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Lessons learned from the Ravi Zacharias Scandal
Fruitfully Living ^ | Luisa Rodriguez

Posted on 01/23/2022 10:15:41 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Sexual Perversion is Common in the Church, Even Among “Good” People

We need to accept the reality that sexual perversion is common in the church. Did you know that 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis? That is a number that many church-goers find hard to believe, but it is true. Obviously, not every porn addict will engage in criminal behavior but porn-addiction does affect the brain like a drug. In other words, in many, it can lead to more aggressive behavior as addicts look for a bigger and better hit.

Feel free to read my full article on pornography in the church.

I don’t have statistics on the percent of pastors and church leaders that engage in criminal sexual behavior, but I certainly have heard enough testimonies to know it is probably more than we think. One would be foolish to believe that this was a problem solely found in the Catholic church. Coming to grips with how common it is will help us come up with better solutions.

Responsibility Lies with The One That Holds the Authority

In many testimonies I have heard of women who suffered abuse in the church, the common response from the church was to believe the abuser (usually a church leader) over the victim...

How Should We View Ravi Zacharias?

Do I hate Ravi Zacharias? Actually, I don’t, but I also don’t hate the man who sexually abused me either. It was a long process of Jesus working in my heart to get to the point where I could feel compassion for my abuser and his depraved soul. Lord, knows I am a depraved soul too. That being said, if Ravi was alive, it would be biblically right and appropriate for him to face the criminal consequences of his actions...

(Excerpt) Read more at fruitfullyliving.com ...


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1 posted on 01/23/2022 10:15:41 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

How hard is it to understand sex is only for marriage? If you have a problem with the laws of God, take it up with Him.


2 posted on 01/23/2022 10:18:05 AM PST by No name given
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To: No name given

Is it OK to watch porn made by married couples?


3 posted on 01/23/2022 10:19:56 AM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Notice that as with David, the fall from grace (but David manifestly repented as soon as he was fingered/convicted) came while they were essentially at ease in Zion, not in the heat of battle. The former, esp. once we have reached a level of establishment, is when we are most vulnerable, and least watchful, as to some degree I have found myself.
4 posted on 01/23/2022 10:22:49 AM PST by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save + be baptized + follow Him!)
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To: monkeyshine

I don’t think so.


5 posted on 01/23/2022 10:24:50 AM PST by No name given
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To: monkeyshine
" Is it OK to watch porn made by married couples? "

I hope you are not serious. Seriously no, and I wish movies did not even include any sensuality, which even "Christian" movies too often do to some degree. There is simply no valid reason or need for it.

6 posted on 01/23/2022 10:25:03 AM PST by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save + be baptized + follow Him!)
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To: monkeyshine

No. You should not uncover the nakedness of your neighbor’s wife. Adultery is specifically done with someone else’s wife! And you are forbidden to lust for her.


7 posted on 01/23/2022 10:28:27 AM PST by Persevero (You cannot comply your way out of tyranny. )
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“Did you know that 50% of pastors view porn on a regular basis?”

How exactly can the author claim this as a fact?


8 posted on 01/23/2022 10:38:28 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Those within the Church, if they are not regularly taking the grace and means provided by Christ to grow in holiness will not simply not grow holy-- they will grow less holy, more and more configuring themselves to the world and less and less to Christ. The sins among Christians--including Christian leaders-- is a reflection of the sinfulness and permissive mores of the times they live in. In the times when we were a more moral society, people at least gave lip service to the virtues and adhered to them, if for no other reason, because there were social and sometimes legal consequences. And it was more or less easier to do because society as a whole by and large acknowledged the goodness of God's laws. Now that hardly anyone knows what the virtues are (let alone try to strive after them), practically everything is permissible.

Not every fallen Christian or Christian leader starts out as a hypocrite, but eventually, small compromise after small compromise, "small" sin after "small" sin, they are able to justify it in their own minds because they are not holding themselves up to Christ's standard, but the world's and they think that as long as no one else knows, they are doing OK. Then when they fall, they fall hard. Their deeds are suddenly exposed by the light and there are no more rationalizations or excuses to hide behind.

9 posted on 01/23/2022 10:44:06 AM PST by fidelis (Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia! )
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To: fidelis

“So dear brethren! this was the first and the gravest aspect under which the penitent and the forgiven man in my text thought of his past, that in it, when he was wildly and eagerly rushing after the low and sensuous gratification of his worst desires, he was rebelling against, and wandering far away from, the ever-present Friend, the all-encircling support and joy, the Lord, his life. You do not understand the gravity of the most trivial wrong act when you think of it as a sin against the order of Nature, or against the law written on your heart, or as the breach of the constitution of your own nature, or as a crime against your fellows. You have not got to the bottom of the blackness until you see that it is flat rebellion against God Himself. This is the true devilish element in all our transgression, and this element is in it all.

