A Poisoned Well
The recent results of the investigation against Christian apologist (and founder of RZIM), Ravi Zacharias have thrown the evangelical world into a tailspin. With accusations dating back to 2014, we have learned through substantiated allegations, that Ravi Zacharias sexually abused and manipulated hundreds of women.
In the statement of impact issued by RZIM’s Board of Directors, they willfully “recognize that in situations of prolonged abuse, there often exist significant structural, policy, and cultural problems” that they then declare to dedicate themselves to bettering as to avoid this grave scenario in their ministry’s future. I think that recognizing this pattern of downfall in any ministry will do a great justice for us all if we are willing to pre-emptively safeguard.
This problem of duplicity isn’t privy to Ravi, many spiritual influencers in recent years have made their transgressions public: everything from affairs, confessions of atheism, sexual impropriety and embezzlement. It is easy to see that RZIM’s Board is on to something.
It seems that those who have reached the pinnacle of fame in their faith sector, then have a difficult time standing on their own two feet. While faith is never a surety that we won’t fall, it isn’t an unforeseen trap either.
There seems to be an observable pattern that typically starts with the exaltation of a person’s rise to influence. Popularity is met with an audience who then slowly and surely begin to replace Christ with said Christian leader. The equation of power bottoms out and too much weight is placed on the shoulders of the leader, all while displacing Christ from the centrality of the message of the Bible. Being the culture we are - steeped in the influence of the celebrity - hanging onto every word muttered by the influencer, we make vulnerability an insufferable and impossible task for them, enabling the duplicitous life to take form in the darkness.
Popularity continues to translate to trust. Institutionally, this leads to less safe guards, less accountability, and leaders end up with too much power, and to their own detriment. No matter the safeguards we have in place for success, evil isn’t inescapable. We need to fill the pews of the church with humility, allowing our leaders to express their struggles without diminishing their faith in the process. We need to make the church safe for pastors to be human, and we need to make the pastors safe for the vulnerabilities of the congregants.
These days have proven that the bride of Christ needs baptized anew. There is too much poison in the well that we have been offering to others as living waters. We need to individually and collectively allow the life of Christ to lead us to transformation and to admit our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. If we remove the pedestals, remove the idolatry of those in authority, allow the love of Christ to transform us, we won’t need what the world offers our churches to feel whole. We can drop the brand, leave the popularity, and we can meet Jesus at the well. We can become so transformed that we walk away, forgetting to fill our earthly jugs because the quench of life itself has been satisfied.