A Kickstarter campaign has launched for a new online dating service that is sure to curdle the milk of soyboys everywhere and bring out the rapid eye-twitching in our “egalikaren sistren,” boasting that it has been designed from the ground up for couples who “affirm male headship as normative in the spheres of family, church, civil governance and society-at-large,” and who affirm the dominion mandate in Genesis 1:28, which is to “be fruitful & multiply…and take dominion.”
“Dominion Dating” is the brainchild of Brandon and Amanda Durham, a recently married couple based in Texas. He is an ordained minister within the SBC who has pastored several churches across the globe, including 7 years as lead pastor. She is a Brazilian actress whose Instagram is rife with quotes from Charles Spurgeon and R.C Sproul.
Unabashedly seeking to fill a niche in the market, the site is unapologetic in its mission, noting that they are “robust, deeply biblical, and down-right offensive to the masses of culturally-conformed Christians who flood most dating sites!” and that “Our aim is to increase faithful tribes, while calling Big Eva’s woke tribes &feminists-in-denial to repentance!”
One of the selling points is that there is a more rigorous screening process than larger sites like eHarmony and ChristianMingle, as membership requires a verified pastoral reference from a doctrinally sound church.
Furthermore, anyone signing up must pledge that they have “membership in good standing in a local evangelical church that upholds biblical marriage & sexuality, for at least three months prior to joining Dominion Dating.”
Of particular note, anyone wishing to join must affirm a statement of convictions and commitment, which includes declarations like “male headship as normative in the spheres of family, church, civil governance and society-at-large” that “we affirm God’s normative plan for women to exercise dominion in the home as homemaker and helpmate, in glad submission to a husband. We recognize the necessity, at times, for women to seek employment outside the home, but reject ‘careerism’ as normative for women.”
Another Hillsong pastor has resigned after finding himself embroiled in a sex scandal of his own making – the result of texting lewd photographs to a former parishioner and pretending it was one big accident.
The Creative Director of Hillsong’s New Jersey franchise, Darnell Barrett, 32, resigned Tuesday after adding a former church volunteer to his friend’s list and then sharing with her a picture of himself wearing revealing clothing that very clearly showed the contours and shape of his penis.
After sending the phot in question, he pretended that it was all an accident, writing on messenger to say, “Hey! I think I might’ve added you to my close friend’s list by accident. I’m so sorry. Trying to figure out how the hell to edit it.”
Pics from the Daily Mail UK
Rather than enticing her, she instantly saw through his ruse, telling him that she did not appreciate being lured in such a sexually aggressive and wicked way.
I’m insulted that you would think I wouldn’t understand what you’re doing. But I’m not F****** stupid. Obviously, what you wanted me to see were the shirtless photos and the outline of your d***, let’s not play and act like that wasn’t the point.
She further accuses him of trying to bait her, expressing her anger that she’s probably not the first person he’s done this to:
To be honest, this whole ‘fishing’ scheme of yours to see if I will bite isn’t what even pisses me off. What pisses me off is knowing that I’m not the only person you’ve probably done this to. I’m actually horrified by the thought of how many other innocent girls you’ve manipulated with this ploy of yours. I’m going to assume you’ve sent this to gauge girls’ reaction to see if they’d take part in this weird sexual online relationship fantasy you have.
The married father of two announced his resignation shortly thereafter, citing “infidelity” as the cause, yet maintained that their release had been a mistake. He insisted that these were the sorts of “real raw s***” he sends to his friends all the time.
When pressed for comment, Barrett revealed “This was something that was just an honest mistake and I informed my wife as soon as it happened…I was not at all trying to lure her. I get that she, within the context of what’s happening with Hillsong, that she would draw those conclusions.”
While at initial blush this may sound mildly harmless, Visher is effectively taking the church to task for daring to come alongside and discipline church members who are openly defying the scriptures and God’s law by “doubting the wrong tenet of our faith” or “reconsider their own gender or sexual identity.”
In context, it’s talking about the notion of “queer Christians” and those with differing views on homosexuality, transgenderism, and gender identity. To use a real-life example, a woman comes out as a lesbian and says she doesn’t think the Bible condemns it, or a married man comes out as transgender and comes to church in drag. What does the church do?
