11.17.2005

Becoming A Man

I have been doing a lot of reflecting and reading into the faith and moral development of adolescents. One of the major things our contemporary American society lacks is rites of passage that clearly induct children to the adult world as full fledged adults. In the Hebrew world of the New Testament, the first a male reads from the Torah in the synagogue he ceases to be a boy and becomes a man. From there he is to contribute to society as a worker, husband, and father-- all around the age of 13-15. This is so different from our world, yet the hints of it are still visible, especially in adolescent sexual development. One of the reasons why sexuality may be such an issue for teens is that a 14 year old Jewish boy in Jesus' day was engaging in sex (legally and morally) whereas this is not the way of our culture. What do you all think about this? Has society evolved in that 14 year olds are not to marry or should we revert to such a system?