Just recently BT posted the shocking news about the apparently unanticipated death of a popular Christian apologist whose organisation has relentlessly targeted Muslims, Ravi Zacharias..
While many Christians seem absorbed in glorifying his death but, before any Christians start canonising him, think of this new revelation today which reveal his insidious character. His sexually abused victim Mrs Lori Anne Thompson speaks out on twitter.
She appears shaken and traumatised. She shares her story that she was forced to be silenced and how the abuser got the upper-hand of controlling the narration. This is not at all shocking bearing in mind most missionary organisations enjoy lucrative well being out of generous donations from unsuspecting Christians.
This revelation will add more to the controversies surrounding this man along with the many blatant discrepancies in his”credentials”.
I believe it is not disrespectful to call out abusers, living or dead. It is disrespectful for being abusive and dishonest.
Categories: An abomination unto the Lord, Anti-Islam
This is truly dreadful. Well done to Eric for bringing this news to our attention.
Even more dreadful for Lori Anne the fact that she cannot name her abuser because of the abuser lawsuit against her which forced her to signed an NDA to silence her…
@ Eric
You’re too fast and loose. What do you think of this?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJILRFfguA
The two documents and more videos are uplladed at
http://www.raviwatch.com/news/story/sex-scandal/
Hi Banjoman,
Thank you for the comment, are you Steve Baughman of Raviwatch.com yourself?
Dwelling on these materials is not really my department, I am more of a writer on theology and semitic religions. However looking at these, regardless of how it started and Lori Anne motives (there are many unanswered questions), I see a sufficient evidences to say that RZ is not an honest and faithful character as his followers would portray him. Clearly he use his financial advantage to cover up his infidelities. RZ’s silence on his suicide threat and the off-court settlement to silence Lori Anne, really put question on his supposedly moral high ground. Why not pursuing the truth to the end, if he was clean? why NDA?
RZIM donor also need to understand that RZ did not work alone, his proteges (who were involved in orchestrating RZIM out of this scam) are still out there . I hope they reconsider wisely next time they will pump money on them. That behind all those love bombs they are just the object of extractions.
Hi Eric,
Your bias makes you play fast and loose with the evidence by presenting her as the victim. Baughman says it looks like she’s not a victim. To the contrary, it looks like she was asking for 5 mil. $ hush money or in laymen’s terms extortion. No legal basis. Maybe the scheme was hatched from the begining.
So you are not Steve Baughman, I see…I wonder why you use “banjoman” persona
Nowhere Mr. Baughman says Lori Anne not a victim. On the contrary, Baughman said
Baughan also said:
So apparently it was RZ who has exploited her unfairly. Besides Lori Anne has released a video saying that she was unfairly silenced by the forced NDA and asked for the release. From what I have seen she looks genuinely distressed, so my position stands with Lori Anne that she deserves to be heard and believed. She deserves to be released from the NDA. Any other way looks to me a big time cover up for an abused victim.
Eric, Nowhere in those passages does Baughman take Lori’s side let alone that she is a victim. In the video he clearly states she has no legal basis and what she did amounts to extortion and hush money. As he says, legally, he takesnRaci’s side!
Why are you presenting her as a victim and defending a person who tried to extract hush money?
Nobody can force her to sign an NDA and it is hard to believe she would sign it without considerable fnancial gain. The fact is she has no legal claim but only “dirt” as Baughman says. The best she could hope for was financial gain.
Also, if she went on with a trial folks would see that she was the one who started with the hush money, as Baughman exposed. She would not be looking good.
Why do you think she only “wants” to be released from the NDA now, after Ravi’s death?
If she has no legal basis, why RZ paid $$$ for an NDA?? If you read the demand letter from Lori Anne, it is not about demanding hush money but rather about RZ sexual misconduct, sexually grooming and exploiting her. There are two options for RZ to proceed with this matter, the first one is just to stop doing it and report his behaviour to his ministries and retract all her nude photos which RZ could easily take this route, but then the second option there is money exchange only if RZ fails to do so. To me it looks like a fair demand not merely for a financial gain. Decent people would have given her any money she needed for therapy and lost wages and pain and suffering/embarrassment, this should not be complicated she didn’t ask to be in that situation.
