Religious assimilation

In chapter 9, "Matisyahu and 'My Fair Lady': Reflections on Adult Language Socialization", Benor writes:

"One major difference between the socialization of BTs and FFBs is the timing of the stages. For FFB children, access and responsibility increase when they reach a new age, a new grade, or a new level of maturity. Their process of legitimate peripheral participation is, to some extent, institutionalized. BTs, on the other hand, must take the initiative and seek out new stages themselves. In, addition, young children do not have access to some of the self-teaching practices that adult BTs do, like web searches dictionaries, and recorded lectures," (Benor, "Becoming Frum", p. 189)

In this context, language and the ability to articulate oneself through a certain vernacular becomes a gauge of not only assimilation but maturation, as one of many indicators of progression through religious culture. This engenders the question: what is religious maturation, if such a concept even exists/is operational and has affect in religious thought/practice/belief? This presents a problem for the convert particularly: how does one, a convert, assimilate themselves into a new religious structure when the rituals/rites of that structure, that create that structure, are integral on an already pre-defined trajectory of maturation through the religion itself, a trajectory which often runs parallel to biological age and social maturation? Or maybe this not so problematic: as in christianity, baptism allows the convert to be initiated and to become assimilated through rite in a set of pre-defined rites. Maybe the more illustrative and complicated question is: how does religious initiation occur, through what medium (language, rite, hallucination), and what affects are produced.