While Vischer argues that this should not result in the church viewing the person as a “them” that is doing anything wrong, this in fact is called “sin and rebellion” and produces “leaven” in the body. If it remains unchecked or accepted, it will leaven the whole lump. Rather than purging the evil from among a congregation, Vischer instead wants to “get rid of its mentality.” He has no concept of the notion that “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,” and that the Church elders ought to do likewise.
It is not loving to allow someone to remain in their sin, but rather the loving thing to do is to chastise them in order to bring them to repentance. The judgment is love. The rebuke is love. The church discipline is love. The shunning is love, and drawing them back and welcoming them into the body after they have repented is love.
Despite all his talk of “in” and “out” and “us” and “them,” 1 John 2:19 makes this very clear “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”
Vischer concludes with an appalling, intellectually dishonest statement: “Not saying doctrine doesn’t matter, just saying love overall.”
Actually, you are, Phil. You are.
[Editor’s note: This is what happens when you spend too much time talking to tomatoes…]
Joshua Harris, author of I kissed dating Goodbye and well-known apostate recently sat down for an interview with Nadia Bolz Webber, a tattooed, self-described “Bull-Dyke” and host of The Confessional Podcast.
Nadia, the former pastrix of House for All Sinners and Saints (which the church body refers to as an acronym – HFASS – and they pronounce it “half-ass” – an ELCA congregation). She left the church a few years ago and was replaced by a gay man married to a drag queen. Other than being known for her vulgarity and crudeness, she has been in the news for explaining that she would like to melt down all purity rings and form them into a vagina statue in honor of Gloria Steinem, along with advocating for the use of “ethically sourced porn.”
Naturally, Josh Harris would be right at home on her podcast, who himself has been on a bit of roll. Considered one of the most famous apostates in the last 50 years to publicly repudiate his faith, the LGBTQ advocate recently took to Instagram where he praised Cardi B’s song WAP, explaining that it’s “basically the biblical book of Song of Solomon set to music” and pledging to block anyone who disparages her or her music.
He likewise explained that he as an atheist feels “closer to Jesus when I’m pissing religious people off,” and by and large has been praising people who deconstruct their faith, explaining that he does it because he still “cares about Christianity and what happens to it.”
The two are a great fit.
In an interview with Bolz-Webber, who seemed as satisfied as a cat who got into the cream that the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye was knocking it down, Harris explains that prior to his apostasy, he wrote the book after an encounter with God and pledged to cut out his sexual sins, while at the same time pledging to be even more radical than most speakers on the subject.
I went on a church retreat and had a very powerful encounter with God, where you know, I just was like, I want to be serious about God, I want to serve God, and this dating relationship kind of embodied the holdout of submission to the Lord. And so I broke up and I felt so much guilt around, you know, dry humping her, touching her boobs, saying that I loved her, and that we would be together forever and then breaking up. I basically kind of came back. It was like this prodigal son moment where all of the ideas about dating and betrothal and courtship that my parents had been pushing on me, that I had been completely rejecting.
Writing the book brought him fame, and he shares how proud he was that people were listening to him and that he was gaining wealth and influence, such as appearing on James Dobson’s program, something his dad had never done. Harris gives a brief overview of the book, while explaining that the whole time he was abusing scripture and taking it out of context.
The main message of I Kissed Dating Goodbye was…if we want to be prepared for marriage and make the most of our single years, then dating is a distraction and can even be damaging, because we end up practicing an insincere love where we use people and we put ourselves in the backseats of cars where we’re tempted to have sex, and we end up focusing so much of our energy on being a boyfriend or being a girlfriend that we’re not actually preparing to be a healthy adult and we’re not ready for marriage.
And so it was making a very strong argument, really misusing scripture, taking scripture out of context, using stories and examples that were so overhyped and appealing to emotions, but basically making a strong argument that dating is a negative thing. And if we want to be really on fire for Jesus and serious about serving him, we will kiss dating goodbye until we’re actually ready to pursue marriage.”
