What We Can Learn From the Ravi Zacharias Credential Controversy
First, I want to say I have the utmost respect for Ravi Zacharias. He has done much good for both Christian apologetics and the kingdom of God in general.
Unfortunately, Ravi has recently been involved in some controversy. I will not comment here on the couple who attempted to extort him, as I believe that he responded appropriately to that event.
But I do believe that something can be said about the questions concerning his credentials. The controversy stems from his use of the title “Dr.” even though he holds honorary doctorates and not earned doctorates. There have also been questions about his exact activity studying at Cambridge University.
I don’t believe that Ravi ever set out to deceive anyone. To be fair, Ravi would not be the first honorary doctor to use the title. How many times have we heard people address Dr. Billy Graham? The confusion about Cambridge is more concerning.
How much of this should be placed on Ravi in terms of responsibility? Ravi is part of a larger organization and I’m sure he doesn’t write all his copy. Plus many of the references to his credentials have been by publishers and others outside of RZIM. Each of these groups are responsible for marketing Ravi and promoting him as an authority. Having said that, we are all ultimately responsible for being accurately represented and avoiding all error.
From everything I have read, Ravi and the rest of RZIM are doing everything to make sure that information is accurate from now on. I’m satisfied that they are taking the right steps and have explained past mistakes.
But what can we learn from this?
There is always a temptation to self-promote. We are encouraged to build our platform. These things are not necessarily bad. I include my CV here on my website, so that my readers can know a bit about me.
What we need to remember is that especially in the area of apologetics, people are looking for any excuse to discredit us. Something similar happened with James White and criticisms about his use of “Dr.” with earned doctorates from the non-accredited Columbia Evangelical Seminary. I have no problem with White’s education or with CES and his research reflects his studies. But people used this against him and attempted to dismiss his work based on the lack of accreditation of CES.
Is this fair? No it isn’t. Like White, the quality of Ravi Zacharias’s work doesn’t depend on whether his doctorates were earned or honorary. They should be judged on their own merits.
The lesson for us is to anticipate people’s criticism and when it comes to self-promotion, we should err on the side of humility. I’m a firm believer in higher education. There is a reason why I have three masters and am just finishing a doctorate. But I do not intend to promote myself based on the letters after my name. I want to be judged by what I actually write and teach.
The temptation to pad or slightly exaggerate our credentials will always be there. Without any motivation to explicitly deceive, we want to be heard and want our voices to rise above the noise. With such temptation, we should fight extra hard to anticipate the consequences.
I’m thankful for the work of Ravi Zacharias and I hope that we can all learn this one more lesson from him.
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