Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
-James 3:1, NIV
In an article in Christianity Today, we learned that Ravi Zacharias’ denomination (Christian and Missionary Alliance) has taken the unusual step of removing his ordination after his death (link here). This is reportedly after concluding RZ engaged in a “pattern of predatory behavior.”
I say this is shamefully late as they did not do their due diligence in 2017 in the case of Lori Anne Thompson. In fact, they allowed their shamefully weak “inquiry” back then to provide cover and thereby enable RZ to continue in his “predatory behavior.”
Instead of apologizing for this poor effort, they try to use weasel words to avoid accountability for their failure back then:
“We weren’t declaring him innocent. We simply didn’t have evidence to support the accusations—part of which may have been related to the NDA,” he [the Vice President of CMA] said. “It was an inquiry. It could have led to an investigation had adequate evidence been presented at that point or if additional accusations had surfaced. That was the only accusation that had surfaced in 40 or 45 years of ministry.”
This was not how it was presented to the public in 2018. The official is drawing a distinction between “inquiry” and “investigation” in order to avoid doing the right thing–namely, acknowledging that they messed up in 2018. It is an example of employing weasel words to avoid admitting their culpability.
The same CT article exposes this by quoting the CMA:
In 2018, the CMA said it “completed a thorough inquiry of these accusations,” including “a review of all available documentation and records” and found no basis for discipline.
This is worse than doing nothing back then. I say it is worse because this statement is highly misleading.
Such a statement and declaration is the sort of thing that enabled RZ to continue his abuse with a veneer of legitimacy.
In fact, that sort of statement made Lori Anne Thompson look like the liar while RZ was the actual liar (and abuser). It is heartbreaking that the denomination does not apologize about this but rather tries to justify their past behavior.
Now, I am not saying this to bash CMA. All denominations are flawed as they are made up of flawed humans. However, this is an example of how Christians ought NOT to handle such matters.
