Brad discusses the Ravi Zacharias scandal and why sexual abuse is so rampant in Evangelical spaces: authoritarian leadership structures, patriarchal theology, in group/out group mentality, and a lack of oversight. He then relates it to Evangelical theologies of sex and gender by examining how Kamala Harris has been given the Jezebel label. Not is it sexist, but its origins are racist in nature. The Jezebel type is a slur against Black Women.
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Axis Mundi Hello, welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty in religion at Skidmore College.
And this show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
I wanted to weigh in today on a couple of things that are intimately related in my mind.
The first is the scandal surrounding the late apologist Ravi Zacharias.
For those of you who are not familiar with Zacharias's work, Ravi's work, he was sort of considered to be one of the greatest apologists for Christianity of his generation.
He was somebody who was able to defend the faith, and argue for the legitimacy of Christianity all over the world.
It was, as I'll get to in a minute, recognized for this by many of the sort of elite influencers in the Christian world, or at least the evangelical world.
A man with enormous influence who literally preached and lectured to millions had a popular radio show.
I don't even have the words.
across the world.
And he has passed away just a short time ago, about a year ago.
But what's come to light are just the, I don't even have the words, infuriating, enraging news about his sexual abuse and exploitation of many women.
So I want to talk about that.
And then I want to talk about how one of the flip sides of this is the use of the Jezebel label and how that has been used in reference to Kamala Harris in recent weeks.
And so let's start with Ravi Zacharias.
This is from a piece by Daniel Silliman and Kate Shelnut at Christianity Today.
A four-month investigation found the late Ravi Zacharias leveraged his reputation as a world-famous Christian apologist to abuse massage therapists in the United States and abroad over more than a decade while the ministry led by his family members and loyal allies failed to hold him accountable.
He used his need for massage and frequent overseas travel to hide his abusive behavior, luring victims by building trust through spiritual conversations and offering funds straight from his ministry.
A 12-page report released Thursday last week by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries confirms abuse by Zacharias at day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers five additional victims in the U.S.
as well as evidence of sexual abuse in Thailand, India, and Malaysia.
Even a limited review of Zacharias' old devices revealed contacts from more than 200 massage therapists in the U.S.
and Asia and hundreds of images of young women, including some that showed the women naked.
Zacharias solicited and received photos until a few months before his death in May 2020 at age 74.
He used tens of thousands of dollars from his ministry, which was dedicated to a humanitarian effort, to pay four massage therapists, providing them housing, schooling, and monthly support for extended periods of time, according to the report.
One woman told the investigators that after he arranged for the ministry to provide her with financial support, he required sex from her.
She called it rape.
So obviously this has been discussed quite a bit in various circles on social media.
And I want to say up front that I am by no means the first person to talk about it.
And there are many women voices out there that are providing much needed insight and commentary on this scandal and on many others.
And so if you have not yet tuned in to Emily Joy and Hannah Pash who were the ones who created the church2 hashtag.
Hashtag church2.
Follow them on Twitter.
Emily Joy has a new book coming out.
You should check that out as soon as possible.
The same goes for folks like Jamie Lee Finch and Linda K. Kline whose work and writing has been just so important over the last decade or so in really uncovering not only the contours of purity culture, But helping a wider public understand why abuse is so rampant in churches.
Just a couple of months ago, there was a scandal over at Menlo Church, which is close to where I'm living at the moment.
And Daniel Lavery was able to sort of blow the whistle on his dad, John Ortberg, and a scandal related to his older brother there, one that included abuse.
And minors.
And so these things are in our, unfortunately, in our cultural air.
They are swirling around us and there are voices out there that are really helping us understand these things.
So if you have not checked out any of those people in their work, Please do.
They are putting in incredible effort to provide insight into all the components that goes into this.
I want to keep my comments brief and just talk about why I think these kinds of scandals happen so frequently in churches.
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