OCT. 15, 2007

RELIGIONS
A guide to Asian-Americans and religion

Asian-Americans are one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, and they are stunningly diverse culturally and religiously. ReligionLink presents a guide to experts and organizations that focus on this group.

How to use this guide

This guide is organized into several major areas. Click on the topic to jump to it. Sources may appear in more than one category.

Issues To Explore
Organizations And Research Centers
National Sources
    10 Top Scholars
    Activism/Anti-Discrimination
    Buddhism
    Christianity
    Hinduism
    Islam
    Mormonism
    Politics
    Second-Generation/Generation X
    Sikhism
    Unitarian Universalism
    Women
Background
    Demographics
    Publications And Web Sites

If you would like to be added to this source listing or request a change in the information, please email asian@religionlink.org. If you are requesting a change in the wording of your listing, please state the reason for the change. ReligionLink reserves the right to decide which listings to include.
• For organizations, include the name, mission, Web site and a contact name with phone number and email. Also include any specific areas of interest and expertise.
• For individuals, include name, title, organization, city and state, Web site, areas of expertise, phone number and email.

Issues To Explore

• Some of the largest evangelical campus ministries in the U.S. are populated by Asian-Americans. How are Asian-Americans influencing American evangelicalism?
• Asian-Americans are courted by a wide variety of Christian denominations and traditions in the U.S., and many denominations are starting new churches and programs to appeal to their growing numbers. How is their presence influencing practices in these denominations?
• Explore the diversity of congregations. Coverage tends to focus on immigrant churches rather than churches of the children of immigrants. Korean-American second-generation churches get a lot of attention, but less is paid to Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Japanese or Filipino second-generation churches. Also, a new wave of multiethnic but single-race churches includes young Asian-American congregants from a variety of backgrounds.
• How do religious and generational differences play out in Asian-American families? What are the challenges of child-rearing in multireligious families? How are second-generation Asian-Americans adapting religious practices to American life?
• How does the church function in diverse Asian-American communities where class divisions exist? How do Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist second-generation Asian-Americans address these issues?
• Americans’ understanding of Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism is often shallow; how are adherents addressing that? What role are civil rights organizations playing?
• What role does faith play when young Asian-Americans become involved in social and political issues? For example, young Korean-Americans have been working with young Latinos and African-Americans in Los Angeles since the 1992 riots to address racial and ethnic tensions.
• How do tensions among national, cultural, religious or ethnic groups internationally play out in the U.S.? For example, what conflicts exist between Indian and Pakistani immigrants in the U.S.?
• What types of pilgrimages are Asian-Americans making to historical places, such as internment camps?

Organizations And Research Centers

• The Asian and Pacific Americans & Religions Research Initiative is based at the Pacific School of Religion, Graduate Theological Union. See links to additional North American Asian/Pacific theological centers.
• Asian American Studies Center, UCLA
• Association for Asian American Studies
• The Center for Indian Studies, SUNY at Stonybrook
• Council for Pacific Asian Theology in Alhambra, Calif.
• Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion
• Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

