Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr., made the May 13 ruling. He dismissed Margie Zacharias, who represents Ravi Zacharias’ estate, as a defendant on the grounds that the estate received no donations.
Thrash writes that the plaintiffs’ complaint depends “on two general categories of misrepresentations by Zacharias and RZIM. First, the Plaintiffs make ‘faith-based allegations’—namely that the Defendants ‘misrepresented that they were faith-filled Christians of upstanding moral character.’”
He continued, “Second, the Plaintiffs make ‘misuse-of-funds allegations’—namely that the Defendants ‘affirmatively misrepresented that funds contributed to RZIM were to support its purported mission of Christian evangelism, apologetic defense of Christianity, and humanitarian efforts, when such funds were in fact used to support and hide Zacharias’s sexual abuse.’”
Thrash rejected the first category, but said the suit had merit based on the second. To consider the suit under the first category would require the court “to make inherently ecclesiastical determinations,” he said, which the court is not permitted to do. “The Court will exercise jurisdiction over the Plaintiffs’ claims to the extent they are predicated on misuse-of-funds allegations but not faith-based allegations.”
