Sun Tzu,
"It turns out that most (all?) American Buddhists are spiritual good natured tolerant loving crowds"
When you factor these ideas together, don't forget to factor in socio-economic factors. Nobody here, statistically speaking, is born into the Zen Buddhist faith. All members, basically, come from extreme upper middle to upper class backgrounds, sport high education, disposal income. They choose their spiritual calling, usually at a much later age. Institutional religions (which Zen of course is not, not really) have a different problem. They have a large installed base and just as their parishioners tend to inherit a faith they seldom leave (although often lapse in), the institution itself inherits an installed base of a certain socioeconomic class. I've never heard of an American who, except ironically, might call himself a "lapsed Buddhist."
If you have the St. Aloysius Parish in South Boston or Brooklyn, you're unlikely to find the parishioners are, at least on the surface, "spiritual good natured tolerant loving crowds." Most likely they will be lower class, working class or welfare class congregations with those socio-economic profiles and problems. Many may sport poor job performance records, or even criminal records.
If you attend the Zen Temple in Aspen, Colorado or Gstaad, Austria, you are very likely to find lots of good nature. You will also find similar good nature in the lunch hour at the Quilted Giraffe and Le Cirque.
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