The Christian Celebrity or The Psychopath?

If you were looking for a completely trustworthy Christian apologist to follow, would you pick someone who had risen to the status of global celebrity because of his unparalleled ability to articulate the Gospel? Or would you gravitate toward someone who is a well-documented and self-confessed psychopath? The best choice is not as obvious as it might at first seem. In this case, I’d pick the psychopath. And I say that based on the advice of ... the psychopath. But if that sounds strange to you, keep reading.

Recently, I began facilitating a 13-week Christian Worldview course that is nearly 20 years old. The Truth Project is a fantastic overview of biblical teaching and how we can think about applying it to the world we live in. It offers a compelling and systematic picture of how the biblical worldview fits together.

I have presented this course several times but it’s been several years since I did so. That’s why I had completely forgotten about one aspect of the course that has become quite controversial over the last few years.

During his presentation of the material, host Del Tackett interviews people representing different worldviews to compare them to what Christianity teaches. He also includes clarifying remarks from various Christian apologists and theologians to help instruct students in accurately representing the Christian faith.

One of those experts is Ravi Zacharias.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you probably know that Ravi’s reputation has imploded since his death in 2020. I’d like to reflect on that entire situation in a unique way because it is a lesson in critical thinking, humility, and in whom we are tempted to place our trust.

Ravi Zacharias led a double life. The ministry he founded, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), has publically admitted to all of it and shut down the ministry as a result.

On one hand, Ravi was a gifted communicator of the Gospel. A deep thinker. He defended the faith with clarity and a wealth of experience he drew from an eclectic cultural background. He was the complete package. A man who could handle the most aggressive skeptic with humility, grace, and truth. He was a model apologist. The kind of person every defender of Christianity longs to emulate.

At least on the outside.

Behind closed doors, it turns out that Ravi was a pervert. An abuser of women. His creepy sexual proclivities have been exposed for the world to see. Ravi’s post-mortem fall from grace is sad. But it is also proof that the prophet Jeremiah was right when he wrote (Jeremiah 17:9) that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Though not as popular as Ravi Zacharias, David Wood is also a phenomenal communicator. He is best known as the go-to guy on the subject of Islam. But there is way more to David Wood than that. Wood has a PhD in Philosophy of Religion with a concentration on “the problem of evil.” He’s an expert on that subject, too -- mostly because he has lived his entire life as a psychopath.

That’s not my opinion. It’s a clinical diagnosis. You can listen to his testimony about it here. The thirty-four minutes you spend doing so will blow your mind.

David Wood feels no emotion when his pets die or, for that matter when his friends die. He admits to his struggles with being a husband and a father. In his words, he is a “screwed-up individual.”

Wood tried to bludgeon his father to death with a ball-peen hammer. He served time in prison as a result. That’s where he met Randy, a fellow prisoner and Christian who challenged him to answer questions and to think about the implications of his self-proclaimed atheism. Wood idolized reason and rationality. But Randy forced him to reason his way to the existence of objective morality — and to its Source. His story is a powerful example of why pursuing the truth should be our primary objective. It’s a reminder that Truth is found in Jesus of Nazareth ... and only in Him.

David Wood is one of the most unusual examples of that you could ever imagine — a literal psychopath who recognized that objective good needed an explanation and thereby reasoned his way to God.

Comparing David Wood to Ravi Zacharias illustrates an important point.

The case of Ravi Zacharias received a lot of press. Some of it came from Ravi’s sycophants, who denied the charges against him. People in that camp had to believe that multiple women around the world, all interviewed privately, had miraculously come up with identical descriptions of his methods and tastes. I would say that anyone who continued to believe that was delusional.

Then there were the critics of Christianity who were weaponizing Ravi’s story. That was just another iteration of the false argument that hypocritical Christians render Christianity unbelievable. That’s ridiculous. As David Wood put it: “If you tell me that 2 + 2 = 4 and then punch me in the mouth, that shouldn’t make me doubt that 2 + 2 = 4. And if you tell me that 2 + 2 = 5 and then buy me a new car, that shouldn’t make me start believing that 2 + 2 = 5.”

The truth Ravi articulated is still the truth, even if it came out of the mouth of a diabolical sexual predator.

It turns out that the more reasonable and predictable commentary about the case of Ravi came via a psychopath who gives wise advice about personal and professional accountability. No one who claims to be a minister of the Gospel should ever have demanded the unchecked liberty Ravi Zacharias did. And no ministry leadership team should ever have allowed him to receive it. Both Ravi and RZIM are responsible for the consequences. The heart to which Jeremiah 17:9 refers lives in all of us. Even those who are Christian “celebrities.”

Pride is a powerful drug. It allowed Ravi Zacharias to rationalize his perversions. And he used the reach of his global ministry as justification for covering them up. After all, millions of people would be “disappointed” if the women he abused told the world what he was doing. Thus, the Christian celebrity spiraled deeper and deeper into a sewer of his own creation and never admitted he was drowning. No apologies. No remorse.

Meanwhile, the unemotional rationality of a psychopath led him to recognize his vulnerability to the pitfalls of pride. In this case, at least, he is the one to trust. But in his wisdom, he knows better than to encourage us to trust him. Instead, his message is a word of warning:

Don’t place your trust in any man.

Celebrity status has never been a measure of moral virtue. Ravi Zacharias was certainly not the first Christian celebrity to prove that point. And he won’t be the last.

Neither does being a sinner negate anyone’s capacity to know and live the truth ... even if they’re a psychopath.

The lesson for all of us here is that the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christianity don’t reside in any human being. They rest only on the objective reality that is their Source — the character of God himself.

Men will disappoint you. But the Truth doesn’t change.

It never will.