This thesis describes and explains the interaction and interdependence between personal experience, cultural symbolic systems, and social networks as they shape each other through the lives of two Latino immigrants trying to reconcile their homosexuality with conservative Christian religions. The "numinous," or encounters with the supernatural, was for both a key factor in the formation of their belief systems and the social networks which ultimately led to their immigration to the United States. I argue that this process of personal experience, when shared in groups as folklore, is the primary step in the formation of religious institutions and other kinds of social networks, and is the process by which religion begets personal religious belief and commitment. The lives and experiences of these two immigrants will help illustrate and demonstrate this process at work in the lives of real people.
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