Harris would write several follow-up books on the same theme, including Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship where he describes how he met, courted, and married his wife, whom he later divorced.
Incidentally, his ex-wife, Shannon Bonne, is writing a book about her experiences within what she describes as an “evangelical cult” that left her with PTSD-like symptoms.
Bolz-Webber tells Harris that the book was rife with false promises and pushed the lie, “If we just don’t have sex until we’re married, then the sex is going to be so much better. And they went through so, so many feelings of shame, and so much repression, and so much guilt about their impulses.” Harris readily agrees, exhaling that he heard so many stories of people who experienced that, and that “My regret when I think back on all of that is that I didn’t see the flaws and the massive problems in the book sooner and that I didn’t listen to people who were trying to share those stories.”
He explains further:
I look back there were some blogs that started to be written when people were sharing stories. And I just didn’t go towards hurting people soon enough with compassion. And I think I think the wrong motivations there were wanting to please my fan base, the wrong motivations were not wanting to cut off the book royalties that were, that allowed me to enjoy a certain lifestyle and all those kinds of things. Like it’s almost like I didn’t want to open that door because it’s because who knows, who knows what’s on the other side of it.
As far as what led him to kick his house of cards down:
It took me going through massive personal pain. It took me failing in my own church in different ways. It took my church melting down for me to kind of hit the pavement and go, maybe I don’t have all the answers here. All of that had to happen before I was willing to start listening to people. And even then, I was terrified.
Well, it actually took anonymous websites where people started sharing their stories and the things that had happened to them for some of these stories to start to bubble up, because that was the only safe place that they could actually do that.
And that was the beginning for me of realizing, oh, my gosh, like we say we’re about grace. But there’s like the exact opposite of grace happening in the actual cultural experience of the church.
And I started seeing how negative that was. And I and that was the first moment where I thought, is my book a part of that?
Essentially I came to a place where I was like, I have to get out of this context. I don’t know how to lead this church out of the problems of thinking, because I’ve been raised in these problems of thinking, I don’t know any other way of leadership and I need to to heal myself.
Harris concludes by sharing his deep regret over publishing the book in the first place, explaining that it has since been unpublished after selling over a million copies and apologizing to anyone hurt by it.
I’m really deeply sorry that those ideas and my misguided ideas about sex, about dating in any way just gave you a wrong idea of your sexuality, of God, and that’s something that I really regret and I hope that you would just experience healing and know that there’s life on the other side of a lot of these wrong ideas, and that’s the journey that I’m on right now personally.
After a bit more chitchat – where Bolz-Webber discusses the damages further, she concludes the interview with a personalized benediction, as she does with all her guests.
So I hope you and everyone else hurt by purity culture have passionately consensual, unselfconsciously joyous, deeply transformative sex.
A Dallas-based megachurch pastor that temporarily stepped down from the 11,000 member church he pastored for 20 years, taking a leave of absence due to his elders calling out the sin of pride in his life and telling him he needs a break and time to deal with it so he can better serve his flock in the future, has resigned from his Church.
8 months ago, Todd Wagner, senior pastor and co-founder of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, told his congregants on Sunday:
I’ve heard too many times lately that I’m burning up leadership capital, due to more numerous and I would say noticeable expressions of my flesh, and the bible has a word for that: it’s called sin.
It’s with a good conscience, and by God’s grace that I can tell you there is no hidden or disqualifying sin. There’s no sexual immorality. There’s no financial issues that are going on. There’s no physical altercation, there’s no foul language, there’s no holes in the wall. My marriage is as good as it’s ever been…but..and this is a big but… this sin of pride is enough for me to say it’s enough.
I have not been asked to step down. I am not by God’s grace needing to step down but I have been asked and I agree I need to step back, step away and I’m glad. We all agree this is what’s best for me and for you and I think for us.
In a statement to the congregation, the elders explain that longtime elder and staff member David Leventhal resigned his position due to an inability to support Wagner continuing as senior pastor. Leventhal described it as “a loss of trust in Todd’s ability to lead in the role of pastoral elder/senior pastor, which was the direction the elders were wanting to move to.”
