Every year Moody Bible Institute has about 30 students in its elementary education program. Part of the requirement of the degree is that the students spend a certain amount of time in a real classroom doing observation, practicum, and student teaching.
Chicago public schools are saying they're not going to let Moody students into their classrooms until Moody relents from its biblical standards in its hiring practices. Moody has asked Alliance Defending Freedom to help the school district understand the finer points of the First Amendment.
“Religious institutions have the right to be religious, and if it were to hire those who disagree and reject what it believes and teaches, it would cease to be a religious school. They're conditioning participation on the school giving up its rights to hire those who share its faith,” ADF attorney Jeremiah Galus said in the ADF news release.
ADF has filed a federal lawsuit to end the discrimination and grant Moody equal access to Chicago Public Schools' student-teaching program.
Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries lived in Chicago for years. His son was a student at Moody.
“What the city of Chicago is saying is, we don't want Moody to be Moody, or we want Moody Institute, but we don't want Moody Bible Institute, which is outrageous.”
Founded in 1886 by evangelist and pastor Dwight L. Moody, Moody Bible Institute offers a variety of biblically-based, undergraduate- and graduate-level degrees to more than 2,300 students across its four schools.
Moody hires faculty and staff who are ambassadors to its mission of spreading the gospel and preparing students through biblical, practical, and relevant training. All employees must share and live out its biblical beliefs and values, including those on marriage and human sexuality.
Moody Bible Institute has been shining the light of the gospel in the very heart of the city of Chicago, Pritchard said.
“I would think that a city like Chicago, with so many problems inside its public school system, would want more, not less, of the young people that are produced by a great school like Moody Bible Institute.”