Oh! if once we do get the habit formed and continued until it becomes almost instinctive and spontaneous, of looking at each action of our lives in immediate and direct relation to God, there would come such an apocalypse as would startle some of us into salutary dread, and make us all feel that ‘it is an evil and a bitter thing’ {and the two characteristics must always go together}, ‘to depart from the living God.’

The great type of all wrongdoers is in that figure of the Prodigal Son, and the essence of his fault was, first, that he selfishly demanded for his own his father’s goods; and, second, that he went away into a far country. Your sins have separated between you and God. And when you do those little acts of selfish indulgence which you do twenty times a day, without a prick of conscience, each of them, trivial as it is, like some newly-hatched poisonous serpent, a finger-length long, has in it the serpent nature, it is rebellion and separation from God.”

Maclaren

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/psalms/32.htm


10 posted on 01/23/2022 10:47:39 AM PST by Bob434
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To: SoCal Pubbie

94.7% of all statistics are made up.


11 posted on 01/23/2022 10:48:35 AM PST by Do_Tar (Do I really need a /sarc?)
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To: fidelis

See my post above, it,goes along with you statement about “small compromises” (when man seeks,out,the “lower pleasures” of earthly,life rather than the “higher rest” that can be had in Christ who giveth to all liberally who ask” it’s there for the taking, IF we want it, but dadly we co tent ourselves with the lower pleasures that never satisfy, that fade quickly, that leave the ones who,indulge in them wanting more and more,and never being satisfied fully


12 posted on 01/23/2022 10:52:48 AM PST by Bob434
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To: SoCal Pubbie

She could be including “R” rated movies as porn. The problem, if so, it would include such movies as “Saving Private Ryan”.


13 posted on 01/23/2022 11:00:58 AM PST by alternatives? (The only reason to have an army is to defend your borders.)
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To: monkeyshine

No.
Was that a rhetorical question?


14 posted on 01/23/2022 11:25:24 AM PST by Honest Nigerian
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

50%?
Pastors?
On a regular basis?
And you are an expert on this?


15 posted on 01/23/2022 11:26:49 AM PST by Honest Nigerian
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Ravi’s fall broke my heart. He was the last person I expected to have these kinds of secrets.


16 posted on 01/23/2022 11:28:01 AM PST by bethelgrad
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To: Honest Nigerian; daniel1212

Of course I was just posting a monkeyshine.


17 posted on 01/23/2022 12:53:13 PM PST by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Everybody that goes to church is in that church for a reason and most of them are not pleasant reasons, those bottom of the barrel reasons.

People are broken, might never feel right ever again kind of broken.

Sometimes I wonder how far removed church is from AA.

But bless their hearts cuz a lot of people out there are working hard to try to make those that are hurting feel better about themselves. That’s all that matters and if there’s call out for salvation so much the better.


18 posted on 01/23/2022 1:38:12 PM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

How exactly can the author claim this as a fact?
= = =

Some do - some don’t

50 - 50


19 posted on 01/23/2022 2:06:55 PM PST by Scrambler Bob (My /s is more true than your /science (or you might mean /seance))
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To: bethelgrad

The public revelations were quite shocking. But our shock can be nothing compared to what his wife and family felt. I don’t know if any of them knew what was going on. Also, using RZIM money given by people who supported his ministry ... to pay for his an apartment in the area of Thailand where he would travel. That should have been a warning sign in my book.

The author wrote “David committed adultery and murder. Abraham tried to pawn his wife off to Pharaoh because he was afraid. Paul killed Christians. Bottom line, even bad people can do good things. If you can take the good out of Ravi Zacharias’ lessons, do so. If you can’t, don’t.”

The difference here is that there was repentance on by David, Paul and others after their commission of grave sins. IOW ... each changed from sinner to saint. We don’t know if Ravi repented ... the story is written that he went in the other direction and took his downfall secretly with him from the grave ... from saint to unrepentant sinner, so to speak.That’s what would make it hard for me to listen to him now.

I read a while back - those who deny the existence of Satan are ignored by him - he’s got them in the bag. The closer one is to trying to do God’s work on earth, the harder he works on them. Ravi was worked on to make such a fall; I pray that Ravi was able to repent in private. We are not the judges of others’ souls.


20 posted on 01/23/2022 3:13:57 PM PST by Susquehanna Patriot
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