The Changing Face Of Religion

Over at Flying Yangban's we've got a great find of an article and quite a good write up regarding the changes in the ethnicities of certain religions on college campuses. Seems that more Asian-Americans are joining Christian groups while whites are joing the Buddhist groups, enough so that each has become the majority in several groups at colleges around the country.

I have a personal look at this as well considering that, as a former high school Christian club president, I found quite a few Asians in my club and even had one regularly lead worship (Kevin, if you're somewhere out there, you're an awesome guy) and I was always impressed with the level of passion they had for the activities we put on. If I needed people at a function I could always count on them being there.

We also had several Korean churches in our area and now we have what looks to be a Korean church that can fit up to 4,000 or so people arising near me. So Christianity seems to be alive and well in my little neck of the woods among the Asian-Americans residing here. I couldn't tell you too much about the whites though...nor any Buddhists...

So go take a look at Yangban's personal experience regarding the matter (good job by the way on getting your girlfriend to "join our side.") and some more in the comments section.

Comments

[haemi]

Yes. Christianity among Asian Americans, mainly Korean Americans (which is something I know) is big. I think most immigrants, when they first come over, join churches to find comfort in an environment surrounded by the people of their ethnicities. As they have children who grow up in that hodge-podge, they become devout Christians. That's been evident for years -- at least a decade or two! But now, these second, third generationers are so white-washed (I don't mean any harm by that) that they are reverting and finding Asian religions, mainly Buddhism.

And of course, much of westerners are getting big on things of the Orient -- yoga, Buddhism, feng shui, you name it.

For me, I'm making a religion out of the eager, avid Korean American freshmen who always try to grab hold of me to join their KCC on campus. There was a complete zealot, a very sweet looking gal who was after me all semester last year. Now there is another batch of newbies doing the same, bowing down to me out of respect and using very very formal phrases to address me. Come on guys. I'm not that old!

[haemi]

By the way, almost all universities and colleges with any sort of Korean population would inevitably have a Korean Christian Coalition or similar club. You will almost never find a Korean Student Buddhist association or similar, while other Asian ethnicities do have it. Very odd.

[CDL]

Interesting ideas, haemi. While your reasoning as to why Koreans going to the States join churches seems pretty sound, it doesn't explain how those churches got started in the first place, or why there are so many Christians (and huge churches) in Korea. Compared to other Asian countries, Korea seems to be particularly fertile ground for Christianity. Korean Christians I know point to the efforts of foreign missionaries and persecution by the government, but other countries in Asia had similar experiences and yet do not have the same percentage of Christians. Of course, I'm just speaking from general experience--I have no statistics to back this up. That's just the way it seems to me.

I am a grad student at Seoul National University, and we have both Christian and Buddhist groups. I wonder why Korean Buddhist groups aren't as successful in the States...

[Sally]

Most Korean churches use Christian symbols, but the deep mindset is North East Asian shamanism. Korean churches are a curious hybrid of Christianity and Asian theurgy.

Korean Kristianity is essentially about extracting health, wealth, and love from the invisible realm.

Koreans -- unless, "white-washed"-- harbor a belief in the supernatural power of words and wishes. They employ ritualistic-word commands
and "visual imagination" to manipulate the natural and supernatural realm according to the desires of the adherents. This form of Asian magic is done in the name of Jesus Christ -- similar to the Charismatic movement.

Essentially, Korean churches are a trojan horse of shamanism inside Christianity.