Note from Julie Anne: This is a guest blog post by Steve Baughman. While studying philosophy, he ran across the works of the highly respected Christian apologist, Ravi Zacharias–and then Steve uncovered a colossal number of lies and cover-ups by him.
One year ago this week the renowned Catholic disability rights advocate, Jean Vanier, died. The widely-adored Vanier had created 154 communities for mentally disabled adults in 38 countries through the group he founded, L’Arche International. He had lived with those he cared for and sacrificed much for those who suffered.
At the time of his death, according to the Washington Post, Vanier “was lauded as a moral exemplar to people worldwide and a likely future saint in the Catholic Church.”
Shortly before his death it was learned that Vanier had been involved in abusive sexual relationships with at least six women, beginning around 1970. An investigation confirmed that these relationships were marked by “significant imbalances of power.” To make matters worse, Vanier’s manipulative methods were similar to those of his spiritual mentor, the late Rev. Thomas Philippe, who once sexually assaulted a woman when she approached him to complain about Vanier.
All this splattered much egg on the faces of powerful Catholics. To their credit, nobody circled the wagons in defense of the beloved leader. L’Arche, the group Vanier founded, retained outside investigators and publicly expressed their shock and disapproval of what their leader had done. The University of Notre Dame withdrew two prestigious awards it had bestowed upon Vanier. The outrage was nearly universal. Any chance of sainthood quickly evaporated.
Another Beloved Falls: The Ravi Zacharias Credential Scandals
Meanwhile on the other side of Christendom, a highly regarded evangelical preacher and apologist was himself on the way to sainthood. And like the Catholic Vanier, this evangelical had a closet full of skeletons.
Indisputable evidence had emerged that beginning in the early 1980s, Ravi Zacharias systematically inflated his academic credentials. After receiving his first honorary doctorate in 1980, he began marketing himself as “Dr. Zacharias“ and as having a “Doctor of Divinity” degree while routinely failing to disclose that his degree was merely honorary. (Zacharias’s highest earned degree was an M.Div.)
The Christian credential inflation extended to Zacharias’s claim to have been the chair of a department at Alliance Theological Seminary in New York. The seminary, however, had no departments. He also falsely claimed (in his autobiography and elsewhere) that in 1965 he won an international preaching competition in India. A quick Google search reveals that the “Asian Youth Preacher Award” exists only in Ravi Zacharias promotional materials. (Zacharias repeated the claim last year on the Eric Metaxas Show.)
These were the least of his deceptions, however. Since around 2006 Zacharias has referred to himself as “a professor at Oxford” or as “an official lecturer at Oxford.” The professorship claim appeared for several years on Zacharias’s website, among other places, and the “official lecturer“ claim appears in his autobiography.
As if an Oxford position weren’t enough, he attached himself to Cambridge, too. In 1990, the forty-four year old Zacharias spent two to three months at an Anglican church training institution in the town of Cambridge. He thereafter began to refer to himself in his author bios as “Cambridge educated.” He routinely told fans and donors that he had “studied at” Cambridge University where he had taken courses in “quantum physics“ under the renowned Cambridge physicist John Polkinghorne.
In one particularly bold episode we see Zacharias tell an audience that the University of Cambridge had the most prestigious philosophy department in the world and that “I went there, I studied under them.”
Zacharias also widely claimed that his time at Cambridge was pursuant to having been invited to be a “visiting scholar at Cambridge University.”
These claims were all false. And they were shown to be false in late 2015 and 2016.
Oxford stated in writing that Zacharias had never held any teaching position at the university. Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall, where Zacharias claimed to be a lecturer, also confirmed that Zacharias had never held any formal teaching position with them.
Cambridge issued a statement confirming that whatever work Zacharias may have done at the Anglican training school in the town of Cambridge, it would not have made him a visiting scholar at their university.
Zacharias made no public retractions until August of 2018, when he admitted in writing to a single Christian blogger that he had never been a professor at Oxford and that he had never enrolled at Cambridge. I am aware of no other public confession by Zacharias of these deceptions.
