participation such as voting, registration, and even more active forms is “Political significantly higher for Asian religionists who go to a religious service every week” (Lien 2004). However, Lien focuses more on the type of religion that the respondent holds and does not account for religious belief or behavior in the analysis. Lien (2004) does show us how religion can affect political behavior among Asian Americans and inspires several further areas to explore. Will these findings change when we consider other aspects of religiosity beyond just attendance? Are the findings transferable to other racial groups besides Asian Americans? If not what does this tell us about the relationship between religiosity and race? Race and Faith The study of religion across racial and ethnic groups is not something new. However, most of this literature has been dedicated to two minority groups in particular: African-Americans and Latinos. According to Fowler et al. and “racial ethnic identity is inextricably linked with religion in the United States, and that fact has political significance” (Fowler et al. 2010). In fact, while African-American Christianity is very similar to White Evangelicalism, most scholars consider Black Protestant as its own distinct branch of American Christianity (Fowler et al. 2010; Putnam and Campbell 2010). Putnam and Campbell (2010) show that Black Protestant’s lives are infused with religion more so than typical Evangelicals and Mainline protestants in four aspects: Church attendance, responding that religion is important in one’s daily life, responding that religion is somewhat or very important for personal decisions and saying that religion is an important part of one’s identity (Putnam and Campbell 2010).
“Political participation such as voting, registration, and even more active forms is significantly higher for Asian religionists who go to a religious service every week” (Lien 2004). However, Lien focuses more on the type of religion that the respondent holds and does not account for religious belief or behavior in the analysis. Lien (2004) does show us how religion can affect political behavior among Asian Americans and inspires several further areas to explore. Will these findings change when we consider other aspects of religiosity beyond just attendance? Are the findings transferable to other racial groups besides Asian Americans? If not what does this tell us about the relationship between religiosity and race? Race and Faith The study of religion across racial and ethnic groups is not something new. However, most of this literature has been dedicated to two minority groups in particular: African-Americans and Latinos. According to Fowler et al. “racial and ethnic identity is inextricably linked with religion in the United States, and that fact has political significance” (Fowler et al. 2010). In fact, while African-American Christianity is very similar to White Evangelicalism, most scholars consider Black Protestant as its own distinct branch of American Christianity (Fowler et al. 2010; Putnam and Campbell 2010). Putnam and Campbell (2010) show that Black Protestant’s lives are infused with religion more so than typical Evangelicals and Mainline protestants in four aspects: Church attendance, responding that religion is important in one’s daily life, responding that religion is somewhat or very important for personal decisions and saying that religion is an important part of one’s identity (Putnam and Campbell 2010).
WPSA_Religiosity_AsianAmericans.docx