A player for the Las Vegas Raiders is asking for a class-action lawsuit against Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, claiming it "deceived" donors by continuing fundraising after allegations that its founder had engaged in sexual misconduct. Raiders tight end Derek Carrier and his wife Dora report they contributed $30,000 in January 2020 to support RZIM's international evangelical and apologetic mission.
Now the Carriers are suing the ministry and want to make it a class-action suit so it can help smaller individual donors recover some of their donations. Apologist Dr. Alex McFarland suggests they may have a legitimate complaint.
"Even before Ravi had passed [in May 2020], no doubt the board and those on the inside of RZIM Ministries knew [of the] allegations – and yet the fundraising machine continued to run," McFarland tells American Family News.
According to RNS, RZIM leaders had been aware of the alleged misconduct since at least 2017.
McFarland says it's a shame how the once highly regarded Christian author and speaker threw away his reputation. "The only way that the name of Ravi Zacharias should be remembered is as a sermon illustration," he shares.
The Christian apologist finds it hard to understand how someone who always appealed to scripture somewhere in his presentations failed to get its main point.
"The gospel that Ravi Zacharias preached is true: Christ is risen, and the God of the Bible is the true and living God," says McFarland. "[But] I'm sorry that the truth of this living Savior was apparently not sufficient enough to prompt Ravi to live as a disciple."
And even though the late evangelist's books and videos helped bring many to Christ, McFarland contends they should be tossed.
"I wouldn't recommend Ravi's content to skeptics – because regardless of how compelling the content might be, once they know about the character of the mouthpiece, they're going to disregard it," he laments.
RNS reports that the class-action lawsuit could include all donors (except RZIM employees) who gave to the ministry from 2004 to February 2021 – which is when RZIM announced it would no longer accept donations.
