Moody Bible Institute - what do you know about it?

[FJSharkJump]

I have a friend considering this school. What can you tell me about it? Where does it fall on the fundy scale? Personal accounts? Are there particular churches associated with it? What's the surrounding subculture like? Are there a bunch of local businesses that the faithful keep solvent? Do they isolate themselves, despite their location in a big city? Are they skirts only with women subject to their husband's authority? Young earth creationists? Any past or current scandals? Any well known defectors (besides Bart Ehrman)?

I'm happy to read any links/blogs for more info, but would like to get beneath the it's-so-wonderful-and-godly surface, if possible. Spam me! TIA!

[SayNoToMullets]

They strike me as generally fundie-lite; they used to ban employees from drinking, even off the clock, and I think the prohibition still stands for students. I haven't really had any encounters to speak of, and I went to grad school a few blocks away at Loyola, so I think the Moody crowd stays pretty contained. It's a diverse part of town, and the school doesn't govern local culture in any discernable way; the only business I've noticed that caters to Moody students is the Lifeway bookstore. On the fundie-school scale, I'd put them around Liberty.

[treemom]

I knew a lot of people who went to it for a year before they went to liberty when I was there.

[Raptured_Pope]

Natalie Nyquist ("Jacobs")'s dad is President of MBI. For more on her, there's plenty of forums here and on the old yuku FJ. But I don't know how much of his faith and message she supports any more, at least publicly.

[fullmetalheart]

They're fairly lite on the fundie scale. They don't require girls to wear skirts all the time. Staff can now drink, smoke, and gamble, but students still cannot. They ban Halloween and on campus dancing, etc. Take a look for yourself.

Here's their "student life guide"

moody.edu/uploadedFiles/EDU/Website_Assets/Files/UG_Chicago/student_life_guide.pdf

[Jana814]

Is this the place that Sarah Maxwell named her children books after?

[Carla Bruni]

So wait a second. Having consensual sexual intercourse with a romantic partner per the MBI guidebook is sinful and destructive, but it's OKAY TO ENROLL IF YOU'RE A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER SO LONG AS YOU LET 'EM KNOW?!

I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[SayNoToMullets]

They're fairly lite on the fundie scale. They don't require girls to wear skirts all the time. Staff can now drink, smoke, and gamble, but students still cannot. They ban Halloween and on campus dancing, etc. Take a look for yourself.

Here's their "student life guide"

moody.edu/uploadedFiles/EDU/Website_Assets/Files/UG_Chicago/student_life_guide.pdf

I find this interesting:

Halloween:

In an effort to honor the variety of convictions within the Christian community about celebrating Halloween, student are not allowed to plan or participate in any on campus activities that celebrate Halloween or activities associated with the holiday (i.e. trick or treating, costume parties around October 31, carving pumpkins, or using traditional decorations like ghosts, witches, spiders, etc. in the Residence Halls).

So, in order to "honor the variety of convictions," we're going to take away the variety and make everyone adhere to the strictest standard. Of course.

[fullmetalheart]

Yeah. I don't like them. I've attended two Christian colleges - I transferred out because one was not a good fit for me (they had views I didn't agree with, their disability services sucked, etc).. What major is your friend looking for? If she's looking for a particular major and wants to move to particular area, I'm somewhat well verses in Christian colleges being a ministry major (my ultimate goal is to be a hospital chaplain in a children's hospital, as I created a custom major in special needs ministry but I may wind up working in a church as a children's pastor at first), so if you want suggestions, I may be able to tell you where to go and where not to go.