10 TOP SCHOLARS
• Rita Nakashima Brock co-directs the nonprofit Faith Voices for the Common Good in Oakland, Calif., and has written about feminist theology and Asian-American women. Her books include, as co-editor, the 2007 release Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion & Theology. She contributed one of the essays and co-wrote the “Asian American Protestant Women” entry in the Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America. Contact 510-459-5123, rita@faithvoices.org.
• Rudy Busto is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialties include race and religion in the United States, and Asian-American/Pacific Islander religions. Stories he suggests covering include transformations in second-generation Asian-American evangelical churches. Contact rude@religion.ucsb.edu.
• Carolyn Chen is an assistant professor of sociology and Asian-American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Her interests include religion, ethnicity and immigration. She is writing a book called Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigrants Converting to Evangelical Christianity and Buddhism. Contact 847-467-4069, cechen@northwestern.edu.
• Jane Iwamura is an assistant professor of religion and of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She specializes in Asian-American religions, race and popular culture. She co-edited Revealing the Sacred in Asian & Pacific America and is writing a book called The Oriental Monk in American Popular Culture: Race, Religion and Representation in the Age of Virtual Orientalism. Contact 213-821-2851, iwamura@usc.edu.
• David Kyuman Kim is assistant professor of religious studies at Connecticut College in New London, where he directs the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity. He has researched the Asian-American religious experience. Contact 860-439-5075, dkkim@conncoll.edu.
• C.N. Le, a visiting assistant professor of sociology and director of Asian and Asian-American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, runs the comprehensive Web resource Asian-Nation, which he describes as “a sociological exploration of the historical, political, demographic and cultural issues that make up today’s diverse Asian-American community.” It includes a section on religion and spirituality. Working from the American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, he estimates that the religious breakdown among Asian-Americans is 21.1 percent Catholic, 20.2 percent none/agnostic, 9.6 percent Protestant, 9.1 percent Buddhist, 5.8 percent Christian, 5.2 percent Muslim and .4 percent Jewish. Contact 413-545-4074, le@soc.umass.edu.
• Fumitaka Matsuoka is Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theology at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif., where he is executive director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion, which links to partner organizations and Asian/Pacific theological centers. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren. He co-edited Realizing the America of Our Hearts: Theological Voices of Asian Americans, and he wrote Out of Silence: Emerging Themes in Asian American Churches. Contact 510-849-8209, fmatsuoka@psr.edu.
• Pyong Gap Min is a sociology professor at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. His research interests include race and ethnic relations, ethnic identity, immigrant religions and Asian-Americans. He edited Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues and is working on a manuscript titled Intergeneration Transmission of Religion and Ethnicity: A Comparison of Korean Protestants and Indian Hindus. Contact 718-997-2810, pyonggap.min@qc.cuny.edu.
• Fenggang Yang is associate professor of sociology at Purdue University, specializing in the sociology of religion.   His research includes immigrant religions in the United States and Chinese Christian churches in the United States. He is the author of Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, Assimilation and Adhesive Identities and co-editor of Asian American Religions: The Making and Remaking of Borders and Boundaries.  Contact 765-494-2641, fyang@purdue.edu.
• David K. Yoo is an associate professor of history at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He edited New Spiritual Homes: Religion and Asian Americans and wrote Growing Up Nisei: Race, Generation and Culture Among Japanese Americans of California, 1924-49. Contact 909-607-2828, david.yoo@claremontmckenna.edu.

ACTIVISM/ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
• Deepa Iyer is executive director of South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow. The organization links to civil rights groups, immigrant rights groups and South Asian groups. Contact 301-270-1855 ext. 1, deepa@saalt.org.
• Karen K. Narasaki is president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C. Contact knarasaki@advancingequality.org.
• Doua Thor, a Hmong-American who emigrated with her family in 1979 from Laos, is executive director of the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. The center links to resources and organizations. Contact doua@searac.org.

BUDDHISM
• For more sources, see ReligionLink’s guide to Buddhism.
• Janet Gyatso is Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., where she is co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Buddhism section and past president of the International Association of Tibetan Studies. Her work focuses on Tibetan Buddhism and religious culture, including issues of sex and gender. Gyatso is on leave for 2007-08; contact her through Charlene Higbe, 617-495-4518, Charlene_higbe@harvard.edu.
• Ruben L.F. Habito, a native of the Philippines and a Catholic, has been trained in Zen practices and is past president of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. He is a professor of world religions and spirituality at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He directs the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas and is the author of Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion and Living Zen, Loving God. Contact 214-768-4334, rhabito@smu.edu.
• Jin Y. Park is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religion at American University in Washington, D.C. She specializes in Buddhist philosophy; her doctoral dissertation was on Zen Buddhism and postmodern thought. Contact 202-885-2919, jypark@american.edu.
• Robert A.F. Thurman is Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York. He has been described by The New York Times as “the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism” and by Time Magazine as “one of 25 most influential Americans in 1997.” He has been a personal student of the Dalai Lama. He wrote Infinite Life and The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism. Contact 212-807-0563 or 845-688-6897, tbt7@columbia.edu.
• Duncan Williams, associate professor of East Asian languages and literature at the University of California, Irvine, specializes in Asian-American Buddhism. Contact 949-824-1603, duncanw@uci.edu.

CHRISTIANITY
• DJ Chuang is executive director of the L² Foundation (“L-Squared”), a private Christian family foundation in Raleigh, N.C., founded to develop Asian-American leadership. He co-edited Conversations: Asian American Evangelical Theologies in Formation and edited Asian American Youth Ministry. Contact 949-870-5726, djchuang@L2foundation.org.
• Peter T. Cha is an associate professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill. Cha wrote a chapter for This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity and Christian Faith and is co-editor of Growing Healthy Asian American Churches; both were published in 2006. He also can speak about the experience of second-generation Asian-Americans in congregations. Contact 847-317-8034, pcha@tiu.edu.
• Nami Kim, assistant professor of religion at Spelman College, Atlanta, can talk about Asian-American Protestant women and Asian-American Christianity. Contact 404-270-5525, nkim@spelman.edu.
• Peter C. Phan holds the Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. His numerous books include, as author, Christianity With an Asian Face: Asian American Theology in the Making; Being Religious Interreligiously: Asian Perspectives on Interfaith Dialogue; and Vietnamese-American Catholics. Contact 202-687-1254, pcp5@georgetown.edu.
• Timothy Tseng is president of the Institute for the Study of Asian American Christianity in Castro Valley, Calif., and has been researching the history of Chinese Protestantism in North America. He led a Pulpit & Pew study on Asian-American religious leadership that can be downloaded. Contact 510-962-5584, timtseng@isaacweb.org.

