Chapter 1 discusses the practical failure of the evangelical orphan care movement. It draws on available data on adoption and foster care participation as well as recent surveys of Americans to demonstrate that, despite the considerable efforts of the movement to mobilize Christians to adopt more or foster more, there is no evidence to suggest that they have been successful. Both at the national and state level, adoption and fostering have not increased over the last fifteen years among non-relatives, even in states where the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) would seemingly have the most potential to mobilize Christian families to adopt or foster. Other evidence suggests that American Christians or evangelicals, as recently as 2013, are not significantly more likely than other Americans to adopt or foster children. The remaining chapters of the book will focus on explaining why evangelical efforts to mobilize Americans to adopt or foster more children have been so practically ineffective.
Abandoned Children of the Italian Renaissance: Orphan Care in Florence and Bologna
