Chicago’s public school bureaucracy has decided that the faith of a Bible college is suddenly disqualifying—and that should chill every freedom-loving American to the bone.

In a lawsuit now drawing national attention, the Moody Bible Institute alleges that Chicago Public Schools barred its students from student-teaching positions because Moody’s hiring practices require faculty and staff to affirm a biblical statement of faith and live accordingly. In plain English: because Moody hires Christians to teach in a Christian school, Chicago says they can’t send their students to teach in public classrooms.

Let’s be clear—Moody isn’t discriminating against anyone. It’s being discriminated *against* for daring to live out its faith.

What Chicago has done isn’t some paperwork misunderstanding. It’s a direct assault on the idea that religious institutions have the right to exist openly, consistently, and without apology in accordance with their own beliefs. CPS demanded that Moody sign a nondiscrimination policy that would forbid it from limiting employment to those who share its Christian confession. When Moody refused to violate its own conscience, CPS responded by kicking them out of the district’s student-teaching program.

That’s not inclusion. That’s coercion. And it’s the kind of governmental overreach our Founders specifically wrote the First Amendment to prevent.

The irony is rich. Chicago will gladly accept........

© Townhall