{{Short description|American Christian clergy}} '''Howard Russell Moody''' (April 13, 1921 – September 12, 2012) was an American clergyman who served as a pastor at Judson Memorial Church in New York City for 35 years. He was also a longtime champion of civil rights and free expression.
==Biography== [[File:Judson Memorial Church (51660334986).jpg|thumb|right|Judson Memorial Church]]
Born in 1921 in Dallas, Texas,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fold3.com/image/632174884 |title=Draft Registration Card |publisher=Selective Service System |via=fold3.com |url-access=subscription |date=October 1945 |accessdate=January 7, 2024}}</ref> Moody attended Baylor University, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, and received degrees from what is now the University of California, Santa Barbara and Yale Divinity School.<ref name=martin /> He was ordained as an American Baptist at Judson Memorial Church in New York City, and was a pastor there from 1957 to 1992.<ref name=martin>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/nyregion/howard-moody-minister-of-judson-memorial-church-dead-at-91.html|title=Howard Moody, Who Led a Historic Church, Dies at 91|first=Douglas|last=Martin|newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 14, 2012}}</ref>
In 1967, six years before the Supreme Court recognized the constitutional right to abortion, Moody and other New York City clergy founded the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion — "a group of 21 New York clergy who referred women for abortions when it was still illegal in every state."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://religiondispatches.org/a-truly-fearless-human-being-rev-howard-moody-1921-2012/|title=A Truly Fearless Human Being: Rev. Howard Moody, 1921-2012|first=Tom|last=Davis|date=October 5, 2012|website=Religion Dispatches}}</ref> The group eventually grew into "a national network of 1,400 clergy members to help women seeking abortions. Three years later, when the state of New York legalized abortion, he helped establish a clinic to guide to his state women who wanted safe legal abortions."<ref name=martin/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dunlap |first=Bridgette |date=2016-05-29 |title=How the Clergy Set the Standard for Safe, Comfortable Abortions |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/how-the-clergy-innovated-abortion-services/484517/ |access-date=2022-04-06 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> After ''Roe v. Wade'' in 1973, the network formed the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (originally named Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights).
With church administrator Arlene Carmen, Moody organized support for sex workers. He started a drug-treatment clinic and established an AIDS support group at the church. With associate minister Al Carmines, Moody made Judson Memorial Church a center for free expression and avant-garde arts, sponsoring the Judson Dance Theater, the Judson Poets' Theater, and the Judson Gallery. He was a longtime supporter of LGBT rights and, in retirement, worked to reform drug laws. Moody preached that the role of the church was to be "a church for the world," that the church existed to equip its members to serve, not convert, the world, and he welcomed people of any—or no—faith to Judson Memorial Church.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Howard Moody Obituary |url=http://classic.judson.org/Howard-Moody-Obituary |access-date=February 15, 2022 |website=Judson Memorial Church |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109190651/http://classic.judson.org/Howard-Moody-Obituary |archive-date=November 9, 2016 |via=Wayback Machine}}</ref>
Moody died in 2012 at the age of 91.<ref name=martin/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/roe-v-wade-overturn-abortion-rights/629366/ A Covert Network of Activists Is Preparing for the End of Roe] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160816170306/http://rcrc.org/homepage/about/history/ History | Religious Coalition For Reproductive Choice]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moody, Howard}} Category:1921 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Clergy from Dallas Category:20th-century American Christian clergy Category:20th-century Baptist ministers from the United States Category:American civil rights activists Category:Baylor University alumni Category:University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Category:Yale Divinity School alumni Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II