[Gocamino] USA Confraternity

[Glenn]

There was a book written a few years back called (I believe) Bowling Alone. 
It says what Rebekah mentioned about the declining membership in 
organizations by Americans.  I don't think it has to do with individualism 
because that was there when social organizations were very popular.  It has 
more to do with the "stressed out" feelings that many Americans have.  Life 
here now seems to be work, shopping, and TV/Internet.  There is much less 
social interchange than when I was growing up, and I am 60 now.  It was not 
the 24/7  culture that now makes up the American scene.  That is what I like 
about European Culture, they seem to have more time than we do to be social.

As for God or Religion associated with the Camino...I think that the vast 
majority of the people I met on my 2 Caminos were very spiritual people. 
That is one of the things I think is so special about the Camino.  But I do 
think that many were hurt in someways by organized religion, and are 
sensitive, perhaps overly so, to certain terminology.  When I went into the 
Army in 1968, I was a very religious young man.  When I was discharged in 
1972, I could not even enter a church without feeling angry and nauseous.  I 
could not understand how organized religion in the shape of the Chaplain 
Corps, could have been complicit in what I had experienced.  It took years 
for me to get over that, and I think that there are many other stories of 
people who have had these negative experiences.  Give them time...time will 
change them slowly...the Camino will change them quickly.

Glenn