SLS 20RS-1997 ORIGINAL
2020 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 74
BY SENATOR ABRAHAM
CONDOLENCES. Expresses condolences upon the death of Ravi Zacharias.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To express the sincere condolences of the Legislature of Louisiana upon the death of Ravi
3 Zacharias, head of a global ministry and best-selling author.
4 WHEREAS, it is with deep regret and profound sorrow that the Legislature of
5 Louisiana has learned of the passing of Ravi Zacharias on May 19, 2020, at age
6 seventy-four, after a brief battle with cancer; and
7 WHEREAS, the popular author and Christian teacher was known for his work
8 through Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), which focused on apologetic
9 arguments for the existence of God and the reasonableness of Christianity, with the mission
10 of "helping the thinker believe and the believer think"; and
11 WHEREAS, he spent much of his time in ministry responding to philosophical
12 attacks, insisting his faith held the answers to life's central questions of origin, meaning,
13 morality, and destiny; preached in more than seventy countries, and authored more than
14 thirty books, encouraging Christians to engage with skeptics by presenting reasoned,
15 respectful, yet robust, answers to humanity's existential questions; and
16 WHEREAS, Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias was born in Madras (now
17 Chennai), India, in 1946, to Isabella and Oscar, and was raised in the Anglican faith; and
18 WHEREAS, Zacharias, while still a skeptic, discovered his calling at age seventeen
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1 after trying to take his life by swallowing poison and, while recovering, he turned to the
2 Bible and shortly thereafter began the study and the work which would eventually lead him
3 to his calling as a Christian apologist; and
4 WHEREAS, he immigrated to Canada at the age of twenty and graduated with a
5 Bachelor of Theology degree from Ontario Bible College (Tyndale College and Seminary)
6 in Toronto, Ontario, in 1972; and
7 WHEREAS, after a formative trip to several countries, including Vietnam and
8 Cambodia, he moved to Deerfield, Illinois, graduated with a Master of Divinity from Trinity
9 Evangelical Divinity School in 1976, and taught at the Alliance Theological Seminary in
10 New York while continuing to travel; and
11 WHEREAS, the Rev. Billy Graham invited Zacharias to preach at the inaugural
12 International Conference for Itinerant Evangelists in Amsterdam in 1983 and a year later
13 founded Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) in 1984, an organization that has
14 grown to about two hundred employees in sixteen offices around the world, with more than
15 seventy traveling speakers; and
16 WHEREAS, in the 1980s, he began a weekly half-hour radio program, "Let My
17 People Think", which is now syndicated to over two thousand stations in thirty-two
18 countries; and
19 WHEREAS, his first published book was entitled A Shattered Visage: The Real Face
20 of Atheism in 1990; his best-selling book, Can Man Live Without God?, was awarded the
21 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Christian Book Award; two other
22 Christian best sellers were Jesus Among Other Gods and The Grand Weaver, and his most
23 recent book, The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind, won the
24 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's 2020 Christian book award in the Bible study
25 category; all of which have been sold in over one hundred thirteen countries; and
26 WHEREAS, in 1992, he was the keynote speaker at the Veritas Forum, an event
27 which is committed to conversations between persons of the Christian faith and people from
28 different backgrounds with other beliefs and is hosted on the campus of Harvard University;
29 and
30 WHEREAS, in 2004, he established the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics at
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1 Oxford University (OCCA), where he was an honorary senior research fellow between 2007
2 and 2015, and at which has trained over four hundred students from fifty countries; and
3 WHEREAS, in the same year, he formed Wellspring International, the humanitarian
4 division of the ministry as an outreach in memory of his mother's work with the destitute;
5 and
6 WHEREAS, in 2015, he spoke at the Louisiana Governor's Prayer Breakfast and, in
7 recent years, Mr. Zacharias made three trips to visit with inmates at Angola State
8 Penitentiary; on his third and final visit to the prison in 2019, he experienced a sharing of
9 faith in his interaction with those on Death Row which he would later say, "… make it
10 impossible to block the tears" and, as an expression of his deep connection with the inmates
11 that developed since his first visit, the prisoners made him the casket in which he was buried;
12 and
13 WHEREAS, in what proved to be his last speaking engagement, Zacharias spoke to
14 a crowd of over seven thousand at the University of Miami's Watsco Center on the subject
15 of "Does God Exist?"; and
16 WHEREAS, his international outlook and the ease at which he interacted with people
17 around the world opened doors that had been closed for many years as a global leader,
18 including four appearances at the United Nations since 2000; and
19 WHEREAS, he is survived by his wife of forty-eight years, Margie; daughters, Sarah
20 and Naomi; son, Nathan; and five grandchildren; and
21 WHEREAS, he saw the objections and questions of others not as something to be
22 rebuffed, but as a cry of the heart that had to be answered; and
23 WHEREAS, those who knew him well will remember him for his kindness,
24 gentleness, generosity of spirit, and for his philanthropy.
25 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
26 express sincere condolences upon the death of Ravi Zacharias, head of a global ministry and
27 best-selling author.
28 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to his
29 wife, Margie Zacharias.
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The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
SCR 74 Original 2020 Regular Session Abraham
Expresses condolences upon the death of Ravi Zacharias, head of a global ministry and
best-selling author.
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