Boy Who Came Back From Heaven’ actually didn’t; books recalled

Washington Post ^ | January 16, 2015 | Ron Charles

[MeshugeMikey]

Tyndale House, a major Christian publisher, has announced that it will stop selling “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey and his father, Kevin Malarkey.

The best-selling book, first published in 2010, purports to describe what Alex experienced while he lay in a coma after a car accident when he was 6 years old. The coma lasted two months, and his injuries left him paralyzed, but the subsequent spiritual memoir – with its assuring description of “miracles, angels, and life beyond This World” – became part of a popular genre of “heavenly tourism.”

Earlier this week, Alex recanted his testimony about the afterlife. In an open letter to Christian bookstores posted on the Pulpit and Pen Web site, Alex states flatly: “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.”

[MeshugeMikey]

His honesty is refreshing

[GeronL]

5 years later isn’t very refreshing

[goldstategop]

It was Malarkey, after all. Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.

[Vendome]

Luke 16:26
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence

[goldstategop]

Tell a lie once it goes around the world as gospel truth.

The second time its exposed.

[stephenjohnbanker]

He made his million, no doubt. At least the publisher did.

[gdani]

His honesty is refreshing

It would be much more refreshing if he was honest the whole time.

[SoConPubbie]

From the article:

She asked him to help them. Johnson wrote to Tyndale House himself and says he has seen “reams of correspondence between Beth and Tyndale,” but he never received a satisfying answer to his objections.

“The idea that Alex suddenly recanted is just not true,” Johnson insists. “He’s been trying to make his voice heard as well as a teenage paraplegic boy can. There was proof everywhere that he did not stand behind the content of this book. But it was a bestselling book. Nobody in the industry wanted to kill it.”

[Yaelle]

I didn’t read it or follow the story. But from what it looks like now, the story got swept up into a millions maker with no thought for the truth. Sad all around.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Not to be confused with "Heaven Is For Real" about 4 year old Colton Burpo's experience. I don't think the "media" would INTENTIONALLY try to confuse anybody, do you?

sarc/

[goldstategop]

Heavenly tourism?

That famous quote from Hamlet’s Soliloquy always comes to mind:

“The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns...”

No one reads The Bard any more. Or they would not have to pulp a malarkey piece of fiction.

[GeronL]

the boy says he never got a dime

[MeshugeMikey]

Nope the media is as honest as the day is long....

[murron]

That’s what confused me. I do think the media is trying to confuse us.

[Persevero]

He was only 6 years old. I wouldn’t hold him accountable for it.

I commend him for stepping up now (at age 11??) and admitting it. That takes a spine.

[MeshugeMikey]

Indeed. Im betting it was his parents coaching..that inspired the book.

[Star Traveler]

Heaven is real, along with Jesus, angels and the souls of those who have died in Christ ... but the “stories” of some people going there and coming back here to “tell the tale” are not real.

[MeshugeMikey]

Young Mr Malarkey clearly was not very theologically astute was he.

[MeshugeMikey]

ya cant make THIS sort of thing up.

[Drew68]

Luke 16:26

Exactly. Nobody goes to Heaven and then comes back to earth to tell us about it. Had this so-called "Christian" publishing house understood the Bible in the first place, this wouldn't have ever been an issue because they wouldn't have published such "feel-good" nonsense.