Informal Fallacies in the Popular Defense of Ravi Zacharias

Following up on last' week’s interview with Steve Baughman, we use comments on Steve Baughman’s video about Ravi Zacharias’ scandalous behavior to illustrate ten informal fallacies. This is not a rehashing of the scandal itself but a closer look at the lack of critical thinking among religious supporters, which enables dangerous behaviors to go unchecked. We also read and discuss Kyle Howard’s tweets about abusive and toxic culture within American Evangelicalism.

Topics Mentioned

• Jeff’s book chapter on friendship

• Jeff’s talk about the devil stealing your logo

• Mammon

• Dr. Brown on responses to the scandal

• #ChurchToo

• Reformed Subordinationism

• Doug Wilson and the pedophile at his church

• Bill Gothard’s alleged inappropriate behavior with underage girls

• Bikram Yoga scandal

• Lori Anne Thompson

• The “Calvinist Fallacy”—which isn’t a fallacy but maybe should be. It relates to the apologetics method of the presuppositionalist apologetics.