It also turned out that by the time Zacharias encountered Polkinghorne, the scientist had not taught physics for years. He had become a priest, and in 1990 was teaching religion. Zacharias took in lectures of Polkinghorne’s science/theology dialogue course and converted that into the claim that he had studied quantum physics at the University of Cambridge.
July 2017: Zacharias Sues for Silence
There is a sex story in Zacharias’s closet as well, one that he paid good money to keep there. According to the lawsuit Zacharias filed in the Atlanta federal court in July 2017, he began an email correspondence in 2014 with a young married Canadian woman whom he barely knew. Despite his busy schedule, which he said made him unable to respond to many of his fans, Zacharias soon asked this young woman to communicate with him by a “more secure“ method, and he gave her his private BlackBerry contact information.
During the course of their relationship, she sent him multiple sexual and nude photos of herself. Zacharias did not report this to his board until April 2017, when the woman threatened him with legal action on the grounds that his grooming and spiritual abuse had severely harmed her and her family. (The foregoing facts are all contained in Zacharias‘s federal lawsuit and are not in dispute.)
Zacharias Threatens Suicide in Writing
Most explosively, Zacharias’s lawyers added Exhibit 1 to the complaint, a “personal and extremely confidential” letter from the woman’s attorney to Zacharias dated April 27, 2017. That letter was the first indication the world had seen that Zacharias had gotten himself in serious trouble. The lawyer claimed to have in his possession a written threat Zacharias made to the woman when she told him that she could not continue their relationship and would confess to her husband. Zacharias replied that he would kill himself if she mentioned his name.
This written suicide threat was later made public by Julie Anne Smith, a Christian advocate for clergy abuse victims, who had acquired it directly from the Canadian woman. The email proved that on October 29, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Zacharias had indeed made the ultimate threat to keep this young woman quiet.
But his threat didn’t work. Still she persisted. So on July 31, 2017, Zacharias sued the woman and her husband in federal court in Atlanta.
Damage Control and The Great Commission
At the precise time he filed his lawsuit, Zacharias left the United States on a missions trip to a dangerous, undisclosed “War-Torn Region” where, per his blog posts from the field, he labored “in desert terrain, under torrid temperatures of about 115 to as high as 120 degrees.” He told his fans “I can’t say much ‘til we are out of here” and he asked for “prayers and God‘s protection as we serve in His will.” All this occurred within days of filing his lawsuit.
Prior to leaving the US, Zacharias had cleared his calendar for the entire month of August, a very unusual move for the much-in-demand evangelist. His next scheduled public appearance was on September 9 in Bengaluru, India, where he was to deliver a lecture titled “Living With Clear Boundaries.”
The Nondisclosure Agreement
What happened next we may never know. Whatever it was, it cost Zacharias money but got him what he wanted. Zacharias settled his lawsuit via a nondisclosure agreement that permanently forbade all parties to discuss the matter. He now had what he needed to keep the woman quiet and for himself to evade awkward questions. He then dismissed his lawsuit.
Soon after having silenced the woman, Zacharias issued an 800-word press release that absolved him of all wrongdoing except for failing to “exercise wise caution.” In that statement he painted the woman as a promiscuous extortionist who came after him with a vengeance. In the face of this provocative press release, the woman honored their nondisclosure agreement and remained silent.
What had Ravi Zacharias done that he felt had to be kept secret, on pain of his own suicide? One does not normally threaten suicide to keep a mere failure to “exercise wise caution” under wrap. Christianity Today asked him about the suicide email for their December 3, 2017 article on the lawsuit. Zacharias invoked the nondisclosure agreement and declined to comment. The magazine saw no irony here and proceeded to publish verbatim the press release of a subject who claimed he was legally bound to silence.
But Zacharias has, in fact, commented: in private, at least once. In January 2018 I received an email from Baptist archivist, author, and historian, Jim Lutzweiler, informing me that Zacharias had been asked by a nationally known senior minister (whom we both knew) about the suicide email and he admitted that he had sent it. Mr. Lutzweiler had it straight from the minister.
1 Timothy 5:20 versus Worthy Business Matters
Given that not one of the above facts is in dispute, will Ravi Zacharias still be permitted to pass on with his reputation unblemished? Will it be business as usual for his evangelical business empire after he passes?