Three weeks later, Wagner himself would come to that same conclusion, saying:
We are fully convinced that today, in the interest of Christ, for me and for my family, and for Watermark in this next season, it would be best served by me ending my season in serving as pastoral elder of Watermark Community Church.
In an unusual set of circumstances, however, Levanethal explains that he is still friends with Wagner, and that “Todd and I are good. There is no anger, no wrath.” This is confirmed by Wagner, who even rubbed his back while they delivered the news to their congregation.
Both Levanthal and Wagner, while resigning, aren’t abandoning the church. They still plan on attending and serving the church as members of the body and elders emeritus.
[Editor’s note: there is a reason that pastors leave a church when they resign or retire, and it has to do with letting the new guy actually take charge of the church without the inevitable backbiting that will occur because they can go to the old guys…this is a bad idea…]
For the third week in a row, GraceLife Church had their service in secret – an undisclosed location somewhere within a 100-mile radius of the city.
Whereas previously hundreds of protesters attended the rally at their facilities, driving hours to wave flags, give speeches, listen to speeches, pray, and protest the occupation of a Christian church by a tyrannical government, the property now lies empty and has been empty the last two weeks, attended to only by a handful of security guards and RCMP officers.
Meanwhile, at their undisclosed location that is still being attended by hundreds of people, Pastor Jacob Spenst preached the sermon yesterday from Colossians 3, going through some heady passages about dying with Christ and having our lives hidden with Christ in God.
Based on the backdrops they are using to conceal their location, as well as the rippling effects on the screen and the lighting, the clothes they are wearing and the backround noise, it appears that the last two services have been held outside in the sun rather than indoors.
At this point, all indication is Parkland police officers and Alberta Health Services (AHS) have decided to leave GraceLife Church alone. They have not crashed or disrupted their newest gathering, despite having the ability to do so. They have not released any public statement to that effect and no major media sources have asked AHS why they have backed off, thereby keeping it out of the news. There is currently no political pressure to chase them down and there haven’t been constant complaints from neighbors and concerned citizens at seeing them gather openly.
In effect, the people have been assuaged by seeing a building boarded up while the body belts out praise to the Lord away from prying and watchful eyes.
With no large crowds gathering at their facilities, there have been rumors that the church is going to have a service near their church property soon, but that has not been confirmed by anyone and should be taken as mere speculation.
James Coates is expected to be in court Monday, May 3rd to fight his remaining charge of violating the Public Health Act, where the Justice Centre will argue that the government and law enforcement violated multiple Charter rights and freedoms by ticketing, arresting, and jailing the courageous pastor, and therefore need to abandon the last charge.
When Kat Kerr, our favorite pink-haired charismatic meme-bot and ‘Dr. Michael Brown-approved prophetess isn’t weaving an unbiblical tale of witchcraft and false theology by claiming that when babies die in miscarriage, sometimes God “puts them back” in the womb that St. Patrick’s mansion is surrounded by giant singing shamrocks, or that heaven is full of 20ft Sasquatch Warriors, ‘Fairies,’ and unicorns, she’s explaining that when Moses hid in the cleft of the Rock as God passed him by, he actually went on a time-traveling adventure.
I do know this, that when God put Moses in the cleft of the rock, God himself put Moses inside him. The cleft of the rock was inside God and all of time is shown in there. God’s been from the beginning to the end, the end of the beginning, it’s all inside him.
So when he hid Moses in there, Moses saw time begin. He saw the garden of Eden, (Shultz “Wow!”) He saw Adam and Eve, he saw that he would not have known about any of that. And so he said “as I pass by, when time passes by..I will show you the “hinder parts”. Those are the exact words. (Shultz “oooh, that’s what that means)”
The “hinder parts” wasn’t God talking about his back, the hinder parts were the parts of time that had gone before them. He showed Moses time before that time, and that’s how Moses knew about Adam End eve and all that stuff. So that was a whole different encounter that Moses had with God.
Steve Shultz joined in with the rest of the 100k viewers who watched this video on YouTube alone, praising Kat and thanking her for this fresh revelation and new insight into the scriptures.