If that is the case all of these allegations against RZ could be easily cleared off in court , but why the off-court settlement to silence Lori Anne? Why not exposing Lori Anne real motives to the end if RZ really was clean?
I reckon with his passing perhaps she has renewed hope that his heirs will eventually have the decency to promote full transparency and truth.
Eric, the letter was unprofessionally written with no legal basis and that’s what Baughman points out and why he sides with Ravi, legally speaking. He is very clear about that in the video. And the letter falsely tries to present Lori as an innocent victim as Baughman points out. There’s dirt and that’s presumably why Ravi had to pay up in return for an NDA.
The dirt would obviously seriously hurt Ravi even if he was to be cleared by the court. He could only lose by the matter becoming public knowledge. Even if Lorri was exposed that wouldn’t help Ravi because he would not look good even if he had done nothing wrong legally. Neither he nor Lorri would be interested in a trial, because neither would look good. So he had to pay up to minimize losses and public shame. She had to sign the NDA to get $$$.
If she was really an innocent victim with a legal basis and nothing to lose she could simply have taken it to court, but she chose to sign the NDA.
She never even filed a legal complaint to the courts, possibly because she knew there was no legal basis, only dirt, and it would be dismissed. Best case scenario for her was hush money.
She just had a letter sent to Ravi asking for hush money aka extortion.
As Ravi can no longer tell his side of the story she will be controlling the narrative if she is released from her NDA. No wonder she wants to be release from it now.
But why you are uncritically buying into her narrative is beyond me.
These are only your presumptions, Lori Anne herself has said in her video that she had to signed the NDA under excruciating circumstances. She did not choose to sign the NDA, she makes herself clear that the accusation of apparent extortion who sue pastoral people for financial gain— nothing could be further from the truth.
That this narrative, like yours, has been multiplied many times over by faith-based publications (evangelicals) without the most rudimentary of fact checking. Check her public response:A Written Response To False Allegations
The only party had the advantage of having a NDA is RZ not Lori Anne, as him only could afford to go to court to defend it.
Even Baughman thinks that RZ was the one who requested the nude photos and then lied about it, check his tweet below. It surely makes Lori Anne an innocent victim.
Looking at the evidences presented by Steve Baughman, RZ most certainly was an active participant in this inappropriate sexual relationship. He just has the $$ and was able to get this hushed via settlement to cover things up.
Eric, you are uncritically buying into her narrative. “Excruciating circumstances” etc. You have not presented any evidence.
Nobody forced her to sign. She could have taken it to court if she wanted. But nothing of any legal substance was presented. Just a request for hush money aka extortion.
As Baughmann said both parties failed to set boundaries. Both had dirt on them, but her request was just for $$$ and that’s what Baughman says very clearly. Legally Ravi is in the right. As Baughman said she was presented as an innocent victim contrary to the documented evidence and you Eric is swallowing it hook, line and sinker, when cooler heads should prevail.
The link says exactly what I did, what Baughman did and the documented evidence does. They sued a different man and church. Later in a different case RZ sued them “preemptively” their words. They never sued RZ. They had two cases going with ministries, that’s not very careful.
There is no evidence other than dirt and none has been presented.
Now suddenly she wants to speak when the man cannot tell his side of the story.
I wonder why are you so judgemental on the woman motive as if she is the guilty party and was after extortion?
Legally speaking, innocent or guilty can only decided in fair trial presenting all evidences (not you, not me), RZ had that chance (to prove he is clean) and he has chosen NDA.
Morally, supposedly a man of God, flirted with the lady under his discipleship, engaging inappropriate sexual misconduct, is despicable plain and simple.
Eric said: “
I wonder why are you so judgemental on the woman motive as if she is the guilty party and was after extortion?”
