Tag: Jivan Wellness

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Evangelical Stuff Featured Scandal

An Unhappy Ending: Johnny Hunt and the Ravi Zacharias Spa

Earlier this year Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) hired a law firm to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct that had been leveled against it its deceased namesake.

This week that firm reported that “credible evidence” indicates that Ravi Zacharias indeed “engaged in sexual misconduct over many years”. Accusations of (among other things) credentials fraud and sexting plagued Zacharias towards the end of his life and career. To those who had followed the downward trajectory of his ministry, this latest report came as no surprise.

It’s abundantly clear that Ravi Zacharias opened his own massage parlor (or “spa”) and commenced to ask his employees for sexual services. This latest confirmation of his behavior has left reasonable people asking, “Why would a Christian minister open an establishment like that in the first place?”

Consider the optics. Does it seem like a good idea for any man in Christian ministry to open a business where he is required to take off his clothes to receive services from women? It did to NAMB Vice President, mega pastor, and former SBC President Johnny Hunt. The baptist luminary actually traveled to Alpharetta to speak at the space’s grand opening.

Shouldn’t Hunt, a pastor of 1000s of people have had enough to sense to say, “Hey, Ravi, I think this is a bad idea”? Apparently not. Hunt himself is reported to have traveled from Woodstock to Alpharetta to receive services at Ravi’ spa (legitimate ones, there are no reports of Hunt asking for or receiving “Happy Endings”). Hunt apparently suspected nothing. The same goes for all the Zacharias supporters in celebrity Evangelicalism who adamantly defended Zacharias from these accusations until investigators hired by his own organization finally confirmed them.

There is a lesson to be learned here. Men like Johnny Hunt are terrible judges of character and shouldn’t be trusted to run anything, much less churches or mission boards. Ravi’s influential friends promoted and vouched for him until they couldn’t. The lesson to be learned is to trust evidence over the endorsements of famous preachers by other famous preachers. Chances are that the pastoral candidates who have come to your church over the years have been endorsed by no one else but other pastors who make their living in the same business. But where is the endorsement of Christ?

The reputation of Jesus will survive the information age, but the reputations of millionaire, good-ole-boy, jet-setting celebrity preachers may very well wither like so many cockroaches under a flashlight and in a cloud of Raid.

Make sure your flashlight batteries are charged and that you always have your can of bug spray and Bible in hand.

Editor’s note. This article was written by G. Seth Dunn and originally published at Pulpit and Pen, with this addendum below:

*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use.

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Evangelical Stuff Featured Scandal

Manager for Ravi Zacharias Spa Goes Public with Further Accusations

Ravi Zacharias’ legacy received another blow after one of his past employees has publicly come forward with new allegations and corroboration against the late famed christian apologist.

The latest allegations center around Jivan Spa, a wellness center he co-owned between 2009 and 2015, located near RZIM headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga. As we have already reported, he regularly went there for massage therapy and while on the table he would touch the women without their consent, monkey about with his draping and robes in an effort to expose himself, masturbated in front of them, and asked for sexual favors and “physical release.”

As things stand, four women have come forward with accusations of sexual impropriety, four people have corroborated the accounts, and two others acted as witnesses, for a total of ten people that we know so far. Of these ten, we know the identities of five.

Whereas much of the reporting has been done based on unnamed sources whose identities and employment were verified, one of the corroborators to the allegations has come forward and revealed her identity.

Emily Belz of World Magazine has released an article detailing her conversation with the former manager of Jivan Spa, Anna Adesanya, who worked at the wellness center from 2009 until 2012 and who spoke on the record, describing how one of the employees, a massage therapist, came to her upset that Zacharias had asked for perverted services. They write:

Adesanya told me Zacharias would come in regularly, maybe once a month. She remembered an incident around 2009 in which a massage therapist came to her and said she was uncomfortable treating Zacharias anymore because he had asked her for ‘more than a massage.’

Adesanya, who was unfamiliar with Zacharias’ apologetics ministry, said she took the information to Zacharias’ spa business partner, Anurag Sharma, and asked that they talk to Zacharias. She said the two met him at his office at RZIM, where Zacharias showed them his back X-rays as a way of explaining his need for therapy. Zacharias had spoken publicly about his chronic back problems from an injury decades earlier. 

‘He did not admit it—he became defensive,’ said Adesanya. ‘He said, “Who is this girl, what is she trying to do to me?'”

After the meeting, Adesanya said, Sharma fired the therapist who had complained. Zacharias continued coming for regular spa appointments. (Sharma did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)

Adesanya said no other therapists complained to her about Zacharias during her tenure. But she said Zacharias only went to certain therapists and often brought his own massage therapist, an Indian woman, and they would occupy one of the rooms for therapy sessions. ‘I would often have to wonder, because they would be in that room for hours. At most you’re going to have a therapy session that’s going to last an hour and half, maybe two hours tops,’ Adesanya said. ‘It would exceed two hours, if not three. … But it was never anything that was spoken of.’


While RZIM initially told Protestia when we brought these allegations forward weeks ago that they were “virtually impossible to investigate,” they have since changed their tune and are now launching a full investigation.

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Ravi Zacharias Accused by Former Business Partner of Molesting Spa Employees

A well-known critic of Ravi Zacharias has released a video alleging the famous, since-deceased Christian apologist and author engaged in unwanted sexual behavior and sexual harrassment between him and his staff at businesses he owned, according to allegagtions by three of his past collegeues.

Steven Baughman, a lawyer who runs the well-documented website www. www.raviwatch.com and whose ministry has been chronicling the ups and downs of the well-respected man and ministry for years while using primary source data and original documentation, recounts that Ravi Zacharias was the owner of two different health spas in the 2000’s, despite being wealthy enough as to not need this sort of side hustle.

Highlighting information that was released after Ravi was embroiled in a story that involves emotional affairs, sexting, blackmail, lawsuits and suicide threats, as well as forcing the woman involved to sign a binding non- disclosure agreement (NDA) whereby Zacharia’s estate would come after her if she breached it and spoke of the scandalous interaction they had, Baughman points out that Ravi was adamant and steadfast that he was never alone with women in the same room, following the Billy Graham Rule, and yet these businesses and the services they offered afforded him the opportunity to do just that.

Confirming that he has spoken to both Ravi’s former partner and Jivan Wellness co-founder Anurag Sharma, along with two female former employees, Baughman states: “…based on my recent interview with one of his business partners and with two women who worked in the spas, what he did in those massage rooms was not just sexual, but sexually abusive.”

One of the past employees allegedly told Baughman:

“I had a close relationship with Ravi. He was a sexual pervert. I know of many women he molested. During a particular kind of treatment that did not involve the client removing their lower-body clothing, Ravi exposed himself and asked me to ‘massage around there.’

There is also testimony from Zacharias’s business partner saying that the hypocrisy coming from Ravi of preaching against sexual immorality while himself being sexually immoral with the therapists contributed to the spa being shuttered.


Baughman says that the three witnesses have shared their testimony with a well-known christian leader six-weeks ago, and that his leader has contacted RZIM leadership and urged them to investigate and respond.

We have reached out to RZIM but have not received any response at the time of publishing.

Protestia is in the process of investigating these claims, as these sorts of allegations require serious proof, and having been reached out by involved parties to take a closer look. If anyone has any information to share, either on or off the record, please reach out to us at protestia@outlook.com Confidentiality will be guaranteed.