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