Ravi Zacharias - the fall.

The morning-after Sunday reflection: -

After the revelation of Ravi Zacharias (“RZ”) came out on the first day of CNY, I read this statement by a former staff of RZIM. 

“In an email to The Christian Post on Friday, Carson Weitnauer, who previously led RZIM's U.S. speaking team, said he now believes that Zacharias was not only a fraud, as he articulated in an earlier op-ed published by CP, but that the organization bearing his name is as well. He further asserted that the ministry's apology is unacceptable in light of the revelations released in the report.” 

(The Christian Post, 13 Feb, by Brandon Showalter). 

Carson added: "The organization’s apologetic-sounding statement was released by an anonymous board, is incomplete in its scope, avoids calling on the Zacharias Estate to release the Thompson's from the NDA, and announces no resignations or removals of those most responsible for this tragedy. 1 John 3:18 instructs us, 'Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Thompson was one of his accusers, and she was sued by RZ. They eventually settled and signed a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). 

Sadly, after all's said, RZIM is evidently built around the cult of personality. By now, it should be obvious enough. It even bears his name. Now, RZIM is considering changing its name as publishers pull his books out of the retail shelves. 

At this point, the mid-stream chicken-and-the-egg question for me is this, at which point did RZ change from using religion to publicly defeat his carnal appetites to using religion to privately feed them? Galatians 3:3 puts it in similar manner: -

“Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh."

That’s right, you heard it right the first time. Don’t need second reading. For you can reach spiritual maturity by other means, in particular, the flesh, and none is the wiser. It is thus one means by which it is difficult for another to discern or to call out for repentance because the fruit the leader bears is as enticing as the one the serpent once offered to Eve, and Eve to Adam. 

Alas, power, wealth and fame are never to be underestimated. Most men, even the best of us, struggle endlessly to beat down the temptation to just give in, to put on the facade, to make it believable, to fleece them for as long as it takes, and hopefully, to repent later when one has secured enough religious cred, thereby making one too holy or reverent to fall. Trust me, that temptation is hard to resist over the long run when one rests on his religious laurels in the summit of power and influence.

In fact, there is a kind of stupor (like a trance) in religious organisations that tends to paralyse many into a form of compliance stasis, if not mass acquiescence. This is evident in what the Independent Report on RZ’s sexual misconduct recounted in an all-staff virtual meeting in January 2018 when “significant details of the Thompson communications had been made public.” Here is the relevant extract.

“Mr Zacharias offered explanations that many staff members found nonsensical. But some staff members reported to us that when they expressed doubts about Mr Zacharia’s story, they were ignored, marginalized, and accused of disloyalty.”

Well, you know falsehood is (ironically) vindicated when truth becomes a fugitive or when the appeal to reason is seen as an act of betrayal. That is what it means by divided allegiance, that is, serving two masters and falling prey to the wrong one. 

And the irony with the Canadian woman Lori Anne Thompson is that she claimed she was “groomed” by RZ to “gain her trust as a spiritual guide, confidante, and notable Christian statesman”. That caused her to open her life to him to the point where RZ “exercised a controlling influence over her as one with spiritual authority.” 

She said “he used his influence to exploit her vulnerability to satisfy his own sexual desires.” Although they were never physically intimate, “Ms Thompson alleged that they engaged in an emotional relationship through electronic communication and that culminated in him asking for photographs of her, including nudes, which she sent.”

If such is true, that’s sexual grooming 101. But, before you say that that will not happen to you, mind you, subordinates in religious organization fall prey to such modus operandi too when the cult of personality rules. It is of another kind of grooming no less insidious; a collective grooming that numbs the senses and stupefies spiritual discernment. 

If you think about it, RZ definitely had that clout, that spiritual authority, and I personally would be equally enthralled if I were working under him. 

And that is the issue with religious organisations or organised religion, when everything in the most nuanced way revolves around one personality (or a couple) whose claim for spiritual authority is almost absolute, and for whom the masses freely associate the success of the organization with his leadership, wisdom and vision. 

Sometimes, we mistake church growth in numbers as a sure sign of success. Well, it is not necessarily so because cancer is also about growth, a kind of runaway, uncontrolled multiplication. Thus, a vision of numerical growth realised without a life consistently consecrated - like how Christ would often draw away from the clamoring crowd - is a growth that eventually devours the visionary. It is a growth that overtime carries out a hostile or carnal takeover of its host. 

At this juncture, repeating Galatians warning would be most apt - “Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh.” 

But then, when cult of personality reigns, what is foolish, senseless or even nonsensical becomes tolerable (or ignorable) because at some point in the successful multiplication, no one dares or wants to conceive/imagine that the church can exist, even thrive, without the leader. By that stage, the two have sadly become one. I guess that is why G.K. Chesterton once reminded us this: “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”

For her existence is the seed that he had planted, a seed that bears his name and signature. As such, confronting the leader/founder who planted the first seed is no different from chopping down the tree that has given all those under it spiritual shade and economic shelter. The mutuality and dependability are less for one’s spiritual edification and more about a way of survival, that is, a way of protecting one’s security and rice bowl.

However perverted this may sound, or blasphemous, haven’t we seen enough of such falls from grace (arising from the cult of personality) throughout recent history of the church because the people who support the one who leads rather stay quiet than stand up to be counted? 

Let me end with a scripture about what enduringly authentic leadership means to me. 

“We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” (Romans 15:1-3). 

Yes, leaders are not elevated in ministry to please themselves. The reward of their sacrifices is not the misery of the fruit of their ministry. Indeed, the reproaches of men fell on Christ, even when He bore the stripes on his back. 

And a church is where a genuine community elevates the weak by the arms of the humbled strong. That obligation flows from the love of our Saviour, a love that not only overcomes the world, it also brings healing and hope to it. 

For me, that is the enduring mark of a leader. He is mostly unseen. He doesn’t crave visibility. At times, he is even despised, misunderstood. He doesn't care, and neither does it affect what he cares about. And he is always mindful that he owns nothing in this world, for he is just a faithful steward, a fellow sojourner, and a broken soul on his/her way to healing and spiritual growth. A growth, not by might, power or fame, but by His spirit, a spirit from the sacrifices made at Calvary.