Whether it’s at the new
Hindu temple located southwest of town, or at the Whole Life Expo where New Age
gurus offer attendees their prescriptions for serenity and happiness, Austin
overflows with religious vibrations. The city has — according to listings in
the Yellow Pages — more than 600 churches and other places of worship.
Congregations range from the Iranian Christian Church of the Central United
States to the Congregation Agudas Achim. Indeed, Austin may have the most
religiously diverse population in Texas. Whether it’s the super-conservative
Christian rantings of Wyatt Roberts or the anti-religion stance of the American
Atheist General Headquarters, Austin has it all.
And over the past few years, churches in the city are seeing a surge in
attendance. The increased interest here in River City appears to be occurring
throughout the country, as baby boomers return to church. Books and articles on
prayer, angels, and spiritualism are appearing everywhere, and when the subject
was discussed at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies convention in Salt
Lake City last June, we thought we’d take a look at religion locally.
As we started talking about the issue of faith, we began discussing religion
among the Chronicle staff. We found that many of our staffers have
switched religions during their lifetimes. Our editor is Jewish. The publisher
and I are Catholics. Our politics editor attends an Episcopal church. We also
have Methodists, Messianic Jews, pagans, and atheists on the staff.
This issue isn’t meant to be the end of our coverage. Instead, we hope it’s
the beginning of an ongoing probe of religion and spiritual issues here in
Austin. The timing, by the way, owes more to coincidence than to the Christmas
season. We’ve been planning this issue for several months and for some reason
it just kept getting pushed back. Now, we’ve found the time and the space for
what we think is a fairly wide-ranging look at religion in our city. We pray
you enjoy it.
This article appears in December 27 • 1996 and December 27 • 1996 (Cover).