Ravi Zacharias for commencement speaker

Home Opinion Ravi Zacharias for commencement speaker

Ravi Zacharias was such a bad student he tried to kill himself. At the age of 17, weighed down by academic failures and an inability to deal with the consequences, a young Ravi guzzled packets of poison stolen from his school’s chemistry lab. Yet he survived.

While lying in the hospital during his recovery, his mother read aloud the encouraging words of Jesus: “Because I live, you will also live.” Deeply moved by this verse from John 14:19, Ravi gave his life to Christ and promised, “I will leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of truth.” His adolescence was inauspicious, but his life has become the epitome of the principles that inspire Hillsdale students. Therefore, it makes perfect sense, and it would be a privilege, to have Ravi as the next Hillsdale College commencement speaker.

Born in Madras, India in 1946, Ravi was the second of five children and raised in a culture with high expectations for academic achievement. In the evenings, families in his neighborhood — who were too poor to have electricity — would send their children outside to study under the streetlamps. Limited light and space inevitably lead to fights for access to the lamps. Those fortunate few who remained would tie a lock of their hair — called a Bodi and spiritually significant in Hinduism — to the lamp posts to keep them awake by tugging on their heads in case they dozed off. Later in college, Ravi describes how students would whisper among themselves about committing suicide as an escape from the intense pressure to perform well in school. One of Ravi’s best friends ended his life by setting himself on fire.

After Ravi recovered from the attempt to poison himself, he kept his promise to God and vigorously pursued an education in theology, focusing on comparative religions and philosophy. At the age of 20, Ravi emigrated with his family to Canada where he earned an undergraduate degree from Ontario Bible College. After graduating in 1977, he became an itinerant speaker for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He later earned his Master of Divinity from Trinity International University, received numerous honorary doctorates, and is now a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. He and his family now live in Georgia where his international apologetics ministry, RZIM, is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

He has traveled to more than 70 countries and is a highly sought-after speaker, collaborator, and mentor. Pictures show standing-room-only audiences in large venues wherever he speaks — whether he’s at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor or speaking on the topic of “Truth in Turbulent Times” in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Interestingly, the most hostile audiences are often found in the West. For instance, Ravi received a mixed welcome when he recently spoke at an Ivy League college. The local press was so antagonistic and accusatory that Ravi had to have a bodyguard just to gain entrance to the auditorium. The hostility is ironic because Ravi talks about the very things all students wrestle with and want to understand — the big questions of life.

In addition to giving talks and conducting Q&A sessions, Ravi reaches students through a variety of ways. RZIM recently launched a online academy offering an interactive, 12-week course on apologetics. They also host annual summer intensives in the U.S. and Canada and have partnered with Oxford University in England to offer undergraduate and master’s degrees in theological studies. Ravi has also authored and co-authored more than 30 books — the most recent of which is a graphic novel entitled “The Lamb and the Fuhrer.” In it, Ravi depicts an imaginary conversation set in the afterlife among Jesus, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Adolf Hitler.

So, in the best of ironies, Ravi’s life is synonymous with education and a fearless pursuit of truth. Ravi’s personal mission and that of RZIM — to “reach and challenge those who shape the ideas of a culture” — harmonize perfectly with Hillsdale and the character of its students. Ravi speaks to the universal themes of life, yet his ideas are fresh, thoughtful, and challenging. By remembering his own academic experiences and regularly engaging students across the nation, Ravi would relate easily to Hillsdale students. The college has provided estimable speakers for commencement, and Ravi would be a fantastic addition to the list.