“Chuck Joyner, the assistant general manager for Pearl’s ministry, No Greater Joy, said the organization had heard from some of the hundreds of people who had adopted from Liberia. “Many, if not the majority, of the families encounter problems so severe that they had to give up the children,” he said. Pearl worried on his website that some of his followers’ Liberian children were “well-versed in all the dark arts of eroticism and ghastly perversion.”
Online, parents began writing that their adopted children were manipulative and wild, compulsive liars or thieves, and sometimes violent. “There are two languages in Liberia,” wrote one mother, “English and lying.” Families described the distressing ways the kids reacted to reprimands, from unresponsive pouting to uncontrollable wailing. Some regarded it as manifestations of PTSD, while others saw defiance. The adoptions began to fail.”
- Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession | Mother Jones
Online, parents began writing that their adopted children were manipulative and wild, compulsive liars or thieves, and sometimes violent. “There are two languages in Liberia,” wrote one mother, “English and lying.” Families described the distressing ways the kids reacted to reprimands, from unresponsive pouting to uncontrollable wailing. Some regarded it as manifestations of PTSD, while others saw defiance. The adoptions began to fail.”
- Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement’s Adoption Obsession | Mother Jones