She had no legal basis and presented none. As Baughmann said she wanted hush money aka extortion. And 5 mil $$$ of it. Legally speaking Ravi is in the right.
Eric said: “Legally speaking, innocent or guilty can only decided in fair trial presenting all evidences (not you, not me), RZ had that chance (to prove he is clean) and he has chosen NDA”.
Yes, and she never sued RZ and she had no legal basis and presented none. She never showed interest in resolving the guilt question in a trial. The only one to sue was Rz. Baughman sides with RZ as she never presented anything of substance except for a demand for a substantial amount of money aka 5 mil $$$!
They sued another ministry for 1 mil $$$. That’s not very careful. Certainly not lookingngood. Maybe the “narrative” that they are scammers is out there for a reason. Where there is smoke there is fire.
You are making a presumption that donations/money went into the trial. Maybe. According to RZ’s post settlement statement that’s not the case
“All communication with both of them has concluded, and the legal matters have been resolved,” said Zacharias. “However, at this time, unfortunately I am legally prevented from answering or even discussing the questions and claims being made by some, other than to say that each side paid for their own legal expenses and no ministry funds were used”.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/december/ravi-zacharias-sexting-extortion-lawsuit-doctorate-bio-rzim.htm
If it’s true or not I dont know, but do you have any statements or evidence for your claim?
What Ali Dawah said goes against you, some of them ckearly had bad intentions, she just might have taken it to the next level.
Who knows, maybe she didn’t even get very much money out of it. If Baughman is right RZ and team were very smart to sue her. If she took it to court, yes maybe she could hurt him with the dirt. However, he might have ruined her financially and made life econamically miserable for her if she was found guilty of extortion. Not to spealk of the legal consequences. She might have had to settle for relatively little.
That might be why she wants to talk now, because he cannot sue her back and because the money were not that big. Andnhe can’t tell his side of the story.
Stop being so naive.
From what Iv seen in Baughman video, he said he was just “assuming” that the thompsons are dishonest for the sake of discussion only. Until he sees from his ravi court filing, a clear statement of admission of his wrongdoing and extremely bad boundaries in getting himself in of his sexual conduct as well as out of it, RZ has crossed boy-girl boundaries. Baughman is then adamant by looking only at the evidence presented by RZ that he had indeed carried on an online relationship with Ms. Thompson, one that involved her sending him nude photos of herself. So you misunderstood Baughman position.
You are not being careful here in looking at court filing by RZ, the so called “extortion” letter to RZ, dated April 26, 2017 was only after the woman failed to get adequate answer for the Lori husband simply trying to understand why RZ would ask his wife to send you photos of her. There are two options for RZ to proceed with this matter, the first one is just to stop doing it and report his behaviour to his ministries and retract all her nude photos which RZ could easily take this route. no $$$ here, it is not difficult to understand why any decent couple’d do the same in this situation. Then the second option which the money exchange only if RZ fails to do first option. But then it was RZ who sued here first. it was a cunning move to prevent the court process by Lori Anne. By suing first and got the NDA, RZ was protected, as he then can spin his side of the story to his liking, while hiding behind the NDA when anyone asks a hard question. Also I dont think Lori financial wellbeing was ready yp cover the expense of setting up a counter lawsuit. She got no options.
I think for any unbiased person its not hard to understand that RZ did in fact groomed Lori Anne and exploited her, then RZ was using the power of his finest highly paid team of attorneys to pressure Lori. Later Ravi’s public statement on this matter is loaded with Image Repair tactics that coverups.
Lori Anne Thompson deserves vindication. Whatever improprieties she was involved in with RZ.
This woman had met and known Ravi for 3 years before the allegation. It shows that RZ slowly groomed Lori Anne Thompson for his sexual pleasure only when Lori Anne informed him that she was going to confess to her husband, RZ threatened suicide. The NDA protects him. What Ali D was saying in his video confirms my position that even if there were women out there who sliding into man DMs sending him nudes, he can just slide them back out immediately. So it is always the man who are in control thus take the blame for allowing it into more serious situation.
