Ravi Zacharias, a prominent Christian apologist and ministry leader who passed away this year due to a malignant and rare cancer in his spine is being investigated by the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) following new claims of sexual misconduct, stated a reported by Christianity Today.
This is the opening of a second investigation into Ravi Zacharias over his alleged misconduct and the evangelical denomination has sent a letter to the Alliance workers.
In the letter, it has been mentioned that the leadership had “determined that we must look into these new allegations, in spite of the fact that Mr Zacharias passed away earlier this year.”
For a long time, Zacharias was ordained and licensed by the CMA up until his death in May and new allegations of sexual misconduct came from former employees at two Atlanta-area day spas which was co-owned by Zacharias and frequented for massage therapy more than a decade ago.
Three women at the spa were quoted saying in the Christianity Today report that Zacharias would touch them inappropriately, expose himself, and masturbate during treatments. The World magazine had reported additional allegations regarding a therapist who was fired after complaining that Zacharias asked for “more than a massage.”
Terry Smith, Vice President of Church Ministries for the CMA, said, though Ravi Zacharias is dead, the denomination is “fully accountable” for its licensed ministers—no matter their level of celebrity or international renown.
According to the CMA, they have zero tolerance towards sexual misconduct and people are disqualified from leadership if their behaviour causes “imminent harm to others or to the testimony of Christ.”
“Normally when a worker is investigated, they’re alive so they can speak to the accusations against them and can receive whatever punitive steps the discipline committee gives them,” Smith was quoted saying in the Christianity Today. “Our goal [here] is to discover the truth to the best of our ability to do so.”, he said.
Smith went on to add, “We don’t want anyone to think we show favouritism in any of these cases or situations,” stating that “We’re going to investigate this like we would have done for any other official worker.
He further added, “Beyond the investigation, an organization needs to be doing what it can to shift the culture. Talk about these matters repeatedly, publicly. Talk about how you don’t care who it is, no one in leadership is beyond accountability. And prevent leaders from becoming mega rock stars in the first place.”
There is also a book that was written by a San Francisco lawyer named Steve Baughman, who has carefully documented the case against Zacharias at his website. It is titled Cover-Up in the Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies, And God’s Great Apologist, Ravi Zacharias.
In his book, Baughman writes that Zacharias sexually molested the help at his spa and used to “fly women in from India” to give him treatment at Jivan.
In 2016, it was revealed Zacharias was involved in an online sex scandal with a married woman.
Baughman further adds, “What we see in Mr Zacharias’s self-presentation over the past 35 years is a very clear pattern and practice of deception,”
Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias aka Ravi Zacharias was an Indian born Candian-American Christian apologist. He was born in Chennai (then Madras) but was brought up in Delhi. In 1966, Zacharias immigrated with his family to Canada. He started an itinerant ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Canada.
He has been accused of sexual misconduct by several people. A Canadian woman Lori Anne Thompson accused him of sexually assaulting her. Four months after Zacharias’s death in May of 2020, three women who worked at the spas he owned in Atlanta alleged that Zacharias had sexually harassed multiple massage therapists multiple times over the course of five years.