Roman Catholic leaders have been learning their public relations lessons the hard way. Lying would work, they once thought, especially lying coupled with intimidation and bullying of the souls under their spiritual care. Unfortunately for the Church, dedicated journalists and plaintiffs’ lawyers foiled that plan. And when the Vanier evidence surfaced, the Catholics did the right thing.
How has the evangelical world responded to the undisputed evidence of systematic and sustained deception by Ravi Zacharias? By signing new book deals with him, bestowing lifetime ministry awards upon him, granting him prestigious speaking engagements, and acting as if none of his deceptions mattered. And now, with the undeniably sad news of Zacharias‘s terminal prognosis, we have seen a flood of adulation on the Internet:
Perhaps sober heads will prevail. Perhaps the evangelical world will take a cue from their Catholic counterparts. The evidence against Ravi Zacharias is, after all, serious and compelling. If evangelicals ignore it they will show the world that they do not take their Holy Bible seriously (1 Timothy 5:20).
And if that’s the case, Ravi Zacharias will have unwittingly shed light on an important truth.
——-
Steve Baughman is a lawyer and part-time student at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley. For extensive documentation of the assertions in this article see his Ravi Zacharias exposé Cover Up in the Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies, and God’s Great Apologist, Ravi Zacharias, available at Amazon for download and physical delivery. Steve can be reached through his website www.RaviWatch.com or www.CelticGuitar.com .
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Reblogged this on Truth2Freedom's Blog.
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for starters:
ravi zacharias breeched the NDA he/his attorney(s) brokered when he entitled himself to ‘the last word’ in December 2017.
why are there no consequences for that alone?
is there no one but the silenced party to bring accountability to Ravi for doing this?
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It seems that a lawyer and/or a judge should not allow a one-sided NDA. That sort of NDA is begging the sort of damage control smears that we see in these instances.
In this case, whatever happened, Ravi now apparently has the legal green light to publicly make up whatever story he wants to whitewash what happened, and she has to remain silent. I hope she was paid well enough to compensate for all the smears she will have to endure.
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Scottie. Only the parties to the nondisclosure agreement would be able to sue for breach. If they choose not to sue, Ravi gets away with it. He had the millions of dollars and the pitbull legal team on his side, so he probably knew that she would not fight him on this.
Why did Christianity Today not at least ask Ravi about that? Nobody knows.
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Abt the email/lawsuit issue: it strikes me that he unwisely gave this woman his #, and she became obsessed. Imagine her emailing you multiple sex photos and you trying to not embarrass her and getting in over your head. He is a sensitive individual, and had tried suicide before. Perhaps he was trying to shut down an obsessed stalker.
It’s grievous that he wasn’t transparent about his credentials, but the Canadian woman issue just doesn’t seem like abuse to me. More like damage control when a manipulator is threatening your ministry.
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Always interesting, and sad, to me that you see examples like these where someone in the organization had to have known about the problems, but people kept their heads down until some brave person stood up and said “the h*** with it” and spoke up. In Vanier’s case, I have to wonder if the prod was his terminal illness–“he cannot get me now.”
Or maybe, as in other cases I’ve seen, people were speaking up, and higher ups kept the matter quiet until someone figured a way around the gatekeepers.
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Kathleen. Good points, and they are a little harder to believe when we look at Ravi’s Complaint. He admits that he initiated the BlackBerry communication, wanting a “more secure“ method. And then he says he made numerous attempts to get her to stop sending the photos, but he provides absolutely nothing in support of that. If his story were true, surely he would have at least one email/Blackberry saying “please stop sending me these.” But he doesn’t
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Well, Steve, you also need to ask why he used the Blackberry which he knew didn’t leave a trail. Because he also had another phone, but he explicitly asked Lori Anne to use the Blackberry.
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Julie Anne. Yes, another thing about this BlackBerry, his whole theory was that the Thompsons conspired to frame him. But their conspiracy needed a “more secure“ method, and he was the one who provided it.
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Well old Ravi lost a lot of his credibility when he hyped up/lied about his academic credentials. He only fixed that after he got called out in it.
