What Does "Adult" Mean?

Excerpt from a Substack by O Alan Noble, who writes of bringing a group of teen boys back from Christian camp and driving past a dilapidated building in the country with a neon sign ADULT out front.

And here was a sign that took the good thing they were working toward (becoming an adult) and used it to represent the very opposite of adulthood: being controlled by your passions, lusts, and sins. And it seems to me that there is something very perverse about calling pornography “adult content.” It implies that adults are people who give in to their passions and indulge in their sins, which is true on some level because of our sin nature, but should not positively define adulthood. And it also perverse because we need adults to be mature, safe, self-controlled, responsible and godly. The word “Adult” shouldn’t have connotations with pornography. It should call to mind those higher qualities.

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Why to Read Fiction, Idea #27: Empathy, anyone?

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