Judgment belongs only to God. But bringing light to the darkness is the responsibility of us all, even as we grieve.”
This excerpt is from a September 2020 editorial titled, “Why We Report Bad News About Leaders” by an American publication, Christianity Today (CT). Founded in 1956 by the luminary evangelist, Billy Graham, CT’s mission is “To elevate the stories and ideas of the Kingdom of God”. CT, a bonafide Christian publication, is perhaps the last place you might expect to read salacious allegations about prominent Christian leaders of the day.
Yet in September 2020, CT published an investigative piece about a prominent Christian leader, Ravi Zacharias, who had died in May 2020. The former vice president of the United States of America, Mike Pence, mourned Zacharias as “the greatest Christian apologist of this century.”
The CT article revealed that Zacharias sexually harassed multiple massage therapists who worked at his day spas. Three women accused Zacharias of inappropriately touching them, exposing himself and masturbating during massage treatments for years. For many American Christians, the fact that a Christian publication published such ‘bad news’ about one of ‘their own’ seemed indefensible. Thus, the CT’s rebuttal editorial on why they choose to report bad news about leaders – including Christian leaders.
Last week was quite the week for Christians in Africa, especially in West Africa. On January 8, the BBC debuted its investigative documentary on the late TB Joshua, one of Africa’s foremost evangelists.
Titled, “Disciples: The cult of TB Joshua,” the documentary unveils allegations of rape, slavery, trafficking, fake miracles, and deaths through criminal negligence, among others. The reactions to the cataclysmic assertions against TB Joshua include shock, blanket denial to vehement defense of TB Joshua.
From the thousands of comments on the YouTube episodes, many of his followers see the allegations as ‘uncommon persecution’ against their man of God. They have rubbished the documentary as more foreign propaganda that seeks to keep Africa down and discredited.
Many more refuse to even glance at the documentary because the allegations have come when TB Joshua, who died suddenly in 2021, is not here to defend himself. Others, having watched the 150-minute documentary have instead vilified his alleged victims. One of these victims is unforgivably gay and as you know in the great annals of ‘our African values’ homosexuality is foreign and un-African.
Thus, his defenders have latched onto how one out of the 25 witnesses is gay; therefore, the entire documentary is unreliable. Another dominant reaction from the YouTube comments is his supporters testifying how TB Joshua’s evangelism blessed their lives. So blessed are they that to even consider for one second the momentous allegations against him, would rock the very foundations of their faith. An epic crisis of faith.
In the case of CT’s reporting on Zacharias, his ministry, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), initially rubbished the revelations as false, asserting that the accusations did not measure up to the Zacharias they had known for decades. According to media reports, internal criticisms about the RZIM’s handling of the allegations led to RZIM leadership eventually undertaking an independent investigation into the CT’s revelations.
In December 2020, the ministry leadership notified staff and donors that there was credible evidence that indeed Zacharias had engaged in sexual misconduct for many years. In February 2021, the ministry leadership publicly released its findings alongside an open letter in which they declared, “We are devastated by what the investigation has shown and are filled with sorrow for the women who were hurt by this terrible abuse.”
We are rather content to pull the trigger at corruption in politics but it becomes dicey when corruption in religion is exposed. We are more accepting of corruption in ‘other’ churches or the ‘other’ religions but God forbid if one of our bespoke men/women of gad are fingered over their contradictory lavish lifestyles.
There, we draw the line with the famously used-and-misused biblical verse ‘touch not the anointed of God.’ Hiding behind a façade of honouring God’s servants, the congregants close ranks and shield the religious leaders from the piercing light of transparency.
Have we given faith leaders carte blanche to live in delicious sin privately with no fear of scrutiny? What does it say about our brand of Christianity when spiritual abuse victims come forward and instead we accuse them of seducing the man of gad or spoiling his reputation? What is this pedestal on which we have set our faith leaders and raised it so high that we dare not bring it down?
We cannot continue being enablers of impunity by shielding some leaders from scrutiny. Besides, only vampires hate the light. If your faith leader stands accused of malfeasance, aggrieved as you are by the claims, step towards the light – the truth calls for examination, not blanket repudiations.
Surely, the God you profess to be almighty can handle this. So, why are you so triggered that you cannot even ponder why your man of gad has armed state protection but you, humble servant, rely on the heavens?
It takes guts to look at the mirror and not chant, “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all” but instead “Mirror mirror on the wall, expose my hypocrisy for I might be the bigger hypocrite.”
The writer is a tayaad muzzukulu.
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