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I really do not believe what is written in this blog about Ravi Zacharias .. I know people from Toronto who know Ravi and his family friends there … I think the author of this post is on a fishing trip .. the evidence is not compelling .. Ravi Zacharias is not a deceiver, I think that the author of this article is a deceiver …
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Ravi died this morning. I have yet to know how my Christian radio station does with that; they feature words from him every weekday morning. The story they told today is that Ravi became a Christian at 17 after his first(?) suicide attempt. That he sought to be an apologist to find reasons why people don’t become Christians. Was there some mental block he had? We’ll never know. Anyway, pray for Margie and their kids and grandkids.
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I am sure the judge of all the earth will do right, being in possession of exhaustive information, from whom nothing is hid.
It is appointed unto man to die once and after that the judgement, something I become more aware of as I get older, something my dad used to say into his old age, and we all have to face both appointments. I don’t think this should be a source of fear as such, but it should make us more sober.
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Well said KAS. There is a difference between cautioning believer’s about potential deceit of leaders and jumping up and down, pointing the finger at someone else to feel holier about ourselves with our own sins and our own pasts.
Some people want to start casting stones before Jesus has even said a word. We need to check our motives and be honest if they are coming from a Godly place.
If a guy who spends 365 days over 35 YEARS proclaiming the truth of His kingdom, 5 days caught up in an alleged case of immorality and 30 days falsifying his qualifications through feeling inadequate, yet God wants to use him, who are we to say he is no good? Who are we to call ourselves righteous?
If a guy who spends 365 days over 35 YEARS proclaiming the truth of His kingdom and 365 days over 5 years killing and persecuting the early church, yet God wants to use him, who are we to say he is no good? Who are we to call ourselves righteous?
I’ll say it again, some people want to start casting stones before Jesus has even said a word. We need to check our motives and be honest if they are coming from a Godly place.
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Ravi Zacharias was used by God to touch the hearts of thousands .. for the good .. my prayers are with his family and his ministry …. the accusations concerning the sexting incident was investigated by various authorities including the very credible and above board denomination for which he was accreditied with as a licensed pastor … the lady (couple) who tried to accuse him were not credible, they had done something similar in the past to another pastor … from what I read, I think the lady in question has a problem dealing with abuse from her childhood and as well along with her husband, they seem to be some sort of con artists, trying to blackmail people, pastors for money and maybe because of personal problems (psychological probably ..)
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@W.K.
Was he really “used” by god? How do we know for sure?
Used to listen to this individual, but he never led me to Jesus Christ…..the Only ONE of the original Scrip. Rather, Mr. Ravi led me unto himself, which in part, is another god…….. a form of narcissism that is alive and well within our modern day form of c’hurch.
Worship JESUS……folks will hate you and side with satan…….worship man……folks will love you and say that you are “saved” according to the precepts of man.
It is difficult to believe the truth of reality in this world as we love, love, love our idols of man, and it is so easy to worship the gods of man…….Jesus predicted this…….so no worries here. I used to listen to Mr. Ravi via the internet and am shamed to say, that I too, in my self righteousness, used to refer those whom I believe to be “unsaved,” “Hey, you should listen to Ravi Zacharias, for he preaches “truth.” So yes, in making this life real, I have repented of my sin of referring folks to a man or woman for salvation…….Please Jesus, forgive me for the sins and errors of my ways…..for we, as born again Christians, living and believing on Jesus Christ as our personal LORD and SAVIOR, should be witnessing on behalf of HIM, not any man or woman who has the gift of twisting the original scriptures for their own personal kingdoms.
Mr. Ravi, is a human being, sinful to the core as is the rest of us, only redeemed and forgiven by an Amazing Savior, JESUS CHRIST, when this personal gift of acknowledging our sin and confessing our repentance before an amazing LORD is freely given on our own human behalf…….what an amazing miracle it is……that HE forgives us according to HIS precepts.
Precisely, WHO can do that, but the person/and LORD GOD of all Creation…..but our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
We, who are fallen, choose to believe what we desire to believe, as in the religious systems, political circuses across this earth, business systems who worship money above and beyond people who have a soul, medical systems who love death rather than Life in Jesus, and social systems who beg us not to hug and love on one another…….future mandated vacs will kill and destroy more souls than will save…..oh, how Jesus may, perhaps be weeping for His precious sheep, whom have followed other gods throughout the creation of mankind.