HINDUISM
• For more sources, see ReligionLink’s guide to Hinduism.
• The Hindu American Foundation is a human rights organization that works with governments, media, think tanks, academia and the public on issues of concern to Hindus around the world. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the executive director is Ishani Chowdhury. The foundation lists common media errors in covering Hinduism. Contact 877-281-2838 or 301-770-7835.
• Paramahamsa Nithyananda is president of the International Vedic Hindu University in Orlando, Fla. (formerly Hindu University of America). The university provides education on yoga and Hinduism. He founded the Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam international movement for meditation. Contact 407-275-0013, staff@hua.edu.
• Prema Kurien is an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University. She wrote the 2007 book A Place at the Multicultural Table: The Development of an American Hinduism and is researching Indian-American Christians, as well as Indian-American political participation. Contact 315-443-1152, pkurien@maxwell.syr.edu.
• Sushil Mittal is an associate professor of religion and the director of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. He is an expert on Gandhian thought and a specialist in Indian and Hindu studies. He is the author of several books on Hinduism. Contact 540-568-6137, mittalsx@jmu.edu.
• Vasudha Narayanan is Distinguished Professor of Religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and she helped found the university’s Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions, which she directs. She is a noted scholar of Hinduism and a past president of the American Academy of Religion. Contact 352-392-1625, vasu@ufl.edu.
• Anantanand Rambachan is a professor of religion, philosophy and Asian studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. His areas of expertise include classical Hinduism, especially Vedanta. Contact 507-786-3081, rambacha@stolaf.edu.
• K.R. Sundararajan is a professor of theology at St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, N.Y. He is co-editor of Hindu Spirituality II: Post-Classical and Modern. Contact 716-375-2297, sundar@sbu.edu.

ISLAM
• For more sources, see ReligionLink’s guide to Islam.
• Akbar S. Ahmed holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies in the school of international service at American University in Washington, D.C. He has advised world leaders, including President Bush, on Islam and was formerly High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. He has written widely, including introductions to Islam and discussions of Islam on the world stage and interfaith dialogue. Contact 202-885-1961 (office), 202-855-1600 (department), akbar@american.edu. Media are encouraged to reach him quickly through Clark Gregor, 202-885-5935, gregor@american.edu.
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations calls itself the largest advocacy group for Muslims in the U.S. It advocates for Muslims on issues related to civil liberties and justice. Contact communications director Ibrahim Hooper in Washington, D.C., at 202-488-8787, ihooper@cair.com.
• Carl W. Ernst is William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a specialist in Islamic studies, focusing on West and South Asia, and is an expert on Sufism. His books include, as author, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World. Contact 919-962-3924, cernst@email.unc.edu.
• The Islamic Society of North America promotes unity and leadership among Muslims. The organization, based in Plainfield, Ind., has a large immigrant presence. Contact Muneer Fareed, secretary-general and head of operations at ISNA’s headquarters, through his assistant, Suzanne Smith, 317-839-8157 ext. 225, ssmith@isna.net.

MORMONISM
• Jessie L. Embry is associate director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Her books include, as author, Asian American Mormons: Bridging Cultures. Contact 801-378-4048, jessie_embry@byu.edu.

POLITICS
• Pei-te Lien is a political science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and co-authored The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity & Community. Contact 805-893-3432 (departmental), plien@polsci.ucsb.edu.
• Janelle Wong, associate professor of political science and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, co-authored The Politics of Asian Americans: Diversity & Community. Contact 213-740-1696, janellew@usc.edu.

SECOND-GENERATION/GENERATION X
• Antony W. Alumkal, assistant professor of the sociology of religion at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, wrote Asian American Evangelical Churches: Race, Ethnicity and Assimilation in the Second Generation. Contact 303-765-3131, or e-mail through his Web site.
• Arar Han, who is attending business school at Stanford University, and John Hsu, a vice president at Teach for America, edited Asian American X: An Intersection of Twenty-First Century Asian American Voices. Contact arar@asianamericanx.com or john@asianamericanx.com.
• Jerry Z. Park is an assistant professor of the sociology of religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and his research includes the religious integration of second-generation Asian-Americans. Contact 254-710-3150, Jerry_Park@baylor.edu.