I am asking you “banjoman” why are you so blindly come to RZ defense?, are you a christian? if yes I hope your bias does not prevent you to see think justly.
I contacted Lori Anne, she said she have been speaking out to varying degrees since the beginning not just after RZ death. She also said it takes time to be brave for her in the face of brutality as she put it. Exactly just as I imagine, with RZ passing she has renewed hope that the pressure will eventually cease and she can present truth, should people wish to know it.
A married woman sending nudes to a married man. Now she’s “shaken and traumatised”.
Spot on. Wonder if not the scheme was hatched early on.
Im appalled why you blame the woman victim here, imagine if you as a husband have had online or even real-life relationships with a married women and certainly you are in control how to properly conduct direct Message (DM) communication with a number of them. If you are clean you’d not be ashamed to reveal to the entire world every (hypothetically) every one of your conversations with them. You surely would have zero explaining to do to your wife.
One of them is guilty or both.
She’s an adult, she’s married. I don’t care if it was a difficult time if her life. It’s not an excuse for a married woman to send nudes to a married man.
You’re dishonest if you only say she’s an innocent victim.
I am not sided with the woman but I found it cynical that the man withheld her for releasing everything while the woman demanded! Innocent people didn’t do that because they have nothings to hide.
Regarding nudes pictures, Im asking you, are you a man or woman? I am a man over fifty, a married man, and I know precisely how to communicate to woman who are not my wife nor my mahram. If I need to send a DM message to those woman, I am the one in control and make sure it is done in respectable manner and do not invoke any sins. I don’t believe this woman send her nudes to random guy out of the blue. If any woman did that to me I’d have blocked her straight away and tell my wife about it. Looks to me this man seems enjoying the exchanges with this woman for a considerable amount of time until the woman realised she was groomed and exploited, she then made a complain letter (confidential one) , and the man then pre-emptively sued her and got her hunched by $$.
“I don’t believe this woman send her nudes to random guy out of the blue.”
According to Ali Dawah, it can happen that women send nudes to random guys out of the blue.
You don’t believe Ali Dawah as well? In other words, both Ravi and Ali Dawah are lying?
https://youtu.be/omDhFoRoiA4
Interesting video from Ali D, lol …. to be honest not a fan of him and I don’t watch his vids.
But his video confirms my position that even if there were women out there who sliding into man DMs sending him nudes, he can just slide them back out immediately. So it is always the man who are in control thus take the blame for allowing it into more serious situation.
Ravi should have learnt from Ali..
Thank you for not saying that you don’t believe Ali Dawah. Which prove you doubt the woman sent nudes out of the blue because Ravi is a Christian. But when it’s a Muslim you won’t say the same thing. You have a double standard.
Your answer was a diversion. You had no choice since you got cornered.
I’ll be back to expose you more it’s just a matter of time. 🙂
No, I dont believe the woman sent nudes out the blue to Ravi. Not because he is a christian but because of the circumstances surrounding it. It is not out the blue. This woman had met and known Ravi for 3 years before the allegation. How Ali D anything to do with abusing a married woman for inappropriate sexual gain? How could that a double standard?
Why you don’t believe this woman never send her nudes to random or acquaintance?
You must know her well. Maybe even better than Ravi and her husband.
I smell sarcasm in your question but I feel generous to respond to this.
Lori Anne have been speaking out in public dialogue since 2017 and she is accessible for everyone in her site https://loriannethompson.com/. Please spare a little effort to contact her directly from there (which I did) and ask clarification from her directly before making baseless accusation about her.
Out of the blue
What’s your evidence? Because she said so? The other guy is right about you. You are naive
At least Iv made an effort to ask directly, not throwing baseless accusation.
What evidence could you ask more? you can look at the facts presented by from Steve Baughman, himself a lawyer, a guy who recognise facts over gossips. And for the record I made effort to be in touch with Mr. Baughman also.
Also Lori Anne has spoken up to be released from the NDA, so that she can release all the evidences from her to prove she was being exploited.
