Recently one of our men attended a ceremony for his grandson at the grandson's church. The ceremony was basically a "coming of age" ceremony. The boy was becoming a man. Our man commented how impressed he was with the ceremony and how big an impact it had made.
It got him wondering, and me as well. Unlike many tribes and peoples, our culture has little or no ceremonies for children, particularly boys, concerned with the passage into manhood. I can think of the Bar Mitzvah for Jewish boys, and the quinceanera for girls who reach the age of 15 in the Mexican culture.
How do boys become men? Who will help them? We live in culture that has largely demasculinized men. I wonder if this could be one reason for the large number of incarcerated men who admittedly had little or no good relationships with their fathers.
All of this has set me to find the answers to the questions. I also will do something I've never done before- preach a series of messages on fatherhood this May-June. We need to recover a sense of manhood in our churches and in our culture. It is also no secret that men are staying away from the church in droves. Perhaps a recovery of true manhood- modern day knighthod- complete with its rituals, training and mores could help.
I'm on a quest.
You are opening a can of worms on this one! I feel that this issue has a direct impact on most social problems that we are faced with today. When you turn on the news and see children "flushing" their own newborns down the toilet, people wonder how someone could do that? I think it goes right back to the head of households or maybe lack of head of households which directly link to the decay of our entire society. If mom and dad were home, doing the right things, setting examples and helping little Johnny, little Johnny would grow up and teach his kids right from wrong. Now we have kids having kids, no morality, no instilled sense of right from wrong; children living for the moment, instant gratification, no fear of consequence, no guilt, "I want it, I'll take it" mentality. Schools are tasked with taking mom and dads roles because dads in jail and mom is high somewhere. I will read what you have to say David, but you could make this a life long mission instead of a couple months. It gets my blood pressure up when I think of all the young men wasting away out there. If they had a litlle love and guidance they could be doing so many good things and positively influencing society. All of our social problems could be addressed if people started doing the right things in their homes and communities. There is a generation of men out there that do not have a clue about what being a man is. That is all of our fault. All of us need to reach out to these kids and help when we can. I will stop ranting now. If men took charge of their families, spent time with their kids, get involved with them in church and school, we could get back on track. It is just a mess and it upsets me. I know it has to upset God.
ReplyDeleteHello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the Home Theater, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://home-theater-brasil.blogspot.com. A hug.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need another 'promise-keepers' trend to come back and win over the 'un-refined, identity-crisis' young men of our nation.
ReplyDeletejust reach out and hug someone...
.samuel