SIKHISM
• For more sources, see a ReligionLink edition on Sikhism.
• Amardeep Singh is executive director of the Sikh Coalition, an amalgam of groups representing the nation's Sikhs. The coalition was founded after the attacks of Sept. 11 when Sikhs became objects of suspicion at airports and elsewhere. Contact 212-655-3095 ext. 83, amar@sikhcoalition.org.
• Gurinder Singh Mann is a professor of global and religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is the director of the Center for Sikh and Punjab Studies. He has written widely about Sikhism and other Eastern religions in the United States. Contact 805-893-5115, mann@religion.ucsb.edu.
• Sikhs is an international nonprofit group that works to help underprivileged and minority communities. The U.S. office is in New York. Contact 810-885-4264, unitedsikhs-usa@unitedsikhs.org.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM
• Kat Liu is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, growing up with a mixture of Christian, Buddhist and Taoist/Confucian influences.  She has been a Unitarian Universalist for about seven years and is assistant director of the Unitarian Universalist Association’s Washington Office for Advocacy. Contact 202-296-4672 ext. 12, kliu@uua.org.
• Manish K. Mishra, a Hindu and the son of Indian immigrants, is minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg, Fla. He is president of Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries, which serves denominational members of color. Contact 727-453-2212 (cell), MMishra@aol.com.
• A. Hiro Nishikawa of Haverford, Pa., is a third-generation Japanese American and a national board member of the Japanese American Citizens League. As a child, he was incarcerated during World War II with his family in a concentration camp in Poston, Ariz. Raised Buddhist (Shin-shu), he is active in the Unitarian Universalist Church. Contact 610-896-0538, ahnishikawa@comcast.net.

WOMEN
• Jung Ha Kim is a senior lecturer in sociology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her books include, as co-editor, the August 2007 release Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women's Religion & Theology and, as author, Bridge-Makers and Cross-Bearers: Korean-American Women and the Church. Contact 404-651-1847, socjhk@langate.gsu.edu.
• Chung Hyun Kyung is associate professor of ecumenical theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. A lay theologian of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, she was once a temporary Buddhist novice nun. Her interests include feminist and eco-feminist theologies and spiritualities from Asia, Christian-Buddhist dialogue and Zen meditation. She wrote Struggle to Be the Sun Again: Introducing Asian Women's Theology. She spent a sabbatical year traveling 16 Islamic countries and talking with women peacemakers, and is working on a book about it. Contact 212-280-1365, hchung@uts.columbia.edu.
• Kwok Pui Lan is William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. Her books include, as co-editor, the 2007 release Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion & Theology. Contact 617-682-1533, Pkwok@eds.edu.
• Gail M. Nomura, associate professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington, co-edited Pacific Islander American Women: A Historical Anthology and Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians in the Twentieth Century. Contact gmnomura@u.washington.edu.
• Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry is a U.S.-Canadian grass-roots network. It lists advisers from various locales. Contact contact@panaawtm.org.

Background

• The Asian-American Journalists Association posts Style Guides for journalists covering Asian-American and Pacific Islanders and Asian-American and Pacific Islander issues.

DEMOGRAPHICS
• The number of Americans who identified themselves as “Asian and one or more other races” increased by 72.2 percent from the 1990 to the 2000 Census, according to a U.S. Census report. The U.S. Asian population includes at least 30 ethnic groups.
• “The Asian Population 2000,” a U.S. Census brief, says 4.2 percent of the U.S. population reported as Asian – 3.6 percent as only Asian and .6 percent as Asian in addition to other races.
• Working from the American Religious Identification Survey 2001, C.N. Le, estimates the religious breakdown among Asian-Americans as 21.1 percent Catholic, 20.2 percent none/agnostic, 9.6 percent Protestant, 9.1 percent Buddhist, 5.8 percent Christian, 5.2 percent Muslim, and .4 percent Jewish. He lists socioeconomic statistics and ethnic demographics.
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations reports these statistics:

• 33 percent of U.S. (Sunni) mosque attendees are South Asian and 1.3 percent are Southeast Asian (from Ihsan Bagby et. al, The American Mosque: A National Portrait). • 23 percent of North America’s Muslim population is South Asian and 5 percent is drawn from other Asians (from Mohamed Nimer, The North American Muslim Resource Guide: Muslim Community Life in the United States and Canada).

PUBLICATIONS AND WEB SITES
• AskAsia.org
• Amerasia Journal
• Asians in America magazine
• Asian American Net
• Asian-Nation
• The Center for Educational Telecommunications
• Journal of Asian American Studies