Howard Moody facts for kids

Howard Russell Moody (April 13, 1921 - September 12, 2012) was an American clergyman and longtime champion of civil rights and free expression. Born in Texas, he attended Baylor University, served in the U.S. Marines during World War II, and received degrees from what is now the University of California, Santa Barbara and Yale Divinity School. He was ordained as an American Baptist at Judson Memorial Church in New York City, and was a pastor there from 1957 to 1992.

Moody started a drug-treatment clinic and established an AIDS support group at the church. With associate minister Al Carmines, Moody made Judson 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. 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.

Moody died in 2012 at the age of 91.