I grew up singing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world,” believing it meant all children were mine to love. Yet in American Christianity, the sacralization of the nuclear family has too often shrunk our circle of care, leaving children outside our homes vulnerable to harm and exclusion.

As a Quaker minister, educator, and founding director of OAASIS, I have spent two decades listening to survivors, witnessing how one caring adult outside the home—a neighbor, a teacher, a coach—can change a life. These experiences compel me to ask: How has the American Christianity's idealization of the nuclear family contributed to otherizing and exclusion—and how might we imagine, nurture, and bless expansive models of family so that we truly see all children as our own?

This project will examine the theological and cultural history of the nuclear family, explore anthropological and neurobiological insights on care, and learn from alternative kinship practices—especially from Black, queer, and marginalized communities. The outcome will be a curriculum for faith communities and third spaces to widen their circles of care. My aim is to help people of faith embody the truth that all children are our children.