Yeah. Wow okay, awesome. That’s…I never heard that explanation, that the hinder parts means ‘in history’ basically. Awesome! I always wondered where Moses got his revelation about the garden of Eden. That’s what you’re saying, that’s where it happened because he wrote those books. Okay.”
A new documentary film has been released by Tbckawaii , chronicling the malfeasance and dirty deeds done in darkness by Servus Christi, aka Joshua Chavez, as well as cult leader and enabler Jacob Prasch.
Featuring JD Hall, Chris Rosebrough, Justin Peters, as well as our own site, the 44-minute film, according to the press release “Exposes Joshua Chavez as the man (and woman!) behind Servus Christi Ministries, “an exposing that also captures his intensely evil associate and fake Jew cult leader Jacob Prasch in his lies and deception to coverup the career-terminating sins both men threw themselves into in their demonized crusade against Christ and Christ’s people.”
The film is best viewed in High Definition and is available here
The American Humanist Association, whose motto is ‘Good without a God,’ has stripped their highest honor from the famed atheist Richard Dawkins, issuing a press release stating that they have rescinded his 1996 award on account of a history of tweets he has made questioning/ disparaging transgenderism and the scientific basis for it.
Established in 1953, the Humanist of the Year Award is conferred annually by the American Humanist Association (AHA), recognizing the awardee as an exemplar of humanist values. Communication of scientific concepts to the public is an important aspect of advancing the cause of humanism. Richard Dawkins was honored in 1996 by the AHA as Humanist of the Year for his significant contributions in this area.
“Regrettably, Richard Dawkins has over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalized groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values. His latest statement implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient. His subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity.
Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award.”
Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her "she" out of courtesy.
Yes, I know it’s behind a paywall but it’s worth it. Superb article by Trevor Phillips on the oppressive nonsense that can flow from aggressive “wokeism”, e.g. demanding that employees should sign a statement that “trans women are women”.https://t.co/EYp3EPElBg
In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black. Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as.
The wife of disgraced Apologist Ravi Zacharias has broken her silence around the allegations of her husband’s sexual perversities and shenanigans, publicly stating that she does not believe them for a second and that they are all fabricated and made up, perpetuating a cycle of denial in which she and her family find themselves.
In a letter initially sent to relatives, then posted pubicly to her son Nathan’s apologetic website ‘Defending Ravi,’ Margie Zacharias, chief cultural officer for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) and former longtime board member, defended the reputation of her late husband, explaining that she went through all her husband’s personal effects and she saw nothing that would indicate he was anything other than pure as the driven snow.
She writes, in part, with the full letter being posted at the end of this article:
Good am, Family. I love you all.
I wanted you all to know that I have spent the last week going through every paper and article in Ravi’s desk, closet and drawers. I moved last Monday as RZIM told me I had 90 days to vacate our home, which had been promised to me specifically in the case that Ravi died for as long as I wanted it. Before I left the house I wanted to be certain that nothing was left of Ravi that anyone could take and twist and create a story to use against him.
She explains that she has messages from the therapist that treated his back the most in recent years and they offer him a glowing view, affirming their love and respect for him. This in contrast to his business partners and other spa workers who accused him of sexually abusing and molesting the help, including one who says he abused her and her daughter.
…I found a receipt book from which he issued a receipt for every massage he received at home, with the name of the therapist and a description of the treatment, signed by the therapist and by him.
…I found multiple cards from people, including some therapists, thanking him for the blessing he was to them, for his encouragement to them, for leading them into a deeper walk with the Lord or being instrumental in bringing them to the Lord.
After going through his effects, Margie explains, “There is nothing there.”
All of this is to tell you what I did not find: no suspicious financial documents, no financial or real estate arrangements that I did not know about. No investments that I was not aware of. No suspicious letters or cards of a romantic nature from anyone but me. No suspicious expenditures. No products to treat conditions unknown to me.
In short, I want you, his family, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I found not one suspicious receipt, letter, card, expenditure…absolutely nothing to support the claims being made or the charges against him.
Margie explained that Ravi was not duplicitous and could not act for the life of him – that the poor man couldn’t even keep a secret, least of all from her.
