If you know me, you know I am a “fan” (or let me say was) of Ravi Zacharias. I remember telling people that if I knew theology and apologetics half as well as Ravi, I would be honestly have been fulfilled. He as well as Preston Perry, Jackie Hill Perry, etc was among the preachers that combined intellect with theology that I had not seen before. When he died on the 19th of May 2020, I honestly was devastated. Felt like I lost someone I knew, well I did lose someone I admired. Fast forward to 23rd of December 2020, an investigation conducted by Ravi Zacharias International Ministry (RZIM) discovered that Ravi engaged in sexual misconduct.
To read more about Ravi sexual misconduct, click below:
https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-updates/board-statement
It honestly came as a shock to me, wasn’t aware of the sexual misconduct allegations till after he died. Maybe I was too immersed in the Ravi praise bubble. Anyway, this issue has made me do a lot of thinking, soul searching, and talking to God. I decided to make my thoughts a blog post.
First, let me start by saying we ( by “we” I mean the church) need to get rid of celebrity Christian culture. We have to discard elevating charismatic Christian leaders to a point devoid of any form of accountability. Accountability is needed to help Christian leaders kill the “little foxes”; so we do not become a breeding ground for sexual abuse and misconduct.
We are also going to have a conversion of Christian sexual ethics, especially when it comes to purity culture. A lot of sexual misconduct thrives on the foundation of purity culture, especially how we see sex for men and sex for women. We have created this dichotomy: women give sex and men take. That dichotomy is why I feel purity is more emphasized on women than men. Don’t get me wrong, purity is good especially when it goes both ways aka (both sexes) but we are going to have to discuss purity from “Your value is in your vagina/purity”.
Yes, celebrity culture gave men like Ravi access to victims, it also gave them cover. Just that the “objectification” of women, as well as sexual misconduct in the church, didn’t come from celebrity culture.
FOR EXAMPLE
Emerson Eggerichs, in Love & Respect, says: “The cold, hard truth is that men are often lured into affairs because they are sexually deprived at home.” If women get upset by this? We need to realize that men have needs we will never understand.
For Women Only tells women “to accept the struggle” he has with lust. Love & Respect says: “If your husband feels you do not respect his struggle…& his maleness, he’ll pull back”. Women need to make peace with men’s lustful nature, or we will disrespect them & they will have affairs.
Typical evangelical resources say: Men NEED sex in a way women do not. Women are told: you can’t say no, to say no is to deprive him. Men become predators when they are deprived of sex. We have basically said men need release from their physical desires. They can’t control themselves without women’s “assistance” aka strict adherence to purity culture. If they don’t get help, they become predators. That’s why when a case of sexual misconduct is mainstream you see a lot of Christians saying “she probably caused him to sin” instead of “ let’s investigate”.
We need to go back to proper theology. Let us go back to the Bible wholistic view on sex. Which is sex, sex is a beautiful picture of mutual passion and intimacy with boundaries of love and respect.
