During the conversation, Murray alluded to a statement put out by RZIM’s public relations manager Ruth Malhotra claiming that at one point last September, he suggested turning to a “rough around the edges” ex-cop in Atlanta to find out if the spa workers’ allegations were true. The RZIM leader said that he actually rejected this suggestion and is not sure how Malhotra perceived the exchange differently. “I never advocated for trying to silence or intimidate victims,” he said.
Abdu Murray on Lessons Learned
There are several important lessons that Abdu Murray says he has learned from the past several years. One key takeaway is, “We really cannot in ministry afford to elevate ministry above people, and certainly not above Jesus.” He said, “In the church, we are resistant to seeing and acting on signs of abuse and confronting it.” This is typically because our lives have been impacted by some ministry or organization, and we want to protect that system. Then we end up protecting systems over people. “I’m certainly guilty of that in this instance,” said Murray.
In retrospect, there was too much power concentrated in the person of Ravi Zacharias, and Murray encourages ministries not to locate too much power in one individual. “All of us can benefit from self-examination about how realistic we are of our views of other people in ministry.” He stressed how important it is for Christians to allow their leaders to be vulnerable instead of holding them up high on a pedestal.
Another takeaway has been the importance of being self-aware about whether we actually value truth or whether we have ulterior motives for wanting something to be true. An extremely ironic aspect of this situation for Murray is that he became a Christian even though he didn’t want Christianity to be true. As a result, he thought that he valued truth over comfort. But he did not actually value truth over comfort when it came to the allegations against Zacharias.
“Guard your own heart,” said Murray. “We have to embrace the truth no matter how inconvenient it is.” He said that he has been learning a lot from experts on abuse in ministry, including Diane Langberg, Chuck DeGroat, Dan Allender, and Rachael Denhollander. “Listen to survivors,” said Murray. “Listen to them…take claims seriously, no matter how much it might cost.”
Abdu Murray contrasted his failures over the past year with how Jesus responded to the most vulnerable members of society. Abusers use their power to exploit the vulnerable, but Jesus is the most powerful being in the universe, and he himself knew horrific abuse. Said Murray, “If there is a God, it’s got to be him.”
Other topics that Murray discussed with the McDowells include whether or not we should still read Ravi Zacharias’s books and how we can still trust leaders while being discerning enough to recognize predators.
You can watch the full conversation between Abdu Murray and Josh and Sean McDowell below.