Task Force on Race Update

Dear Moody Family,

Since September 2020, the Moody Bible Institute Task Force on Race, chaired by Dr. Eric C. Redmond, professor of Bible, has sought to carefully examine our history in order to understand our past strengths and failures in the area of race and what impact this might have had on Moody as a whole. The task force has also sought to analyze the current ministry of Moody in order to ensure we are reflecting God’s values with respect to racial issues.

We are writing to give you an update on the progress and work of the three subcommittees, which was shared with the Board of Trustees last week. Below is an update from the Task Force.

Thank you for your continued support and encouragement.

Prayerfully,

Dr. Jobe and Dr. Perry

Dr. Mark Jobe
President

Dr. Dwight Perry
Provost

Task Force on Race Update

The Interview Subcommittee:

We were tasked with constructing and executing a survey along with interviews. A survey of employees, students, and alumni was completed, which had an acceptable return of 40%. Of those who responded, 247 were from the “majority” population (i.e. white, non-Hispanic), while 230 responses were from our “minority” population (i.e. ethnic minority). Further, the survey results were closely divided by 269 male (56.4%) and 208 female (43.6%). Finally, 221 were staff (46.33%), 119 students (24.94%), 72 graduates (15.09%), and 65 alumni (13.62%).

In addition to the above results related to who participated in the survey, below is a sample of what some shared:

• 32% of majority and 25% of minority respondents disagree or strongly disagree that they have witnessed or experienced racial injustice at Moody
• 11% of majority and 15% of minority respondents agree or strongly agree that they have witnessed or experienced racial injustices at Moody
• 34% of majority and 24% of minority respondents agree or strongly agree that MBI’s senior leadership is committed to demonstrating racial diversity and reconciliation on Moody’s campuses
• 30% of majority and 33% of minority respondents agree or strongly agree that they feel equipped to deal with racial reconciliation issues

We are now entering the interview phase where we will be involved in random one-on-one interviews taken from the sample of persons who responded to the survey, as well as two or three focus groups from that sample but different persons than those interviewed individually. We will analyze the focus group and individual one-on-one responses from students, alumni, and employees concerning the community climate at Moody surrounding race, including percentages correlating to the survey trends.

The Research Subcommittee:

We were tasked with reviewing historical data and current policies and practices related to race. In addition to having collected primary source documents related to Moody’s history on race, we have been reading through records of the school to identify issues of racism, including deliberations of the Trustees from the beginning of the Institute to the present, past Moody journals and magazines, student records, and Institute policies. We are passing our findings on to the Writing Subcommittee.

The Writing Subcommittee:

We were tasked with synthesizing the research and interview responses in order to provide a holistic picture of Moody’s history on race. We have reviewed available portions of the Research Subcommittee’s primary source research and the Interviewing Subcommittee’s survey results. We also have created a sorting matrix to categorize Research and Interview findings based on modern works related to racial reconciliation and racial injustice.

Please understand that the vital work of the task force is not finished; therefore, no conclusions or recommendations have been finalized at this time. In the spirit of transparency, we are providing you an update on our progress thus far.

We expect this process to be complete within the next two months, and will share the findings with you after the Trustees are able to review them at their May 13-14th Board Meeting.

We are grateful to serve on this task force during this time at Moody, and appreciate everyone’s prayers as we continue our work.