Growing up in New York City’s Chinatown, Winnie Wu attended church services regularly with her family. An immigrant from Guangzhou, China, Wu recalled that her grandmother was converted to Christianity by missionaries in China.
Meeting fellow Chinese Americans at the Chinatown church was a way to integrate and assimilate when the family immigrated in 1978.
“When we moved to America, the church was a foundation,” said Wu, 51.
Now as a wife and mother with two tween daughters living in Montclair, New Jersey, Wu no longer goes to church. She is not raising her children with a religious affiliation.
“We found other avenues to connect with the community,” Wu said.
More Asian Americans like the Wu family are not identifying with an organized religion, according to a new report from Pew Research Center. Mirroring the decline in organized religion across America, the report showed that 32% of Asian Americans are now not religiously affiliated, up from 26% in 2012.
About 30% of Americans did not identify with a religion, according to a 2021 Pew Research study.
Of the religions, Christianity showed the biggest drop-off among Asian Americans, down from 42% in 2012 to 34% today.
Even with the decline in participating in organized religion, Asian Americans are connected to spirituality. The study revealed that 40% of Asian Americans said they feel close to religious traditions, but do not identify with a religion.
Religion is deeply personal and complex. A connection to a religion sometimes waxes and wanes throughout a person’s lifetime.
When Paul Yoon’s family immigrated to Philadelphia from South Korea, the Korean American Presbyterian Church was very much a part of the family’s routine.
“I would wake up to my mother praying,” recalled Yoon, 49.
Sundays were church days when the family would gather with other Korean American families. For immigrants, the church is very much part of the community, Yoon said.
“It was a place for Koreans to…
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