Writer Kathryn Joyce explores the evangelical movement on the adoption industry in her new book "The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption"

Every so often we find infertile couples adopting children to complete their family. What we fail to recognize is the role of evangelical Christians when it comes to overseas adoption. According to writer Kathryn Joyce, this role is so big and powerful that if you are considering adoption, the likelihood is high that you will be working with a Christian agency.

In her new book "The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption", explores the evangelical movement on the adoption industry.

On the phrase "coming home" in the evangelical adoption movement

"That's the idea that, you know, you have found your child somewhere out there in the world, that your child is out there waiting for you, that God has destined this child to be in your family from the beginning of time and when you finally find this child, you know, through the process of going through an adoption, finding an adoption agency, paying a large fee and, you know, going through the whole process [and] then finally this child will be 'coming home.' "

On to what extent the impetus for international adoption is about spreading the faith

"After the other motivations for Christians getting involved in that ... I've kind of thought of it as maybe a third or a fourth or a fifth motivation. Somewhere in that ranking. There is absolutely a missionary or evangelizing angle. A lot of the leaders in this movement who have written some serious books talking about adoption of children as the way that Christians can best mirror the experience of their own salvation - that Christians were adopted by God and so Christians must reflect that experience by then going and adopting children. They've kind of promoted this as an idea of adoption theology or orphan theology. Implicit in that - key in that - is this idea that you are saving children twice: You are rescuing them physically from conditions you think they shouldn't have to live in and also you are saving their soul."

On the different understandings of "adoption" in different cultures

"The U.S. - the American - understanding of what adoption means is not universal. This is not the same idea or tradition that people have in other countries. There is a sort of adoption tradition in Ethiopia, but it's more like a guardianship: Your children are going somewhere for a time for a better opportunity and they will probably return, but there is never a severing of family ties which, in American adoption, that is kind of the cornerstone of the entire process is that this is a complete transferal of parental rights from one family to another and that does not exist in other countries."

On the veracity of information in adoption contracts

"These families sincerely do get very attached to the children and are very torn between, you know, what they're being told on one hand from an agency ... and, you know, suspicion that might start to creep up. And you know an interesting thing about agencies is ... they are not held responsible for telling adoptive parents the truth. A lot of adoptive parents need to contractually agree that they might be accepting misinformation from an agency. So I think this leaves a lot of those folks very vulnerable."

On whether street children are eligible for adoption

"This is the tragic paradox: that if people travel to Abba-Zaba you will probably be struck and heartbroken by the number of young children you will see without guardians begging on the street. And it's really quite terrible, but those children who are often referred to as 'street children' are almost categorically not available for adoption because of the way the system is set up. A paper trail is usually necessary to identify if a child is available to adopt, even if it's a paper trail that has been, you know, altered or seems to be fraudulent. ... If a child is just on the street there is almost no way that they are going to get into an orphanage and get into any sort of relationship with an adoption agency that can, you know, note them and say, 'Actually, here is a child who probably really does need a family to step in.' "