The fact is Lori Anne have no criminal record (she has NMSO government security clearance), if she was mere sex scammer, pretty likely somebody there got her in one way or another.
Whatever the woman motives, the facts are clear. RZ got involved, raise the secrecy level at his own initiative, and then he threaten Suicide to cover it up. That’s all clear if you care to check the evidences presented in raviwatch.com
I don’t have baseless accusation since I don’t pretend to know her. But you said you don’t believe she will send nudes to random guys. Only someone close to her, most of her life can say something like that. Only someone who knows her very well. Not someone who just send her a few messages.
I give both the benefit of the doubt. You’re the one making the baseless accusation.
You have zero evidence. If you believe she would do it or not is not evidence. It’s just your bias.
I don’t believe “she send nudes to random guys”, based on all the circumstances and the evidences which is available (and yet you refused to look at) plus asking her directly and my verdict is she is not kind of woman who does that! She does not have any criminal records, she has no litigation story, she has zero. You on the contrary just kept telling around cynically as if she was kinna sex scammer, the one who guilty lusting everyman, sending nudes for money. I am asking you what more can I ask for evidences?. There may have more evidences but RZ prevented both party to release them, why? she ask for the release for anyone can judge.
At first I also give both the benefit of the doubt but I also have brain to think, why RZ wanted to communicate with her via a “more secure“ method, and that Enabled him to keep the sexual photos secret, why the exchanges went on for so long?? I don’t know what are you, but I am every man also, I know what this is as a man. I know the man is wrong, coz the man went along with it and enjoying it.
Think!
Eric, you’re completely misreading it and taking things out of context.
Now here is what Baughmann says after presenting Lor’s letter, before he even got on to RZ court file at around 1:30
“Now let me briefly interrupt my presentation of straight facts here and tell you that as a lawyer I’m on Ravi’s side here, legally. This letter is sloppily written, devoid of persuasive legal analysis and it smells like a demand for hush money. But the big problem for the Thompsons is that in real life Lori Anne Thompson is a smart active entrepreneurial mother of four with loads of life experience and her lawyer is trying to pass her off as a shrinking violate who deserves millions of dollars because she could not draw online boundaries with a gentleman who lives 800 miles away in another country.”
And what did LATs letter say?
“In the alternative for public and protracted litigation the Thompson will sign a release of you and your church and ministry in exchange for a crrtified check in the amount of 5 million dollars…”
When he after what he says a a lawyer says he is “ just “assuming” that the thompsons are dishonest for the sake of discussion only.” that’s because as he states he is not interested in the legal issues, but in the moral issues that he goes on to deall with. And only Ravi’s moral issues. You completely misunderstood what he said as a lawyer.
Nobody had anything to gain by a law suit. He sued her for extortion, that was smart only if Lori was not clean herself. Lori could just have accepted and called the bluff if she had done notin wrong and had the evidence.
The problem is that her letter smells like a demand for hush momey aka extortion and racketeering. If they got a verdict for extortion they would be completely finished. Financially and legally. So they settled for a deal.
Why do you think the narrative is out there? Because that’s how folks read it. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Hi Banjoman,
Im sorry, I guess we have to agree to disagree, I don’t see that I misunderstood Baughman position. Legally speaking according to Baughman the basic facts are very clear. RZ He wanted to communicate with her via a “more secure“ method, and that enabled him to keep the sexual photos secret. That it’s pretty clear that feelings rose on both parts, and whatever Lori Anne motive, RZ went along with it, and didn’t complain about it until Lori threatened him with legal action after things went bad. The facts are clear. RZ got involved, raise the secrecy level at his own initiative, and then he threaten suicide to cover it up.
That’s all clear, those are the facts Baughman has presented.
You can still worship RZ, it is your choice but I think blaming the woman does not give her any justice.
I don’t wish to continue this thread, I sense this back and forth will turn really ugly, the guy is dead, he will meet his creator and accountable for all his actions. And as for Lori I hope she can be released from NDA and more evidences are available for everybody to see.