…He could never have kept a secret like they are alleging (alleging, I say, as there is not one whit of evidence to support what they are saying). At the very least, with all the medication he was on at the end and his hallucinations something would have come out if something were there.
Reflecting on his death, Margie reports that Ravi went to his grave professing that he was ready to meet the Lord, and was not fearful.
When Ravi learned his cancer had metastasized he said he was ready to meet the Lord. He had no regrets, he said, except that he would have to leave us behind. He had no fear of dying, of meeting the Lord. His conversations at the end when he was seeing things we couldn’t and talking to people we couldn’t see were not filled with angst or fear or guilt. He was talking about strategy for sharing the Gospel with his unseen visitors. So much for Randy Alcorn and John MacArthur. [Editor’s note: She may be referring to these statements from Dr. MacArthur.]
He never uttered another woman’s name, even in his sleep. His first thoughts every morning were of the Lord, his first words, ‘Thank you, Lord.’
Margie states that she knew him better than anyone else and that he loved her completely, asserting again his innocence and arguing there is no evidence whatsoever that he did that of which he has been accused, with the damning Miller & Martin report all being made up and taken out of context.
He was not perfect. He was a man. As his wife of 48 years, I know this more than anyone else. But his failures were not in this area. He was spectacularly self-disciplined in his conduct, especially where it would reflect poorly on the Lord. He denied himself every single day in order to fulfill his calling and be pleasing to the Lord…
Such a man could not be guilty of what is being alleged and there is no evidence at all to support those allegations, not in his personal effects, his financial records, his correspondence, his actions observed by all who knew him over 74 yrs. Even the so-called evidence in his emails is phrases, words taken out of context and never confirmed with those who knew him, who could give some context.
“In 2014, Mr. Zacharias met and exchanged emails with a massage therapist who lived in Bangkok. They used pet names such as ‘sweetheart,’ ‘baby,’ ‘babe,’ ‘darling,’ ‘angel,’ ‘my precious little girl,’ and ‘honey;’ they exchanged selfies (the latest photograph of her is from 2019); and they discussed how much they loved and missed each other. During a May 2014 coup d’etat in Thailand, Mr. Zacharias expressed his worry that travel to Bangkok could be stopped. He told her: ‘I know more than ever that you have become the love of my life. I’m waiting to hold you close to my heart again. Please be safe my angel. I Love you and goodnight from here.’ He told her to keep him ‘as the only one in your heart. I love you my dearest xxxxxx.'”
and:
“Their communications imply that their relationship had a physical component. They discussed not being able to wait until they can be together, that he is ‘longing to hold [her] close again.’ He further wrote: ‘Your face, your smile, your laugh, your touch, the way you love, your hard work, your heart, your care for me, your skill,’ and on and on and on. He called her ‘beautiful in heart and in body.’ She responded later: ‘I love you and kiss you everywhere xxxxxx.’ She said to him she was going to work out ‘to be fit and firm when I see you next month =).’ This woman received significant financial support from TOH [Editor’s note: RZIM slush fund].”
Margie answers a few more objections, explaining that the reason his phones had so many pictures on them was that they were sent to him unsolicited by fans and admirers – that this comes with the territory, but he would never send them or ask for them. She does not explain why he threatened to kill himself if one of these innocent relationships with an admirer was made public, such as with Lori Anne Thompson.
So there are pictures. The investigator never told us their origin, whether he researched them or they were sent to him. Is he responsible for what is sent to him? If he is, then so is everyone else.
She concludes:
There is absolutely no way that Ravi is guilty as charged, convicted, canceled and executed, some even going so far as to claim that he never knew the Lord. I knew him, inside and out. I trust him & believe in him no less than I did on May 18th last year when he called me to him and kissed me as long as he had the strength, his last physical act in his life. It is not because I am in denial. It is because I knew him and because there is absolutely no evidence to support anything contrary.
I have written this because I feel it is important that you, his family, know what I know, know what I have found and not found, so that you may have confidence to continue to love and respect the man you knew, and that you may know that he was the man you knew.
