Vanier & Bikram
A Strange but Illuminating Comparison
It was not long ago that the disclosure of Jean Vanier's sexual abuses lurched disturbingly across the news, accompanied by various attestations of disbelieving grief. Vanier, an author and speaker, had been widely esteemed as a paragon of virtue, a model for the Christian life, and an important voice in recovering a lost sense of community in the West. Most importantly, perhaps, he was the founder of l'Arche, a network of homes for people with intellectual disabilities. What has now been revealed is that, in the background, Vanier was manipulating staff and volunteers to engage in sex acts rationalized by a strange and creepy spiritualization. To describe the situation as distasteful is an understatement.
It is bad enough when a patron saint of community was, in the background, victimizing women; it is worse when an advocate for vulnerability and honesty perjures himself on these counts. In this, Vanier's pattern of sexual activity has a discomfiting pedigree. In Becoming Human (1998), his most famous book, Vanier credits Father Thomas Philippe as a key model and influence on his life. Philippe was similarly condemned for engaging in acts of sexual manipulation under the guise of facilitating "mystical experiences." At the time, Vanier denied all knowledge of Philippe's activities. This, it now appears, is patently untrue. He was a fellow practitioner.
THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:
Jeremy M. Rios is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of St. Andrew's and an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. He has written or co-authored five books,including, with Jerry and Claudia Root, Naked and unashamed: A Guide to the Necessary Work of Christian Marriage (Paraclete Press, 2018). His academic work focuses on theological anthropology in the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Charles Williams. Jeremy and his wife have four children.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on culture from the online archives
29.3—May/June 2016
Our Choice Is Obedience or Jesus as Anti-Christ by Anthony Esolen
32.2—March/April 2019
Reality Shows, Even in a Popular TV Series by C. E. Smith
more from the online archives
29.5—Sept/Oct 2016
on Past & Present Atheism & the Invention of Happiness by Jordan Bissell
14.1—January/February 2001
A Sociologist Looks at Fatherlessness & Its Causes by David Blankenhorn
26.1—Jan/Feb 2013
on Abortion as a Matter of National Welfare by W. Ross Blackburn
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
