Zacharias investigation finds “serious” misconduct

Warning: This report contains graphic accusations about sexual activity.

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) released an interim report Wednesday on sexual misconduct accusations against its founder, Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, who died earlier this year.

“Sadly, the interim investigation update indicates this assessment of Ravi’s behavior to be true—that he did indeed engage in sexual misconduct,” the executive committee of the RZIM board said in a statement upon releasing the interim investigative report from Atlanta law firm Miller & Martin. The board said it would speak “more comprehensively” when the full report was available, which it estimated would be in January or February.

RZIM contracted a law firm to conduct an independent investigation after news reports this fall on Zacharias’ purported mistreatment of women at spas he owned.

In a September report, Christianity Today published anonymous accusations from several massage therapists who said Zacharias sexually harassed them, masturbated in front of them, and touched them inappropriately. Zacharias partially owned two Atlanta spas he visited regularly.

WORLD also interviewed spa employees, including longtime manager Anna Adesanya, who said a therapist was fired after complaining about Zacharias asking for “more than a massage.”

The interim report released Wednesday did not detail specific instances but said it had uncovered new “more serious” misconduct.

“[W]e have found significant, credible evidence that Mr. Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct over the course of many years,” wrote Lynsey Barron, a former prosecutor in charge of the Miller & Martin investigation. “Some of that misconduct is consistent with and corroborative of that which is reported in the news recently, and some of the conduct we have uncovered is more serious. Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to pursue leads.”

RZIM’s initial statement this fall dismissed the spa accusations as “false.” RZIM had also in 2017 dismissed accusations of sexual misconduct against Zacharias from Lori Anne Thompson, a Canadian woman.

Now RZIM has pledged to release to the public Miller & Martin’s full, unedited report as given to the board. That transparency from an organization under this kind of shadow is unusual.

“We are heartbroken at learning this but feel it necessary to be transparent and to inform our staff, donors, and supporters at this time, even while the investigation continues,” said the RZIM board. “In the meantime, we share your compassion for any victims of this conduct, and we appreciate your prayers for them and also for Ravi’s family who have been devastated by this information.”

Barron, the lawyer leading the investigation, said the report would center on the spa accusations, but RZIM had given the firm freedom to probe broader accusations. The law firm, which contracted a private investigative firm, said it had interviewed dozens of witnesses and reviewed documents and electronic data from Zacharias.

The Christian & Missionary Alliance, the denomination in which Zacharias was an ordained minister, also this fall commissioned an independent investigation into his misconduct. It had previously defended him when Thompson’s accusations first surfaced in 2017.

Some RZIM staffers had been pushing ministry leaders and its board to take the womens’ accusations seriously and to share the results of the investigation publicly.

RZIM staffer Carson Weitnauer wrote publicly this week about the accusations, sharing his longtime admiration of Zacharias and his slow realization of the apparent pattern of Zacharias’ misconduct. He said ministry leadership initially discouraged and dismissed his questions about the accusations.

“I confess that my longing for the approval of others kept me from asking hard questions and accepting the painful truth much sooner,” he wrote. “[W]e must not silence those who tell us the truth about Ravi’s egregious abuses … May God give us the clarity and courage we need to become faithful advocates for the survivors of abuse—and to deter such abuse from occurring in the future.”