Abstract

Excerpted From: Vincent D. Kwan, The Influence of Christianity in Shaping Conservative Asian America, 31 Asian American Law Journal 57 (2024) (194 Footnotes) (Full Document)

In 2022, Pew Research Center conducted a survey and found that four out of ten U.S. adults believed the country “should be a 'Christian nation.”’ Half of Americans said the Bible should influence U.S. laws, and over a quarter of Americans believed that the Bible should take priority over the will of the people. Asian Americans contribute to these statistics; in 2014, the Center's “Religious Landscape Study” surveyed 35,000 Americans nationwide and found that a third of Asian Americans identified as Christian. Furthermore, 59 percent of Asian American Christians identified as conservative, compared to 24 percent non-Christians and 21 percent unaffiliated with any religion. Of Asian Americans identifying as conservative, 59 percent were “absolutely certain” in a belief in God and 50 percent found the importance of religion in one's life as “very important.” Additionally, the Center found Asian American evangelicals to be more zealous compared to White evangelicals--72 percent compared to 49 percent, respectively, believed that “[Christianity] is the one, true faith.”

Why is Christian conservatism so prevalent among Asian Americans? In this Article, I explore the colonial legacy of Christianity throughout Asian American history and its influence on Christian conservatism within Asian American communities. I theorize that specific forms of Christianity, through colonialism and xenophobic policies driven by ideologies inspired by White supremacy, shaped conservative ideologies that permeate many Asian American churches today. This Article seeks to highlight the tension between the ideologies that once discriminated against and oppressed Asian Americans and the conservative values that descended from said ideologies later adopted by Asian American Christians.

“Asian American” is a complex term, and its standard use includes immigrants and descendants from countries throughout Central, East, South, and Southeast Asia. Because further research is necessary to properly address Christian conservatism within this term's standard use, this Article uses “Asian” and “Asian American” narrowly to primarily refer to people of East Asian origin. “Asian American churches” also narrowly refers to Christian churches of these ethnicities.

Part I focuses on Christianity's legacy in U.S. law and its ensuing influence over policies governing Asian immigration in the nineteenth century. Christian thinking dominated precolonial and colonial eras from the birth of the United States of America and took crude and oppressive forms during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. Faith was often used to justify and perpetuate White supremacy, slavery, and Jim Crow. Throughout each period, Christianity was repurposed into novel arguments to justify preserving segregation and the racial hierarchy.

Part II introduces the arrival of Asian immigrants in the United States and explores the role Christianity played in the formation of Asian American identity. This Part focuses on the influence of Christianity on Asian American history and theorizes its contributions to the prevalence of conservative ideologies of Asian American Christians today. A marketing of conservative Christian values with political antagonism toward communism and socialism appealed to Asian immigrants seeking refuge from political turmoil in their home countries.

Political and religious leaders championing Christian conservatism have historically resisted progress toward racial equality for Asian Americans and other minority groups. Continuing conservatism in Asian American Christianity therefore preserves a status quo and implicates a greater harm by hindering the broader interests of racial equality.

Part III offers ongoing and future discussions of racial justice, in light of Christian conservatism, from the lens of Asian American Christianity.

[. . .]

Christianity can be found in much of legal history and doctrine, particularly when used to promote whiteness. The weaponization of Christianity to preserve White supremacy in turn contributed to the formation of Asian American identity. This racial identity was not created in a vacuum. Rather, the inspiration of Christianity on those seeking to preserve a White racial hierarchy through U.S. law helped shape Asian American identity. A significant portion of this complex relationship between Christianity and U.S. law was already in place prior to the arrival of the earliest Asian immigrants. However, Christianity and White supremacy sustained justifications for characterizing and categorizing Asian American identity. The shifting narrative employing Christianity to antagonize communism, in response to intercontinental conflicts throughout the twentieth century, welcomed and comforted some Asian immigrants seeking asylum from their war-torn home countries. These narratives were descended from earlier narratives that defended slavery, segregation, and racially discriminatory immigration policies. Collectively, the narratives contribute to the conservative Christian right, of which Asian Americans occupy a notable part. This reality illustrates the irony within the history of Asian American identity: once victims of oppressive policies pushed forward by Christian conservatism, Asian Americans appear as some of the movement's staunchest supporters. The path forward is tricky and complex, as outright depoliticization of Christianity contradicts the call for mobilization for racial justice from Asian American Christians and churches. Alternative paths forward may include shifting narratives within Asian American Christians and churches to center perspectives of oppression and racial subjugation to neighboring minority groups. Investment into Asian American youth holds alternative potential against the inertia of institutional Christianity affecting the generations before.

Frederick Douglass recognized Christianity's corrupted role in America in 1845: “[B]etween the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference ... I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt ... partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” The Christianity that Douglass envisioned may feel too idealistic in light of the complicated history between Christianity and politics. However, identifying Christianity's role in the formation of Asian American identity and conservatism throughout history is a step toward continued work in racial justice and equality for Asian Americans at large. Nothing stands in the way of realizing a pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity that no longer creates a tension between one's race and one's religion. It may just be a long way there.

J.D., New York University School of Law 2024; B.S. Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley 2018.