Hi ricksca.
I read your post a few days ago. The subject caught my attention not only because of the intelligent way in which you expressed it but also because it struck familiar chords.
I thought I'd take some time to meditate more on it and organize the following, still tangential, thoughts.
I have a good, non-religious, Sephardic friend, with whom I've been speaking about doing a
Camino de Santiago for some time. He’s a carbon copy of what you wrote about your friend, zero exceptions.
He’s told me that he would feel uncomfortable walking under the stars that spoused the suffering and banning of his people for so long.
I’ve shared with him that it may be time to clean up some karma and move on.
“Easier said than done,” he told me once, “when you haven’t had members of your family killed in a concentration camp.”
What can one say to that?
So this is going to be more about me.
Like you, I describe myself as a non-believer. Matter of fact, and to be precise, I lost the vestiges of my faith during the middle of a Camino Portugues, of all places, a couple of Decembers ago. It culminated with a long conversation I had with Don Genaro, whom I had met quite by chance in the cathedral's office, as the Oficina del Peregrino was closed. He had just been named prelate in charge of the Oficina. The rap lasted a couple of hours or so, the man was very nice, and that was that.
I mean, what can you reply to someone who tells you, serenely, that he has stopped believing in what he had been programmed all his life to profess?
Likewise, I also describe myself as "spiritual." I dunno why whenever I say that am not a believer, or religious, I always feel a need to qualify it by adding, "but I am spiritual." And really what does that mean? I know people that describe themselves as "spiritual" who are not very nice. On the other hand, I know many that don't talk about the subject either way and are about the most decent people around.
No matter, again, yes, I am "spiritual".
In any case.
The Caminos' Christian origins and overall religious history and reality, specifically Catholic, cannot and should not be denied even if it could. It's all over the Roads, in the religious sites, related architecture, art, cities that sprang as a result of the pilgrimages like Burgos, and so much more that attest to that. Yet, I don't have any problems in experiencing it when am walking the Paths, as a non-believer, taking it all in. As a matter of fact I really apreciate things like the litugy, for example, as well as listening to Gregorian chants, mass in diff languages, cantos llanos, and staying in monasterios, like at Venta de Baños, and Sobrado.
I may not believe in the institution and its religious pantheon and beliefs, anymore, but I am from that tradition, I was raised in it. Therefore, I relate to to it because it is a part of my identity, upbringing, system of values, attitudes, and world-views. It's a diff story with my Sephardic friend.
(Comes to mind another good friend who describes herself as a "red diaper baby." She no longer believes in the political philosophy she was raised in, but still feels that she has opinions that stemmed from it, because, after all, it was part of her process of social inculturation).
On the other hand I've walked with pilgrims that turned out to be friends to this day who avoided: churches, religious ceremonies, religious art, etc., as they encountered them along the Caminos. They had no problems in walking the Roads and enjoying them to the max, for reasons like the solitude, scenery, the fellowship with fellow-pilgrims, the physical exercise, and yes, the ubiquotuous "spirituality." But, they were Spaniards, and the whole Jacobean "tradition" or "myth," however one may want to call it, is imbued in their history. (See:
http://muweb.millersville.edu/~columbus ... RENAS1.SPK).
I would love to make pilgrimages to religious sites in diff parts of the globe. “Spirituality” would be a driving force, as well as the desire to know other people and their cultures. Yet, I can imagine that at times I may be exposed to varied traditions and values that I would have objections to. So, prior to embarking on such voyages, I better be clear that they would not affect my pilgrimages adversely. I remember a retreat I made at a Bhuddist monastery in Kumming, China, years ago. Even though I was not knowledgeable about Bhuddism, I profited much from it and experienced no conflicts. At all. On the contrary, it enhanced my life a thousandfold.
But I believe that one has to be open to the experience, give yourself to it.
To me undertaking a pilgrimage is a response to something that tells you, “hey, I’ve got to do this.” Otherwise, I can’t see how one can go through the hardships that it entails.
My Sephardic friend has told me that he hasn’t heard “anyone/anything calling him,” except my encouragement.
I have let it go (well, for now).
We who have experienced the Camino and know of its agony/ecstasy, want to share it with everyone we know. I believe people need to hear that in a world with so much violence and negativity there are precious spiritual "adventures" to embark upon. Yes, "adventures", another important component in what our pilgrimages, are. Yet, in the years that have passed since I walked my first Camino and the many people I’ve talked about them with, not one that I know of has undertaken the journey as a result of our talks.
In the end for so many reasons, I believe that experiencing the Caminos de Santiago, or any other pilgrimages, is totally a personal decision.
Buen Camino 8)
xm