On November 4, 2025, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of Moody Bible Institute against the Chicago Board of Education on the grounds of religious discrimination.
Moody Bible Institute has been a renowned institution in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago since 1886 when it was founded by evangelist and pastor, Dwight L. Moody.
Despite the institution’s historical cultural significance to the city, the Chicago Board of Education is refusing to hire Moody graduates for teaching positions (despite the teacher shortage) unless Moody abandons its requirement for hires to ascribe to Moody’s statement of faith and core mission.
Jeremiah Galus, ADF Senior Counsel, commented,
“Chicago desperately needs more teachers to fill hundreds of vacancies, but public school administrators are putting personal agendas ahead of the needs of families…
Moody holds its faculty and students to high standards of excellence and is more than qualified to participate in Chicago’s student-teaching program. By excluding Moody for its religious beliefs, Chicago Public Schools is illegally injecting itself into a religious non-profit’s hiring practices, which the Constitution and state laws expressly forbid.”
It is also worth noting that in January of 2024, the Illinois State Board of Education approved Moody Bible Institute’s Elementary Education degree program.
The Chicago Board of Education claims that Moody is violating CBE policy which says the student-teaching program cannot:
“discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, or other terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of . . . religion, . . . gender identity/expression, [or] sexual orientation.”
While the discrimination that Moody is facing is unconstitutional and biased, we, as believers, should not be surprised.
The Chicago Public School system is inherently anti-God. It should come as no surprise that they want Moody to abandon their Christian standards of hiring.
In May of 2023, Chicago Public Schools officially adopted Sexual Health Education for children as young as kindergarten, which includes anti-racist pedagogy, teachings on sexual development, gender identity, sexuality expression and more.
In December of 2024, Chicago Public Schools adopted a Culturally Responsive Education and Diversity Policy, a policy dedicated to so-called anti-racism, anti-bias, inclusive and equitable environments, and more.
With just these two examples, it is abundantly clear that Chicago’s Board of Education has never been pro-Christianity.
You may remember back in November of 2023 when U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly ruled in favor of Mariyah Green, a Christian CPS student who filed a lawsuit claiming that she felt coerced to participate in “Quiet Time,” a Hindu meditation program at her school, Bogan High School.
As a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, I can personally attest to the academic and moral standards that Moody requires of its students.
Let’s pray that Moody wins this lawsuit, but in the meantime, if you are a parent with children still in CPS, now is the time to get them out.
