means to not have parents, to be by ourselves, to walk 4 miles a day for food, and to not have any hope in anything. But God is so at work and alive all around these children. He holds them in His hands, I have no doubt. I was in Swaziland- Nsoko this summer and if anything changed me, it was the kiddos. They have real joy; they know real anguish.
While I was there God spoke to me and said “What if those who are called “blessed” (by the world’s standards) aren’t, and those who aren’t called “blessed” (by the world’s standards) are…?” It hit me. We have no idea what it means to be blessed. We have stuff, but I don’t believe “stuff” blesses me at all. They are blessed because they know what it truly means to trust in the Lord with their whole lives…for their next meal…maybe a dose of pain medication while they are suffering. I believe these are the “blessed” people of the world- because those who know Jesus live it out because they have so much to trust in God for. 🙂 Just my thoughts…
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I was an au pair in Holland for a family who had adopted an orphan from China. She was only 18 months old but she took my heart in her hands as I helped her assimilate into her Dutch family. Watching her grow into her place as their daughter, learn to speak Dutch and understand English, and blossom from a timid, shy toddler, to a happy, laughing, loving little girl changed my life. I could not bear to think of any little child growing up in an orphanage, or worse yet, on the streets, when they could become part of a family as she had.
I returned to my home in the States and found a job with Nightlight Christian Adoptions. I get to help find families for children every day, and often those families consist of parents who are the most devoted to their children and so appreciative of the opportunity they have to finally parent a child. It is so beautiful to witness. Adoption is truly, truly a blessing.
Have any of you touchy idiots even bothered to even WATCH the movie, or at LEAST read a thorough description of it? The said “Orphan” in the movie isn’t ACTUALLY a 9 year old “orphan”. She was described to be a 33 year old homicidal psychopath who suffered from a birth defect that wouldn’t let her age properly. She used that to her advantage, and therefore took refuge in an orphanage. KNOW YOUR FACTS, idiots.