With much love, and confidence in Ravi and in the God he knew and loved and served,
Margie
In response to news that the letter had circulated, one of Ravi’s victims, Lori Ann Thompson who at this point has been completely vindicated, wrote on social media.
Even now, Margie keeps Thompson bound by an NDA stemming from her 2017. Given her state of mind and denial, she likely has no intention of ever letting Thompson out of it.
We continue to pray for the victim, and that Ravi’s family come to the knowledge of the truth, rather than concealing it and railing against it.
Good am, Family. I love you all.
I wanted you all to know that I have spent the last week going through every paper and article in Ravi’s desk, closet and drawers. I moved last Monday as RZIM told me I had 90 days to vacate our home, which had been promised to me specifically in the case that Ravi died for as long as I wanted it. Before I left the house I wanted to be certain that nothing was left of Ravi that anyone could take and twist and create a story to use against him. Included in this were the suitcases from his last international trip last Jan, which have stood unemptied in our closet for the past year. Seeing his shoes in it really undid me. I went through every scrap of paper, all his financial documents, letters, cards he had kept etc. In short, everything he valued and needed in life.
Ravi was not very organized. His filing system was to designate a drawer (kind of) and throw everything into it. He threw nothing out, and I mean nothing. I found receipts dating back into the 1980’s, including receipts for every restaurant he ever ate in, I think. I lost track of the garbage bags and the hours spent shredding financial & personal documents, as well as confidential & personal documents relating to RZIM.
I found dozens of cards he had kept from the kids & me. I found family pictures, mostly of the kids & me but also some from your growing up days in India. He had a picture of me with my father on my 16th birthday, another of when I graduated from high school. I found notes I had written to him. I found an anniversary gift for me for last year when we were in Houston and a birthday gift for me for last year when he was in heaven. I found cards he had bought to give me but never had the chance.
I found multiple denominations of money in multiple currencies in multiple boxes. I always wondered that he always had cash in the appropriate currency upon arrival in any country I went with him and never had to visit the exchange booths in any airport to pay porters and cab drivers.
I found drawers and drawers of medications he took for the medical issues he was dealing with, including in no particular order sleep aids, metamucil, pain medications, metamucil, energy boosters, metamucil, prostate medications, metamucil, hair growth tonics.
I found boxes of pens and watches never worn as they were good watches, usually given to him, and he was afraid they would create the wrong impression of him.
I found the bag of crosses he gave to every therapist who helped him and which have been used against him, called expensive gifts used to bribe or “groom”…I’m not even sure what that is. I guess normal, civil discourse is grooming because you want to make a good impression on someone. The bag has clearly marked on it who gave them to him (he did not buy them), a friend who is a jeweler. He gave one to me, to Naomi & Sarah & Sarah Kay, to Elizabeth & Barb one Christmas & described how he used them to open a conversation about the Lord with people he met along the way. He had literally dozens of them and gave them out liberally. They were not intended to convey a special or romantic interest.
I am reminded of when Ravi spoke for Billy Graham at Amsterdam ‘86 on The Lostness of Man. Afterward, Billy told Ravi that he had never heard such a powerful sermon on the subject and asked if he could use it. Ravi was really flattered until someone, either Leighton Ford or Cliff Barrows, told him not to put too much stock in what Billy had said as he said that to everyone who spoke for him.
These crosses were the same. They conveyed no special interest. He gave them to everyone. They were what he said they were, an opportunity for him to open the conversation to be about the Lord.
I found a receipt book from which he issued a receipt for every massage he received at home, with the name of the therapist and a description of the treatment, signed by the therapist and by him.
I found multiple cards from people, including some therapists, thanking him for the blessing he was to them, for his encouragement to them, for leading them into a deeper walk with the Lord or being instrumental in bringing them to the Lord. I found letters from people offering him all kinds of advice in boosting his energy levels, on staying healthy, on making his hair grow, on treating his back.
I would also like to tell you that both Naomi and I have had frequent text messages from the therapist that treated his back most often in recent years, affirming the love and respect for him and for us that she and her family still hold and telling us they continue to pray for us and are here for us. She and her family were present at the dedication of the RZIM building.
