UC Berkeley awarded $5 million grant to expand study of AANHPI Christians

CHRISTIANITY TODAY

AANHPI Christians are an often overlooked demographic.

Most Americans still view Asian Americans are Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus or Muslim, adding to the "perpetual foreigner" stereotype that haunts AANHPI.

“Among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Christians are the largest religious group," says Ethnic Studies Professor Caroly Chen of University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley's APARRI, part of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, has secured a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to expand the study of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Christian experiences. 

The initiative will fund archival projects, media fellowships, and public lectures to highlight the diversity of AAPI faith communities in American history. 

        FYI: For more details about the APARRI, click here.

The Christian majority among AANHPI is "something that is not commonly known, nor is it a dimension of AAPI life that often is studied in academia,” sys Chen, who serves as the executive director of APARRI and co-director of BCSR.

 “Our goal is to transform and diversify our understanding and knowledge of American Christianity and highlight the experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” 

Pew Research Center findings:

According the Pew Research Center, roughly 34% identify as Christian as of 2023. This diverse community includes prominent evangelical, Protestant, and Catholic groups, frequently characterized by distinct first-generation immigrant churches alongside second-generation English-speaking ministries.

Affiliation Breakdown: Asian American Christians are roughly split between Catholics (17%) and Protestants (16%). Among Protestants, approximately 10% identify as born-again or evangelical.

Ethnic Concentration:

• Filipino Americans: Predominantly Catholic (roughly 75%).

• Korean Americans: Predominantly Protestant (roughly 59%), with a high concentration of evangelicals.

• Chinese & Vietnamese Americans: While these groups have high numbers of religiously unaffiliated or Buddhist members, significant Christian minorities exist (roughly 15-30%).

The UC grant and study comes at an important time for exploring American Christianity, when most of the public attention is focused on white Christian nationalism, Chen said. “But in fact, American Christianity is becoming increasingly non-white.”

“On one hand, you have a side that's digging in on a white nativist understanding of American Christianity,” she added. “And then on the other side, you have this growing population of folks who have a very different experience of Christianity, race and nation.” 

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