What Do I Do With My Ravi Zacharias Books: A Thread For This Specific Case and Not Necessarily Others (don't get all in my mentions about whether you can read some other book, I don't care):

I’m writing specifically for people for whom RZ’s work was particularly meaningful and formative. Personally, RZ’s work was never my taste. I always thought his oratorical skills far exceeded the content of his work.

But I know a lot of people disagree with me, so I will proceed in the voice of someone for whom RZ’s work is particularly treasured.

Imagine I gave you a beautiful, decorative, intricately carved ivory knife with a gold filagree and jeweled handle. Pretty cool, right? You’d probably want to display it somewhere impressive in your house.

Imagine shortly after I gave you this knife I revealed that someone recently used this knife to kill a dozen people and maim hundreds of others. How do you feel about the knife now? The knife is no less beautiful in its outward appearance and craftsmanship.

But someone used it to do incredible damage and destroy lives. Even if the knife is incredible, you probably still don’t want this in your home.

RZ’s work is the knife. RZ used his charisma and Bible knowledge to manipulate women into submitting to abuse and not telling anyone. According to the report:

“The woman who accused him of rape said that ‘he made her pray with him to thank God for the ‘opportunity’ ...’ She also said that’“he called her his ‘reward’ for living a life of service to God, and he referenced the ‘godly men’ in the Bible with more than one wife.’”

RZ also used the size and audience of his ministry to encourage others to think they were doing a good thing by covering for him. According to the report, RZIM’s leaders used Scripture to shut down questions, emphasized the importance of the ministry, and called people

within the organization who knew something was seriously wrong “satanic” and asked them if they were on God’s side.

From my perspective, it’s hard to avoid any conclusion except this: that RZ created an image of intelligence, spiritual knowledge, and gravitas, which he used to build a ministry and audience, and which he then used to rape women.

He made a knife of astonishing craftsmanship, and then he started stabbing people. I think it’s hard to justify continuing to learn from RZ’s works in light of the fact that his apologetics ministry was ultimately his means to a horrifying end.