Super Bowl trans-racial adoptions

Trans-racial adoption is still controversial among some social workers, but the Super Bowl was an advertisement for it, for Christian compassion, and for God’s adoption of sinners.

Three star football players of color—San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and linebacker Patrick Willis, and Baltimore Ravens lineman Michael Oher of The Blind Side fame—benefited from foster care and adoption by white parents.

Oher and Willis, teammates at Ole Miss, are good friends who used to practice signing autographs in the living room of Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, Oher’s adoptive parents. Sean Tuohy told the Associated Press, “We’ve got a huge sign in our garage that says: ’We believe in miracles.’ For other people, it may be hard to understand that. For us, it’s easy.”

Easy—because they and the other parents who provided havens for Kaepernick, Oher, and Willis profess faith in Christ. They all faced difficulties, but they persevered—and all three young players profess faith in Christ. They show adoption is a wonderful expression of Christian compassion, and thankfulness that God adopts all who believe in Him.

Another story: Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis appears to be one of God’s adoptees. Lewis, who made yesterday’s game his last after 17 years in the NFL, has received lots of praise for his charitable work and lots of blame for his involvement in a murder tragedy 13 years ago, as well as his out-of-wedlock activity.

One WORLD reader wrote me last week, “A man who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in a murder trial, and who has fathered six children with four different women? Ray Lewis a role model? Nevermore.”

That’s a good point and Edgar Allen Poe reference, but the apostle Paul pled guilty to being an accomplice to murder, and God still used him mightily. Lewis’s six children out of wedlock: Clearly wrong, but Lewis recognizes that and has become part of his children's lives both with money and, more importantly, time.

Lewis’s sins are more public than most, but all of us are sinners totally dependent on God’s mercy. Following that murder trial in 2000 Lewis vowed, “Mama, you have a changed man.”

It appears that Lewis has changed in some ways but not others: Plenty remains to criticize, but that’s true of all of us. Bottom line: Any good he (or I) do is because God mercifully adopted us.