Mark Riddle is talking some sense over at his site.
In addition to viewing kids as expendable culture gives no meaningful way to help children to become adults. There isn’t a marker or defining moment that declares “yesterday you where a child, today you are a man/woman.” Adolescence (the process of becoming an adult)(something we invented in the America) grows longer. As a result we have 28 year old teenagers all over the western world.
Jewish culture does a better job. But the church is silent on the issue. I believe the church is a culture shaping force. If it is this issue is a good place to start.
I hope to someday come up with a male initiation rite that the boys of the church can go through as a way of being welcomed into the community of men. One of the ways the men of the church can serve the boys of the church, especially those raised only by their mother, is initiating them into manhood. I’ve been told that girls don’t need the same kind of initiation into adulthood that men do as life hands them plenty of trials in the form of menstruation, pregnancy, and the men they love. Adulthood comes to most women naturally. It seems most boys need to be forced into it. Ladies, if I’m wrong, let me hear about it. (BTW–My wife says I’m right, and she’s smart.)
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons