Exposing Ravi Zacharias

Apparently explosive allegations against the late evangelist Ravi Zacharias have emerged.  It's what we've grown accustomed to in our enlightened era: he inappropriately acted in a sexual manner both by his own actions and in how he approached and touched women.  The women all worked at a massage therapist establishment in Atlanta that Rev. Zacharias frequented for, apparently, medical reasons. 

That's all we know.  The accusations came after his death, so he's not here to defend himself.  Perhaps the accusers are telling the truth.  Perhaps they are not.  In the olden days, that's what made these things difficult, the proverbial he said/they said.  In our legal tradition of presumption of innocence, not to mention the Christian tradition of charity and weariness about judging, it's tough to rush in and crucify him just because he's been accused.  On the other hand, these things happen, women don't always lie, and it could be true.  

Exactly what they seek to gain from this, given that he's dead, isn't something I'm privy to.  In our day and age, where we are no longer a human race but a loosely identified set of ever changing demographic labels whose worth and reputation is always revolving around victim and victimizer, it's even more difficult to ply the waters of justice and grace.

Best to wait and see, and not even come close to making judgements about the accusers or the accused.  In my ministry days, I had the opportunity to work with Rev. Zacharias's ministry, but never met him personally.  Like all, you hope to see the best in people, especially those doing the good work of the Christian Gospel.   We'll see.  Again, in our age of 'rush to judgement faster than the speed of light', it's best to do the proper Christian, American and English Legal tradition thing and wait for evidence and facts to emerge. 

My problems with the #MeToo Movement

Acceptable wisdom in the #MeToo Era

So there's been a lot of hoopla about the #MeToo movement, with almost everyone - Christians included - equating it to the birth of the Christian Faith.  There is almost no critiques that I've seen.  I don't know if it's because men are scared, women don't dare disagree because of the wrongs the #MeToo Movement appears to be righting.  I don't know. But here are a few thoughts of mine on the subject, especially in light of my post about Beth Moore.

1. What about women?  It's as if they are immaculately conceived, devoid of sin, and have contributed not an iota to the whole sexed up, exploit, assault and harass culture.  I've actually heard people ask why a woman would ever lie about being sexually mishandled, as if it's abhorrent to think a woman has ever lied.  Let me be honest, I've worked with women who openly talked about men the way men do when they're called sexist and threatening.  I've seen women behave every bit as bad as men regarding men.  I know there are cases where women have used their positions of power to force men into compromises.  Let's not overlook women who blissfully kept tales of assault and rape secret, not because they were cowering in the corner, but because they wanted to keep climbing the ladder of wealth and power without hurting the relationships with others on that same ladder.  And finally, let's not ignore women who have exploited the sex culture in order to flaunt themselves, entice men, and use all the worst of the sex culture for their advantage.  At some point we must address these, or the entire #MeToo becomes a farce, rather than a principled movement.

2. It's not defined.  I understand what rape is.  Sexual assault seems pretty straight forward.  But beyond that, it's everyone for themselves. I've read multiple pieces by women explaining what does and doesn't constitute harassment or vile, misogynistic behavior.  Know what?  They're nowhere close to agreeing.  Before we rush and start declaring men inherently misogynistic and therefore guilty (in the way we've more or less said that you can always tell a guilty racist by the color of his skin), we need some standards.  At least in the past, witch hunters had the decency to define just what constitutes a witch.

3. It accepts, almost with ease, the old feminist notion that all of history was some horrible patriarchal world of chauvinistic male pigs oppressing and terrorizing women.  It assumes that all of how men and women lived and interacted was an artificially imposed nightmare for women created by this broad, male dominated conspiracy.  It suggests that any differences at all between the roles of women and men are anathema, and purely the result of the evils that men do.  Even among women who are ostensibly conservative, traditional and Christian, it suddenly turns out the first 2000 years of the Faith were pretty detestable because of men, Scriptural models included.

That's what feminists have said for decades and, up to within the last year, it was what anyone but radical Leftists and feminists rejected. Why is it now, almost overnight, the only acceptable way to read history?

4.  Inconsistency.  Are women the weaker sex or not?  Are they the fairer sex or not?  Is it safe to say women and men are inherently different, and clearly men are the stronger, more physically capable by nature, or not?  After all, the reason why we focus exclusively on women as victims is predicated on the idea that, when all things are equal, women stand helpless before men. Obviously women are at the disadvantage; obviously it's men who are the only ones to be concerned about since they alone can do harm.  And yet, turn on a dime and say women are the weaker sex, and you'll still be called a sexist.  How dare you generalize about women being weaker than men!  Well, which is it?  Dave Rule #2:  Never trust revolutions that rely on rejecting and accepting the same proposition in the same sentence.

Nope.  I think the whole #MeToo movement is, at its best, righting the horrible wrongs that were done to women in the 90s.  The 90s were a feast or famine time for women.  Women began speaking out against sexual harassment and assault in the 70s and 80s.  During that time, they were able to roll back notions of mercy and forgiveness for men guilty of sexual harassment, even as our society was all about pity and rehab for almost every other crime.  It peaked with the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas scandal, even though it was impossible for some (including women) to ignore the feeling that the whole thing seemed somewhat political.

Of course once Bill Clinton was elected, all bets were off.  Suddenly we never heard of women being sexually assaulted or raped.  Women who accused Clinton were called liars, whores and trailer park trash.  They were attacked by prominent liberal voices.  They were mocked in popular culture.  Hillary Clinton stood by and watched as, one after another, the women accusing her husband were verbally gang raped.  For years after, the whole 'sexual harassment/assault' went back underground.

You get bonus points if you've noticed that a large number of cases where prominent men have been accused of assault/harassment hail from around the late 90s/early 00s (see the Clinton Years above).  At its best, the #MeToo movement is righting that horribly unjust wrong.  At it's best, it should be a call for massive repentance for all who have taken abusive treatment of women and turned a blind eye, whether for politically expedient reasons or whatever.

Nonetheless, like most things in our technology charged, split second, media saturated era, it has almost immediately poured over into extremism, fanaticism and zealotry.  Men are assumed guilty by accusation.  During the Roy Moore era, we actually had serious discussions in which we were informed that notions of justice, presumption of innocence, due process and even the need for evidence only exist in our courtrooms - for now.  Outside of those rooms, your arse belongs to whichever demographic happens to matter. I literally watched as we were told that it was time to get over this whole 'we need evidence before destroying a person's life' fetish.  Hello, I think we have Salem on the phone.

That is my problem.   In barely a year, traditional, conservative, non-feminist Christians have all but accepted a model of understanding relations between the sexes that, only a year or so ago, they would have dismissed as radical feminism 101.  In addition, we have no ground rules at all.  Beyond rape and assault, there is no clear set of standards as to what does and doesn't constitute sexist or inappropriate behavior, yet we're on a McCarthy-like crusade, with women just wandering around saying 'he did it, He Did It, HE DID IT!', and taken at face value for their efforts.  And to reiterate, I'm seeing absolutely no accountability for women.  It's as if they never existed except to be victims.  It's as if no woman ever did anything wrong, ever exploited the very culture they now condemn, ever lied, or ever played along for their own selfish goals.  It's as if the Blessed Mother has to stand in line since apparently all women are devoid of sin.

Those problems alone would be enough to raise warning flags.  That so many - women and men - are just collapsing and accepting this, or grabbing the flag and running with it, even if they would have scoffed at such things barely a year ago, suggests something went horribly wrong.  Personally, I don't think most men will take it much longer.  And I fear when it finally stops; when men say enough, it will be like a bungee chord backlash, with many just concerns women have being steamrolled by the repercussions.  And that could be worse than the worst of the problems that legitimately need fixed.

Et tu Beth Moore?

Beth Moore was a well known Bible instructor back in my Evangelical days. She was very popular among women, especially younger women.  She approached Bible study with a sort of 'Oprah does the Bible' feel.  She was, at least IMHO, better than many.  There were a few popular women Bible instructors back then, and they were often about 3 parts self-help (especially for women), 1 part Bible, while Ms. Moore was more 3 parts Bible, 2 parts self-help.

Nonetheless, I never cared for her whole 'girlfriend!' approach.  I thought it was shallow and made the whole production feel like some girl's talk show session rather than a serious unpacking of the Scriptural nuts and bolts.  In fairness, she should hardly be singled out any more than many men at the time should be singled out.  It was the rise of Talk Radio, Oprah style talk shows, cable news and the like. Everyone was getting in on the act.  Make the Bible into a neat tool for self-me-help, where I am the star and God is the supporting cast for my benefit.