Perhaps the most “worldly” folks………are those within the precepts of c’hurchianity……..for are not they the “king’s kids?” And not the King of the entire universe…….Jesus….the Son of GOD and the Son of man.
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Why are all the “great” ones filthy rich? You can’t serve God and money. Which one did he really serve? People are idiots, including myself. We can be so easily fooled. Our standards of righteousness can change based on our emotions. OOOOOH He’s so smart he says good things so he must be righteous. “I’m not going to believe any negativity because he talked about the Bible and Jesus” A person can be a lying creep and just because he has swayed us with words we can choose to believe his lie as opposed to the truth.
Lying is a serious offence in scripture. If you bother to look up the consequences of lying in scripture it is pretty grave. So he is just another lying, smooth talking rich guy. If he didn’t put the word christian in front of or behind his name he would be considered the same as any other lying scoundrel bound for hell.
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William – The VICTIM of Ravi’s abuse does not need your additional shaming regarding her abusive upbringing, which has nothing to do with Zacharias’ actions as a leader, one who is held to a higher standard of conduct. The other case to which you refer, involved this woman & her husband suing a pastor who wronged THEM financially and they rightfully took him to court and won. Again, this does not paint them as litigious or con artists. As for the ‘above board’ investigation of Ravi’s involvement with the victim, it was in the best interests of the investigators to find no evidence of wrongdoing, seeing as many people financially benefit from the organization that bears Ravi’s name. It is people LIKE YOU, who bury your head in the sand in the face of indisputable evidence, that cause victims to not speak up. You defend a man who has no defense, who sent the text messages which are viewable, and who lied about his credentials. Ravi lost all credibility and it escapes me as to why someone with such incredible intellect had so many blind spots & a complete failure to maintain proper boundaries. It is truly sad that this is the legacy RAVI chose to leave, and I would hope that at some point you will face the truth that this man you idolize is not worthy of your praise.
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When in doubt, blame the “feminists.” Or whatever that means, because then the blame becomes someone else’s issue, instead of the perpetrator. Or, as the recently elected baptist c’hurch board p’resident down the road ( who, incidentally verbally and emotionally abuses his wife for disk chiseling a hill in the form of extreme yelling and degrading her, for she forgot to lift the digger over the hill in practicing his mandated “conservation methods”) has this ill gotten practice of “blaming satan” for his verbal, emotional, and physical abuse towards his wife and those of us who have crossed his narcissistic baptist religion.
YIKES!
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For the record, in my four years of investigating and publicizing Ravi Zacharias’ misconduct I have probably not had more than a handful of Ravi defenders respond with facts.
Their “defense” is always about (in order of frequency):
My wicked motives;
Ms. T’s wicked motives; and
Nobody’s perfect.
Every once in a while (as in this thread);
Ravi is too nice a guy.
His defenders here at SSB are carrying on that M.O.
Sad.
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Seems shameful to destroy the reputation of a dead man who can’t defend himself.
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For years I heard RZ on Christian TV referencing his being “educated at Cambridge”. How shocked, disappointed and disgusted I was to learn he only audited a couple of classes there for 3 months. How he states it sounded like he had studied there for some duration or had even earned a degree.
RZ deliberately inflated his education for personal gain. Calling himself “Doctor” when he had received only honorary degrees, etc. If he had truly been an academic, he was have been rightly fired for his actions.
A true man/woman of God doesn’t need to lie about their credentials. They doesn’t “humble brag“ what turns out to be falsehoods. If you disagree, watch the numerous YouTube videos where he brings up Cambridge.
If that wasn’t bad enough, he never once was held accountable for threatening suicide when his internet affair was about to be exposed. Instead he broke his own NDA to defend himself and smear LT in the process. I believe you, LT.
As Christians we cannot let him be remembered as this “perfect” person. While we all fall short, as a teacher RZ should have been held to a higher standard and wasn’t.
If anything, his life shows me the power of self-deception, the idols the evangelical world creates and worships, and that judgement will ultimately come to everyone. What a tragic life.
