The largest Christian book publisher in the United States has announced it will no longer sell resources by Ravi Zacharias following the release of an investigative report which found that he had been the perpetrator of sexual and spiritual abuse over a number of years.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which owns Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, had published 20 books bearing the name of the late apologist, including his popular work Can Man Live Without God?
In a statement to Christianity Today, the publisher's vice president of corporate communications, Casey Harrell, said that HarperCollins "immediately suspended all projects and shipments of [Zacharias'] work" back in September, following the surfacing of sexual misconduct allegations against him. Now, with the release of the report detailing a pattern of sexual misconduct and abuse, HarperCollins has chosen to permanently axe all the titles.
"Following the findings in the independent report, the company will immediately take all his publications out of print," Harrell added. "We are deeply saddened, and we mourn for the victims.”
Christian author and journalist Lee Strobel announced late last week that Zondervan is halting the publication of his 2000 book The Case for Faith, which features a lengthy interview with Zacharias.
"The report on sexual sins by Ravi Zacharias is horrific," Strobel tweeted on Friday. "He deceived so many. My heart goes out to his victims. Ravi was among those I interviewed 20 yrs ago for The Case for Faith. My publisher and I decided to halt printings of the book, and I am working on a revised edition."
Someone in the replies questioned Strobel over the legitimacy of erasing sections of books that were written by people were later found out to have committed transgressions.
"If we went and erased all the sections of books that were authored or spoken into by people who sinned, there would be no books on shelves and you’d have to fire your Kindle," the man argued.
Strobel replied: "The difference is Ravi never showed repentance. The book is for spiritual seekers and I don’t want his hypocrisy to be a stumbling block to them in considering the evidence for Christ."