{"id":15885,"date":"2013-11-07T00:01:01","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T08:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=15885"},"modified":"2013-11-07T00:01:01","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T08:01:01","slug":"austin-a-city-that-wears-its-soul-on-its-sleeve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/austin-a-city-that-wears-its-soul-on-its-sleeve\/","title":{"rendered":"SXSW: Austin — A City With Its Soul on Its Sleeve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
A crucified Jesus appears on what seems to be a fuse box outside a check cashing establishment in East Austin. To the right of the pay phone, the Virgin of Guadalupe is highlighted with mirror shards<\/a>. A mirrored Gandhi is glued to the wall around to the left. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Austin has the reputation of being not your typical Texas town — it’s more liberal and more secular than the rest of this Bible Belt state. And it’s got the annual SXSW festival. Perceptions notwithstanding, there’s plenty of religion going on in Austin. You can see it from the street.<\/p>\n

Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons, Evangelicals — Austin has them all.Here’s what I spotted with my trusty point and shoot, sometimes without\u00a0 having to even get out of the car:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Whoever loved Guadalupe and Jesus enough to piece together their images on the front of this building seems\u00a0 to have a thing for Mahatma Gandhi as well. Notice the roses, a symbol of Mary. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Colorful<\/a>
Outside the Hindu temple at Radha Madhav Dham<\/a>, the Godhead expresses itself in the form of Radha Krishna. Devotees say Krishna, left, and Radha, right, are one and the same deity, but appear in two forms in order to pass on bliss through their playful interaction. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An<\/a>
Guadalupe at the Kleen Wash laundromat. The parking lot mural includes an airplane crashing into the Twin Towers on 9\/11. And, yes, that’s my trusty point and shoot in the side mirror. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Detail<\/a>
The Kleen Wash Virgin’s tearful gaze . . .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Detail<\/a>
. . . falls on this 9\/11 scene. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A sun-faded Guadalupe<\/a> stands next to a\u00a0 front yard cross and a plaque honoring a soldier who died in the Korean War. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
Another front yard Virgin Mary. One of many in East Austin. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
This vast unadorned sanctuary is the main worship space at the new campus of the First Evangelical Free Church of Austin. Plenty of audio-visual equipment for praise music is scattered about. But the room itself doesn’t go in for architectural detail, imagery, art or even color. Some people like their religion this austere. As for me, I prefer the\u00a0 Kleen Wash parking lot . . .\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"An<\/a>
. . . or contemplating the feet of Radha Krishna. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you enjoyed this post, you might like “Barbara Brown Taylor — I Haven’t Figured Out How to Pray, But I’m in Good Company.”<\/a> For more Austin stories go to “The Ghost of 300 Million Dead Trees Hovers Over a Lake in Texas”<\/a> and “Quirky, Lovable Austin.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To get regular updates from Barbara via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, click on one of the icons at the top of the right hand column.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Austin has the reputation of being not your typical Texas town — it’s more liberal and more secular than the rest of this Bible Belt state. Perceptions aside, there’s plenty of religion going on in Austin, and you can see it from the street. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[653,1079,34,1100,589,249,168,82,31,91,1096,1097,33,1101],"class_list":["post-15885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-arts-and-crafts","tag-austin","tag-dont-miss","tag-evangelical-free-church","tag-gandhi","tag-guadalupe","tag-hindu","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-photo-ops","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-street-art","tag-sxsw","tag-travel","tag-virgin-mary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}