Among the more traditional elements of Asian American culture, religion, spirituality, and faith have always been important to Asian American communities, as they were for many generations before them. But within the diversity of the Asian American community, so too comes diversity in our religious beliefs and practices.

WHICH RELIGION IS THE MOST POPULAR?

You're probably wondering which religions or faith traditions are the most popular among Asian Americans and among each of the different Asian ethnic groups. Unfortunately definitive statistics are very hard to find. In fact, I have still not been able to find comprehensive data that would answer these questions conclusively.

Nonetheless, there are some statistics that give a general picture of religious affiliation within the Asian American community. One of the largest, most up to date, and most comprehensive ones was recently conducted by the Graduate Center at the City University of NY and was entitled the American Religious Identification Survey 2001. Its sample included 50,281 households in the U.S., so if we assume that about 3.5% of them were Asian American, that means about 1,760 Asian Americans were also included. Extrapolating from "Exhibit 13" in their study, the results found the following breakdown of religious affiliation among Asian Americans:

Unfortunately, the responses for Hinduism was not large enough among all Americans in the sample to be included in the table results. Also, because the survey allowed respondents to categorize themselves, it's not clear how many of those who identified themselves as "Christian" would otherwise have been classified as Catholic or Protestant. Nonetheless, the results show that while no religion can claim a majority of followers in the Asian American community, the Roman Catholic church seems to have the most followers. This is probably due to the large Filipino (where the vast majority are Catholic) and Vietnamese communities (where 40% are Catholic).

The results also show that there is a significant number of Asian Americans who do not identify with any religion or faith. Also, within the category of "Protestant," the Baptist denomination is by far the most popular. Unfortunately, this survey does not break the Asian American population down to specific ethnic groups. For that matter, I have yet to find any research that does. So to try to measure the size of religions within each ethnic group, we can look at the proportions for different religions within that Asian country. Although it's not completely accurate, it's a generally safe assumption that the religious proportions within an Asian country are similar to that within its community in the U.S., since the majority of Asian Americans are foreign-born (source: 2000 CIA World Factbook):
 

• Bangladesh: Muslim 88.3%, Hindu 10.5%, other 1.2%
• India: Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jains 0.5%, other 0.4%
• Philippines: Roman Catholic 83%, Protestant 9%, Muslim 5%, Buddhist and other 3%
• Japan: observe both Shinto and Buddhist 84%, other 16% (including Christian 0.7%)
• South Korea: Christian 49%, Buddhist 47%, Confucianist 3%, Shamanist, Chondogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way), and other 1%

Again, these stats are imperfect because as China and Viet Nam are both officially atheist countries, there are no statistics on the proportions of religions in each country.

HOW RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, AND FAITH HELP

Ultimately, as there is so much diversity in the Asian American population in so many ways, so too this applies to our religions and practices of spirituality and faith. But they all share the commonality of helping Asian Americans adjust to life in the U.S. and all the issues that surround what it means to be an Asian American.

As several social scientists point out, these various forms of spirituality and faith help Asian Americans to deal with the upheavals of immigration, adapting to a new country, and other difficult personal and social transformations by providing a safe and comfortable environment in which immigrants can socialize, share information, and assist each other. History shows that numerous churches and religious organizations played very important roles in helping immigrants from China, Japan, the Philippines, South Asia, and Korea adjust to life in the U.S.

In this process, religious traditions can help in the process of forming Asian immigrant communities by giving specific Asian ethnic groups another source of solidarity, in addition to their common ethnicity, on which to build relationships and cooperation.

Finally, as Bankston and Zhou point out in their study of the New Orleans Vietnamese community, religion can play a significant part in affecting a young Asian American's ethnic identity. The Catholic churches in the Vietnamese section of the city helped to keep young Vietnamese Americans integrated within the larger community. Those youngsters who attended church and participated in religious activities more were more likely to do well in school and to stay out of trouble.

Of course, religion, spirituality, and faith is only one part of this adaptation and socialization process and it interacts with many other factors in affecting how an Asian immigrant adjusts to his/her new life in the U.S. Nonetheless, its power is undeniable. For hundreds of generations in the past, it has bonded communities and been the basis for many people's lives. Even with changes in culture, physical location, and social institutions, its effect lives on.

DAILY I CHING READING

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text that is considered to be one of the "Five Classics" of Confucianism. The main body of the work has traditionally been attributed to Wen Wang, a philosopher and father of the founder of the Chou dynasty, in the 12th century B.C. Much of its text, images, and concepts were taken partly from oracles, mythology, history, and poetry of earlier ages. The I Ching consists of eight trigrams, corresponding to the powers of nature. The trigrams are used to interpret the future with the textual help of supplementary definitions, intuitions, and Confucian commentary. Back then and continuing today, people use the I Ching as a spiritual "guidebook" to give them wisdom about events in their lives. The following is one example of a daily I Ching reading.

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Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. All rights reserved.

Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Religion, Spirituality, and Faith." Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <http://www.asian-nation.org/religion.shtml> ().

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