I hate this so much.

After news broke of women accusing the late apologist Ravi Zacharias of sexual and spiritual abuse, the ministry he founded, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, hired an team to investigate the claims. They released the report this week. It has details I don’t want to think about or repeat here.

But people have been able to talk about this for a few months now with some humble, biblical reflection. Artist and author Jackie Hill Perry notes that “orthodox teaching” is not “proof of righteous living.” Demons could teach us the Bible accurately and King David understood the prophet Nathan’s parable before recognizing himself in it.

This is true. Anyone who was inspired by the Bible they heard in Zacharias’s messages or was brought to faith in connection to them suffers no loss in the life they now have. But when you’re able to hear how a man spiritually abused his victims, how they prayed beforehand, how some didn’t come forward because who would believe them, then you can easily start to wonder if the truth you hear from such a man is, in fact, true. Maybe it’s off somehow. Maybe the conviction you should doubt is not your own, but his.

Joe Carter, who summarized the details I linked to above, draws it down to this. “I believe it was because of a dangerous mix of inflated entitlement, unwarranted secrecy, and cheap grace.”

On entitlement, he says, “They begin to think the sacrifices they make for the job should be offset by making allowances for their behavior—including sinful behavior—because they are ‘Great Men.’ They begin to develop a sense that their great achievements for the kingdom entitles them to the spoils that are due all such Great Men.

“It is this Great Man mentality, not celebrity (which many disgraced leaders don’t have), that tends to lead to their downfall.”

Let me add more to this by bringing in Rachael Denhollander’s tweets. You should remember her name as one of many victims in large abuse scandal in U.S. gymnastics. She has become a voice against the abuses of powerful people in the subsequent years.

Speaking to Christian leaders who are decrying Zacharias this week, she says their voices were needed in 2017 when the first accusation came forward. That’s when it would have cost something to call for accountability.