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Facebook: Ravi Zacharias
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Facebook: Ravi Zacharias
World News

'Ravi is not guilty': Wife of late Ravi Zacharias defends him against sexual and spiritual abuse findings

by Kelly Valencia

Margie Zacharias has broken her silence to defend her late husband, the apologist Ravi Zacharias, from sexual and spiritual abuse findings which caused Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) to reorganise. 

"There is absolutely no way that Ravi is guilty as charged, convicted, cancelled and executed, some even going so far as to claim that he never knew the Lord," Margie wrote in an email to her friends.

"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," she continued. 

Earlier this year, the findings of an investigation commissioned by RZIM and carried out by law firm Miller & Martin, confirmed that Ravi Zacharias engaged in "sexting, unwanted touching, spiritual abuse, and rape". The report revealed harrowing testimonies of several female spa workers that Ravi Zacharias had abused. 

However, since the release of the report Margie had stayed silent and only their son Nathan Zacharias had spoken out defending Ravi. 

"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," the email continued. 

According to Joy Reports, the email was originally posted in a private Facebook group called "Friends who like Ravi Zacharias" that has more than 30,000 members. However, Nathan Zacharias, explained on Instagram that his mum had asked him to publish the email on his blog 'Defending Ravi', so they "can ensure the content remains accurate". 

In her email, Margie Zacharias explains how she started going through Ravi's belongings as she was given 90 days by RZIM to leave their house and "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 went on to describe how she found receipts dating back to 1980s, money, pain medications, watches and photographs. She also found cards that therapists had sent "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". 

Margie explained she also "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" and added that she and her children also have one as Ravi used them to "open a conversation about the Lord" and "were not intended to convey a special or romantic interest."

After listing all she had found, she said: "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. 

"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."
She concluded her email affirming her confidence on her husband's innocence. 

"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."

Reacting to the email, Lori Anne Thompson, one of Ravi's victims, posted on Twitter: "I want you to know that while I am grieved by the contents of the letter, I have no direct comment to offer. It is too costly to my whole frame and family to engage in public defence of the utterly indefensible". 
 

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