Among serious ministers and scholars there was a sort of 'yeah, whatever' attitude toward the Beth Moore style.  Sort of like how Frasier Crane was looked at by his brother Niles in the sitcom Frasier:  A radio talk show psychiatrist peddling wares, rather than doing the serious work of a medical professional.  Most I knew tolerated it under the old 'better the Bible half baked than no Bible at all' principle.  After all, the world was quickly secularizing itself, and already in the late 90s you were beginning to hear talk of a day when our nation would become anti-, rather than merely post-Christian. So on the whole, taken together, mixed and stirred, most considered Ms. Moore at least a net positive.  Nonetheless, many questioned her success at the helm of that 'Tastes Great/Less Filling' movement that was gaining steam during that time, eventually to culminate in the Rick Warren phenomenon.

With that said, I was rather gobsmacked by a recent letter she published in the wake of the rather ambiguously defined, yet powerful, #MeToo movement.  In a nut shell?  According to her, she had to undergo years of sexism, discrimination and down right sexual harassment.  You'd think every other day was a tale of oppression, unfair treatment, mean spiritedness, and downright misogyny.  Why, at one point, a minister even said she was prettier than another woman Bible instructor!  No tales of rape or sexual assault.  Note that.  Not even gross sexual demands for climbing the ecclesiastical ladder.  Just cases where she was treated badly, presumably because ... she was a woman.

Allow me to take a less than popular appraisal of this.  First, for the record, I always thought Ms. Moore was quite attractive but, like most things, kept that opinion to myself. I didn't keep it to myself because I was afraid I'd be called a sexist if I noticed she was easy on the eyes.  I just didn't say anything because it's my nature to keep those things to myself.  I'm not touchy-feely, and I don't give my opinions about people loosely.  I suppose that's what comes from being raised by parents from the old WWII era.  You don't tell people outside the family what you're thinking (bonus The Godfather reference there).

And I'm glad I didn't.  Apparently I would have been lumped into the big pile of sexism and misogyny that she struggled to overcome during those years.  When reading her letter, which sounds like the latest wave of women accusing men of calling them pretty or treating them like women, I'm reminded of another pastor from back in the day.  He was pastor of a local, fast growing mega-church.  I think it had around 9,000 active attenders on a given Sunday.  In one sermon, he got up and said that, despite being a minister, sometimes he likes to look at pretty girls.  Wow. It caught some old timers off guard, but most saw it as a brave and courageous admission to the truth of reality.  He's a man, women are women, he's being liberated, all is right with the world.  My more progressive colleagues loved it.  That was then.  I wonder if anyone will dig up that sermon and use it against him.

I'm sorry if I sound skeptical, but I'm skeptical.  First, there is nothing out there in the #MeToo era holding women accountable for their role in the whole 'T&A/Grab'em if you want'em' culture.  Not that Ms. Moore was ever in that.  But she isn't saying anything other than 'bad man/victim woman' in this bold and courageous letter.  Second, just what defines sexual harassment, misogyny and old fashioned chauvinism seems to change and morph on a daily basis.  Finally, it seems predicated on the modern feminist mantra of 'equality whenever convenient for women.'  Is there a difference between men and women , is there not, when does it matter?  Is it just when women say so?  Or is it all just a vast patriarchal conspiracy from the beginning? If we're going to lambaste individuals and entire demographics, we need a little According to Hoyle.

I'm certainly not saying it never happened.  I heard all sorts of things back then that made my flesh crawl, sometimes from men, sometimes from women.  Often it was just individuals trying to scrape a little icing off of the post-Christian cake.  Nevertheless, to be brutally honest, if there was a tendency to look down on Beth Moore by the men of that time period, it seemed to have more to do with the content of her product, rather than the fact she was a woman.  But she doesn't have to look at that possibility now.  It's enough to say she's a woman, all negativity was due to her being a woman, men and the entire Christian culture in which she thrived has now been found guilty, let's move straight to sentencing.  Our modern enlightened society in action.  Christians will assume guilt, and reach out in love accordingly.

Oh, for the record, I understand that part of the problem is those supporters of Donald Trump who looked at his more nauseating treatment of women and turned a blind eye.  Like Jonah Goldberg, I get the whole Trump thing.  After decades of trying to fight liberalism's 'here today, gone later today' approach to values, they decided to throw their own principles out the window.  I think it was the wrong move.  Nonetheless, in response, I have no intention of throwing my own principles out the window in the opposite direction.  I still think what we said was true in the 90s is true today, regarding men, women, and God's plan for both and all;  #MeToo, Clinton, Trump, Democrats, the GOP, or the Media's latest fetish be damned.

I hope Ms. Moore follows this letter up with a better one that sounds less like it was penned in the back offices of CNN, and more like it was informed by a biblical world view that rejects our modern divisiveness between the two latest demographics.  We'll see. What I hope for and my chances of winning the Powerball are usually about one and the same.