Christians make up the largest Asian American religious group (42 percent according to the Pew survey) and Pew’s and other recent surveys suggest that about 15-20 percent of all Asian Americans consider themselves born again or evangelical Christians. By some measures, Asian American evangelicals are even more religiously devout than their white evangelical counterparts.

Few Americans know that Asian Americans voted largely in favor of Obama when he ran against McCain in 2008. Little is known about how Asian Americans vote because most studies that evaluate vote choice and turnout are conducted in one or two languages and are usually not large enough to identify the diversity of political opinion in Asian America. But a recent survey, the 2012 Pew Asian American Survey, focuses specifically on Asian Americans’ political and religious views and the results are rather surprising.

Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group and now make up the largest group of immigrants in the United States. Their numbers are changing the U.S. religious landscape as a result. Christians make up the largest Asian American religious group (42 percent according to the Pew survey) and Pew’s and other recent surveys suggest that about 15-20 percent of all Asian Americans consider themselves born again or evangelical Christians. By some measures, Asian American evangelicals are even more religiously devout than their white evangelical counterparts. For example, Asian Americans attend religious services more often than their white counterparts and they are more likely to believe that theirs is the one true faith leading to eternal life (72 percent of Asian American evangelicals versus 49 percent of white evangelicals).

But Asian Americans are also changing the political face of evangelical Christianity. The same is true for Hispanic evangelicals. Both groups show distinct political preferences from their White and Black evangelical counterparts. In some respects, Asian American evangelicals appear ready to join the coalition of theologically conservative Christians. The Pew survey shows that the only Asian American religious group that favors discouraging homosexuality in society is Asian American evangelicals, a similar percentage as their white counterparts (65 percent and 63 percent). Further, a majority of Asian American evangelical Christians (64 percent) favor making abortion illegal in “all or most” cases.

At first glance, Asian American evangelical Christians appear to be ripe for the GOP’s picking in terms of their party identification and political ideology, also. While 32 percent of Asian American registered voters as a whole identify as Republican or lean in that direction, 56 percent of Asian American evangelicals do so. While 24 percent of Asian Americans as a whole identify as ideologically conservative, 45 percent of Asian American evangelicals do so. But compare these figures to those of white evangelical Christians. As the Pew survey reports fully 70 percent of registered white evangelicals identify with the Republican Party and 61 percent identify as ideologically conservative.

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