All of this is to tell you what I did not find: no suspicious financial documents, no financial or real estate arrangements that I did not know about. No investments that I was not aware of. No suspicious letters or cards of a romantic nature from anyone but me. No suspicious expenditures. No products to treat conditions unknown to me.
In short, I want you, his family, to know beyond a shadow of doubt that I found not one suspicious receipt, letter, card, expenditure…absolutely nothing to support the claims being made or the charges against him.
As I said, he was not an organized person, except in his logical, philosophical & theological thought processes. He had no filing system. He was not complex. He was not duplicitous, he was not an actor. As you recall, he wasn’t hired for the role in that Christian movie as a teenager b/c he cldnt act. I cldnt even tell him about a surprise I was planning as, like an excited child, he couldn’t keep it secret. I could always tell if there was more to a story b/c his nose would do something funny. Like Jack Delany, a friend here, who wasn’t supposed to eat chocolate: his wife could always tell if he had had chocolate as his nose would get red.
He could never have kept a secret like they are alleging (alleging, I say, as there is not one whit of evidence to support what they are saying). At the very least, with all the medication he was on at the end and his hallucinations something would have come out if something were there.
When Ravi learned his cancer had metastasized he said he was ready to meet the Lord. He had no regrets, he said, except that he would have to leave us behind. He had no fear of dying, of meeting the Lord. His conversations at the end when he was seeing things we couldn’t and talking to people we couldn’t see were not filled with angst or fear or guilt. He was talking about strategy for sharing the Gospel with his unseen visitors. So much for Randy Alcorn and John MacArthur.
He never uttered another woman’s name, even in his sleep. His first thoughts every morning were of the Lord, his first words, “Thank you, Lord.” His Bible is marked up and underlined, notes in the margins, interacting with what is written and applying it to himself. I found written in his Bible the following. It has no date. It has no author. But Ravi obviously resonated with it.
Lord, I renounce my desire for human praise,
For the approval of my peers,
The need for public appreciation;
I deliberately put them aside today,
Content to hear you whisper,
“Well done, my faithful servant.” Amen.
More than any other poem I ever heard him quote was this one by Amy Carmichael, Make Me Thy Fuel, Flame of God:
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self, O Captain, Free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not this are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified,)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the Love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire,
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
He was not perfect. He was a man. As his wife of 48 years, I know this more than anyone else. But his failures were not in this area. He was spectacularly self-disciplined in his conduct, especially where it would reflect poorly on the Lord. He denied himself every single day in order to fulfill his calling and be pleasing to the Lord. He trusted me implicitly and I, him. He loved me completely, even the aspects of my personality that he found frustrating. He was fully committed first to his God, then to me and to his children, and finally to those who looked to him as an example.
Such a man could not be guilty of what is being alleged and there is no evidence at all to support those allegations, not in his personal effects, his financial records, his correspondence, his actions observed by all who knew him over 74 yrs. Even the so-called evidence in his emails is phrases, words taken out of context and never confirmed with those who knew him, who could give some context. Anyone of any celebrity status who gives his email to any who ask because he didn’t want to offend them by refusing, always cautioning them to “be careful what they did with it,” receives hundreds of pictures and selfies from fans & admirers, often inappropriate ones. That is pandemic in our society today. And everything you receive on your phone or computer is there for eternity, as we are constantly warned, and can always be “forensically retrieved.” So there are pictures. The investigator never told us their origin, whether he researched them or they were sent to him. Is he responsible for what is sent to him? If he is, then so is everyone else.
There is absolutely no way that Ravi is guilty as charged, convicted, canceled and executed, some even going so far as to claim that he never knew the Lord. I knew him, inside and out. I trust him & believe in him no less than I did on May 18th last year when he called me to him and kissed me as long as he had the strength, his last physical act in his life. It is not because I am in denial. It is because I knew him and because there is absolutely no evidence to support anything contrary.
I have written this because I feel it is important that you, his family, know what I know, know what I have found and not found, so that you may have confidence to continue to love and respect the man you knew, and that you may know that he was the man you knew.
With much love, and confidence in Ravi and in the God he knew and loved and served,
