Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife….
-1 Timothy 3:2a, NIV
Growing up, I admired the late Ravi Zacharias as an intellectual hero of the Christian faith.
In high school and my undergraduate years, I would regularly listen to his radio broadcasts as he presented a “brainy” Christianity. For someone who attended places like Carleton and Yale, I loved listening to him and seeing how he blended intellectualism with Christianity.
So, it is with no joy that I write this post today. But it needs to be written.
I will boil down the claims and counter claims for those unfamiliar with the situation.
Ravi Zacharias, who died on May 19, 2020, is alleged to have had a sexually inappropriate relationship with Lori Anne Thompson. He is alleged to have engaged in sexting with this woman and engaging in phone sex with her. This relationship occurred roughly in the years 2014 to 2016.
Lori Anne Thompson announced her intention to expose the illicit relationship to her husband, Brad, and RZ threatened to kill himself to prevent her from telling her husband. This happened on October 29, 2016.
In fact, Lori Anne Thompson’s counselors had to intervene to ensure RZ was not serious about taking his life. He did back off the threat in response to their intervention. I will add that RZ threatening suicide to stop exposure of the illicit relationship is not a matter of speculation (see documentation here).
In April 2017, Brad and Lori Ann Thompson sued RZ for $5 million, and RZ responded with a counter-lawsuit that ended in both parties signing NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements). Despite having signed this agreement, RZ later spoke on the matter to Christianity Today (CT).
In the CT article, RZ portrayed Lori Anne Thompson as the pursuer and her lawsuit as an attempt to extract money from him. Still, RZ admitted to having interacted with Lori Anne Thompson (not by name), but claimed his wrongdoing ended simply with willingly communicating with a woman who wasn’t his wife in an extended way. (By the way, RZ claims the communication was via=op78ghdsqemail in his statement to CT, yet evidence exists that they communicated via telephone and RZ sent her presents (see here)).
Reporter, Julie Roys, has completed a three part series debunking the claims used to whitewash the behavior of Ravi Zacharias (For in depth details and excellent documentation please see her articles: here, here, and here).
After reading Julie Roys’ reporting and comparing it to RZ’s statement to CT, I am convinced RZ had a sexually inappropriate relationship with Lori Anne Thompson. He was far from “above reproach” in this matter.
What makes this especially awful is how spiritual authority was used to exploit Lori Anne Thompson. This is clergy sexual abuse in my opinion.
Would the intimacy have developed between them apart from RZ’s role as a religious leader? I think not. That is why I am convinced it was clergy sexual abuse.
Our leaders are human. That means they are not perfect and capable of great sin. We ought not to be shocked when a leader actually does give into temptation and falls egregiously into sin. This pattern is sadly common to our sin-broken humanity.
Like many prominent evangelical leaders who have fallen from grace recently, we can both receive the gifts they gave AND condemn the sin that they exhibited in their lives.
I am grateful for the encouragement and gifts I received from the ministry of Ravi Zacharias. AND I unequivocally condemn RZ’s behavior in relationship with Lori Anne Thompson. It was sin and completely wrong.
Even though the allegations do not include sexual intercourse, sexting and phone sex still fall into the categories of sexual sin. They are sexually unfaithful behavior.
I hope Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) decides to release the Thompsons from the NDA. Light is what is needed in this situation. Clearly, the statement to CT was not honest and already demonstrated an unwillingness to respect the NDA. So, the godly, truthful option is to release all parties, in my opinion.
