Jesus may make Asian youth sad :(

Here is a Debbie Downer report: Participating In Religion May Make Adolescents From Certain Races More Depressed

Here is a quick summary of the report: "Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging.

But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, particularly for minorities and some females. The study found that white and African-American adolescents generally had fewer symptoms of depressive at high levels of religious participation. But for some Latino and Asian-American adolescents, attending church more often was actually affecting their mood in a negative way.

Asian-American adolescents who reported high levels of participation in their church had the highest number of depressive symptoms among teens of their race."

This come as NO SURPRISE for me. In college, I explored my religious beliefs, and attended a cult-like Korean/Korean American Church called ********. I have nothing against churches, or any other religious institutions. Whatever works for people! Well, this particular church scared da-Jesus out of me. No pun intended.

This is what went down at ********- People sang along to the words that appeared on a GIANORMOUS projection screen, everyweekend. This would go on for HOURS. People took turns singing the chorus. It was like Moulin Rouge, minus Nicole Kidman and the glitter. I decided that I wanted to have a more personal relationship with Jesus and did not need all the high-tech karaoking service every Sunday. However, this was not quite okay with my fellow church-goers. One by one, each would call me every weekend, inviting me back to the service. They would stop me in the middle of the road, while I was walking to class. They got a hold of my cell phone and dorm room phone numbers and 'outreached to me' every single day. This continued for about 8 weeks, until one day, I got really angry and I told them that they better stop before I call the campus po pos.

And then I got to know more of these Jesus-lovin college students.... one even tried to snuggle with me one night. And it was a boy.

It's okay, I love boys and girls. However, he preached that homosexuality is a sin, and then tried to put his hands on my juicy Asian boy bootie.

Anyways, the moral of the story- SOME, and not all, Asian church goers are scary. They are the untapped conservative pool that the RNC has yet to discover. However, slowly... the Republicans are outreaching to these Jesus lovers, but they are giving them the wrong message.

Again, I digress.

I am happy to have found my spirituality...Hopefully the Asian American youth mentioned in the report will break free from the religious institution and discover their own spirituality.

Xoxo,
SAA