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This is disgusting! I have met Ravi and have been listening and learning from his discussions and debates in academia for close to 40 years now. Not once have I heard him speak in a self promoting way. He does speak highly of Cambridge, Oxford, and other institutions of higher learning and the bright minds that he has had the privilege of speaking to. His mission was to point people to Christ, not himself. And his interactions were always gracious and respectful, even while dialoguing with those who were insulting. “…on the way to sainthood?” “Canonize”? Neither he nor the majority of those who enjoy hearing him speak (Evangelicals) are Catholic, and so would not be “canonizing” anyone. The Scriptures refer to Christ’s people as saints, as imperfect as we all are. So no, he is not “on the way” to sainthood. “His fans”??? Really??? Athough many people around the globe have the utmost respect for him, including myself, it is inappropriate to refer to us as fans, as if he were a rock star. I am sure that would make him cringe, and he would immediately correct the term. As far as the allegations, they are completely out of character, and I question their validity. I am fully aware that the Devil seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, even the reputation of a godly man. It is especially distasteful to do so on the day of this saint’s death.
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“I’ll say it again, some people want to start casting stones before Jesus has even said a word. We need to check our motives and be honest if they are coming from a Godly place.”
You said it twice. You should probably have read it a few more times before you clicked the send button.
Compare the responses. When Nathan confronted David with what he had done, David admitted fault and repented. When Jesus confronted the Pharisees, they refused to admit any wrongdoing and they accused him of evil. David understood that his relationship with God was more important than his appearance before men.
What about your motives?
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Hi Mark,
Thanks for your reply. You made some good points about how we respond to conviction and correction. In King David’s case, the prophet Nathan cleverly put his wrongdoing in a way that David could recognise as wrong before being told it was a parallel to his OWN sin. I am not sure how the person who challenged Ravi put the Oxbridge association-exaggerations to him but it appears that the result was that Ravi did not continue to do it. I don’t have a record of that conversation.
Regarding my motives, my main aim was to highlight the difference between cautioning out fellow believers about someone who is deliberately out to deceive us and jumping onto a bandwagon, sometimes pushed by Satan, trying to topple good work God may be doing through an imperfect individual.
From my understanding, the phrase “I’ll say it again” is usually followed by a repetition of some sort. My motive in repeating that phrase twice was to remind us of Jesus example when he saw a woman who had just been caught in adultery. Especially, the attitude he set down in an example to us.
This is difficult because I don’t have all of the facts and have no way to balance some comments against the comments of STEVEN BAUGHMAN above, who appears to have given the matter more attention than I presently have. I may be wrong in my perception of Ravi. So I can only point to look at the attitudes behind whatever conclusion we draw by modelling it on Jesus example.
God bless
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So basically he made some inflated claims and said some things in a private email that he probably shouldn’t have. And this somehow nullifies his life work? I’m not excusing it, but to dismiss all the good he did or smear his legacy over this is rather petty and ridiculous, IMO.
This also reminds me of some things I read some years ago on the dark side of C.S. Lewis. All heroes of faith have skeletons. That’s why we’re not putting our faith in them, but in the One they are pointing us to.
There’s also enough context there to tell you that more important context is missing. “Can we not meet before you do this?” Sounds like a reasonable request and makes it clear there are things not included in these screenshots that would provide important information.
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This piece sounds very high and mighty, to be honest. I’m not really sure what the writer’s objective is and with what motives he wrote this, but it appears to me that he is trying to tarnish Ravi’s character, work and testimony. But why, and to what end? I don’t know.
It is easy to point at others’ failures when we see them or are disappointed in them, and to forget about our own shortcomings, because they often don’t make it into the news. And we all know that we all fall short of perfection – at least I know I do. But where do we go from this realisation? We can point at and inflate others’ mistakes and besmirch their life and testimony, or we can acknowledge their shortcomings and marvel all the more how God uses fallible people for His work.
That is humbling, and I encourage you to decide which option you prefer.
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All the self-righteous Christians, squeezing their eyes shut yelling, “neener-neener-I-can’t-hear-you,” refusing to admit the well documented truth about their hero. Makes me sick.
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