As many of you may know, Martin Luther King Jr., originally a Baptist pastor who eventually became the spiritual leader of the civil-rights movement, became my gateway to the Christian faith. His attitude of nonviolence combined with direct action showed me in retrospect the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and upon first reading “Strength to Love,” a collection of his sermons first published in 1963, I found myself praising and worshiping God.
In the 1980s, perhaps after his birthday was made into a
Federal holiday, I learned about his dark side. I had heard once around that
time that he had stepped out on his wife Coretta and ignored it, but when
another person came forward and said that he indeed slept with other women I
cried. Later on, it was disclosed that he had plagiarized part of his doctoral
dissertation.
I bring this up in light of the scandal surrounding the late
Ravi Zacharias, who ran a highly influential eponymous Christian apologetics ministry.
Just a few months after his death last spring, an investigation into the
ministry revealed that he apparently used his chronic back condition to abuse
women who were massage therapists, asking some to send nude photos of them and
even raping at least one.
Such sinful behavior creates a conundrum for the folks who
not only believed what he taught but also supported the ministry financially (I
heard him only once to my recollection, so I can’t say that I was one of his
followers). So what do we do with fallen leaders who are no longer on the scene
— and do we discount whatever they said?
While I won’t say I have the last word on this issue, I want
to remind you of Hebrews 11, regarded as the “hall of fame” of faith and in
which such people as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Samson and Moses are mentioned. All
these people, and many more major biblical figures besides, at some point fell
into gross sin.
Of course, had we known about Zacharias’ transgression while
he was still active he likely would have been forced out of his role, and
properly so, but his own failure to live up to God’s standards means only that
there actually is a standard to which especially leaders need to live up to. It
also doesn’t mean that God hasn’t forgiven him, but his influence certainly has
been sabotaged.
Perhaps the best example of that was disgraced evangelist
Jimmy Swaggart, whose mailing list I was on in the 1980s and whose “A Study in
the Word” was actually pretty good despite my theological differences with him. Remember that in 1988 he was caught with a prostitute — the Monday after that a
spirit of heaviness permeated a prayer meeting I attended then because we knew
that the Body had taken a hit — and soon after that he cried out to the LORD
and his congregation for forgiveness.
The Assemblies of God, on the other hand, which licensed
him, recognized that he needed to be disciplined, so the presbytery announced a
three-month suspension of preaching. Fearing that the ministry would collapse without him at the helm, Swaggart decided to leave the denomination
— and was subsequently caught with another prostitute. Just like that, his national ministry
was gone.
Because both King and Zacharias have gone to their
respective rewards we’ll never know if God could have used their transgressions
for good. And granted, there’s always the temptation to believe that “men of
God” with such international stature will eventually turn their back on moral
standards, at least privately.
But I can tell you that my faith in God wasn’t at all shaken
just because my hero of the faith was shown to be an adulterer — you see, my
faith was never in King, who was only a vessel, and a flawed one at that, that God used.
May the same be said for followers of Zacharias.
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