Asian-American Religiosity and Politics

Abstract

This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on theologically conservative Christians.¹ APAs are both highly religiously diverse, and politically divided between those who identify more as conservative Christians and those who do less. More-educated, conservative Christian APAs experience cross-pressures from more-educated, social progressives (predominantly Democrats) and from less-educated, conservative Christians (predominantly Republicans). APA involvement in transnational religious networks sometimes reinforces, and sometimes bridges, the “culture war” cleavages. The essay closes with suggestions on how political science professors can teach about, and to, religiously diverse Asian-Americans, including potential discussion topics and assignments.

Keywords:

• Undergraduate education
• Asian Americans
• religion and politics

Notes

1 Some parts of this article are adapted from Yi and Phillips (2019). Reprinted with permission from Springer.

2 “Theologically conservative” refers to traditional Christian ethics on sexuality and personhood, including sexual relations only within heterosexual marriage and the sanctity of the unborn fetus; “progressive” views would favor abortion rights and same-sex marriage. Among religious categories in Pew 2012 Asian-American Survey, Evangelicals are the most likely to espouse conservative views (followed by Catholics) and are the focus of this article.

3 Young Kim U.S. Congress. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/YoungKimCA

4 Campus Access Issues. https://intervarsity.org/about-us/press-room/campus-access-issues/legal-challenges (accessed January 6, 2018).

5 Until 2017 Geographic Travel Restriction, nearly a hundred APA conservatives (mostly of Korean descent) supported fifty faith-based organizations legally in the DPRK, including Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and Pyongyang Spine Rehabilitation Center.

6 The water symbolized the Fountain of Life (“Living Water”) found in Jesus. Many festival participants appreciated the bottled water, and a few attended the group's church service the following Sunday. The evangelical group and its pastor focused on interpersonal relations, not politics, at the Queer Festival.

7 One observer (half-jokingly) categorized the clusters by the three “Ps”: protest, pray, play.

8 The guest speakers are described in Yi (Forthcoming) and Yi and Phillips (2018).

Additional information

Funding

This article was supported by Hanyang University Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Joseph E. Yi

Joseph E. Yi (PhD, University of Chicago) is an associate professor of political science at Hanyang University. He studies the development of, and challenges to, individual liberty in various settings, from mature democracies (e.g., USA) to young democracies (South Korea) to closed autocracies (North Korea); and communication and cooperation across social groups and countries. Yi is the author of God and Karate on the Southside (Lexington Books, 2009) and of many journal articles (e.g., Globalisation, Societies and Education; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Journal of Homosexuality; Journal for Scientific Study of Religion; Journal of Korean Religions; Journal of Political Science Education; Pacific Affairs; Political Quarterly; P S: Political Science & Politics; Review of Religious Research; Society).