Over the past 15 years, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of several national evangelical organizations, with about 650 chapters at universities across the country, saw the number of Asian Americans in its ranks grow by 267 percent nationwide, from 992 to 3,640, and by 605 percent at colleges in New York and New Jersey, from 97 to 684. During the same period, all-Asian Christian fellowships flourished and, in many cases, grew more than multiethnic Christian groups on the same campuses. Just the few whites that were in these Christian groups were joined by four times as many Asians. Jim Om, a Korean pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian, a predominantly white church in New York City, said that he saw this phenomenon occur at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. From 1989 to 1992, when the ethnic shift was most intense around the country, the share of Asians in InterVarsity there grew from 20 percent to 80 percent.
White students end up feeling like they are attending a group that's part of another culture.
So they leave. The change in atmosphere in these groups during the early 1990s paved the way for sophomore Peter Kim to join Manna, a Christian group at Princeton of about 80 students, most of whom are Asians. It was easier to come here because I could identify with the people. Manna, like fellowships on other campuses, gathers for weekly informal services. Traditional hymns have been replaced by modern Christian rock songs performed with amplified guitars, keyboards, and sometimes a full drum set.