Seth Udinski, FISM News
Last week, a Christian NFL tight end filed a lawsuit against Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), a ministry already embroiled in scandal.
Derek Carrier is a tight end for the Las Vegas Raiders and an outspoken Christian athlete. He and his wife were supporters of RZIM and reportedly gave the ministry a sizable donation of $30,000 in the beginning of 2020. FISM News has followed the heartbreaking account of the sexual abuse scandal against RZIM’s popular founder, Ravi Zacharias. Since 2020, investigators confirmed that Zacharias, who died in the spring of 2020, secretly committed sexual abuse against several women in a variety of ways. The ministry has disassociated with its founder and is now seeking a total rebrand, including a name and mission change. At the end of the same year in which the Carriers gifted RZIM with a substantial grant, rumors began swirling of Zacharias’s lewd behavior
Now, Carrier is taking the ministry to court. Last week, the NFL tight end filed a lawsuit against RZIM for misusing donor funds. He claims RZIM “misrepresented the true nature of their ministry and the use of funds donated in support of their stated purpose.” According to Christianity Today, Derek Carrier and his wife are “asking for compensatory, consequential, and punitive damages.”
This situation is truly tragic as the fallout from the sins of Ravi Zacharias continues. It is murky territory when Christians take other Christians to court, but they seem to do so for a noble reason. The Carriers have stated that their intent is to hold RZIM accountable for its actions when its founder was still alive. Perhaps their actions are commendable, and certainly the ministry is at fault for failing to hold its founder to account. Either way, this situation and all parties affected by it (the Carriers, other donors, the abuse victims, the ministry, the surviving Zacharias family, etc.) must be covered in prayer.