Just a number of weeks ago a major bombshell was dropped on the world of Christianity. An investigation into the evangelist and apologist Ravi Zacharias uncovered a massive amount of evidence of sexual misconduct against the Christian speaker. Zacharias was world renowned as a preacher of the gospel and a skilled defender of the Christian faith. Many of you probably know his name or ministry. He passed away last year, but the claims of misconduct against him started to come out late last year and an investigation was opened.
The evidence against him is simply overwhelming, some of which is too scandalous to even talk about in this article. Authorities found there were multiple victims in numerous foreign countries, as well as the United States. They found hundreds of images on his devices of young women, he had secret cell phones, multiple apartments in foreign countries where he would lure massage therapists into situations where he could abuse them. The worst of all is that he would pay them off with money from his ministry and he would even pray with them thanking God for their encounter. The behavior is so disturbing that one Christian writer called it ‘Satanic.’
But how in the world could this happen? How could a Christian leader who is so well-known and has such a large ministry be able to hide such an evil personal life? I think there are 2 possible answers to that question.
The first is the celebrity Christian problem of today. Christian leaders, pastors, and speakers were never meant to become famous with lots of money and be seen as celebrities. Just look at the Apostle Paul. To the world he was nothing, the scum of the earth (1 Cor 4:13). Paul called himself a servant and a steward (1 Cor 4:1), not a celebrity.
When Christian speakers and leaders get to the notoriety of worldwide celebrity there is a tremendous temptation to begin to believe that they are above the rules they preach to others. That they are too important to fail or step down. Even with catastrophic transgressions, Christianity needs them, they believe. Thankfully, most of us will never reach that level of fame and fortune but it seems to be an ever growing problem in a culture of Twitter likes, Facebook followers, and YouTube views.
The second reason though, is an absence of accountability. We must admit, no one is too holy to commit scandalous sin. If Peter himself could deny Christ by cursing and swearing that he had never met him, then we could too. The Bible tells us to not think too highly of ourselves. Pride goes before a fall. Just when we think we are not capable of committing gross sin is when we are in the most danger. That is why we need accountability.
Being held accountable means that someone else checks on you to make sure you are handling your responsibilities in your Christian life. Part of this is being honest about your sins and struggles, so someone else can admonish you, pray for you, and love you as a brother/sister in Christ. Accountability removes the Christian from isolation where sin can go on secretly and where he/she is prone to excuse personal sin. We always seem to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, but accountability with others puts that in check.
Ravi Zacharias did not have any accountability. He didn’t have to answer to anyone. No one was checking up on him in his spiritual life. Why do you need multiple cell phones? Why do you need multiple apartments in these foreign cities? Instead, his secret life of sin went on unchecked for years. He was allowed to remain in that state of spiritual isolation, where nobody genuinely was checking on his spiritual life, even though he was surrounded by people all the time. The issue isn’t just being around people, but being around people who are close to you where they know your struggles and inquire regularly about the state of your spiritual life.
Since most of us probably will never rise to the level of worldwide fame of Zacharias, we must pay careful attention to the issue of accountability. Do you have a secret life of sin? If you do, you probably don’t have anyone checking up on you. So, who is going to be that person or small group who holds you accountable to your faithfulness and behavior in your Christian life? Who do you answer to? If you don’t have anyone you can confide in, maybe you should look into finding someone soon. If it can happen to the biggest Christian leaders, it can happen to us too.