The Relationship Between Multicultural Church Attendees’ Cultural Intelligence and Response to Racism

Abstract

A division between races and cultures exists throughout American society. Most churches in America continue to meet separately along racial lines despite believing in the same God who calls his followers to unity in him. Multicultural churches, which are growing in number and size, seek to unify diverse groups of people around the gospel of Jesus Christ with the hope of bringing that unity to the world around them. The purpose of this quantitative research study is to examine if there is a relationship between multicultural church attendees' Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and response to racism. Four hundred twenty-nine multicultural church attendees participated in the study, completing the demographic survey and instruments used in the correlational analysis. The tools used were the Anti-Racism Behavioral Inventory (ARBI) and the Short Form Cultural Intelligence Survey (SFCQ). Findings indicated a positive monotonic relationship between CQ and anti-racism behaviors. Follow-up research is proposed to build on this study, determining the nature of the relationship and ultimately leading to how Cultural Intelligence and anti-racism behaviors can be best fostered in churches. Other research is needed to identify spirituality’s influence on multicultural church attendees’ CQ and anti-racism behaviors.