What We Can Learn From the Boy Who Didn’t Go to Heaven

One of the big things to happen on the religion scene recently is that Alex Malarkey, whose story was supposed to be told in the book The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, came out saying that he did not really experience the events described in the book.

There are all sorts of reactions we could have, ranging from anger to mockery. I prefer to take these things as teaching opportunities. Here are some things that we should keep in mind as we process the revelation of this false testimony.

• It took bravery to come clean. I am not condoning his falsehood, but it required courage to tell the truth.
• He was very young when the book was written. Again I am not condoning what was done, but keep his age in mind.
• The false nature of his story does not speak against the reality of heaven.
• We should have been suspicious to begin with. Healthy skepticism is not a bad thing.
• People are willing to use religious ideas to make money. It does not make religion bad, it makes people bad.
• In Alex’s explanation, he makes it clear that we should get our theological truth from the Bible. He is absolutely correct.
• People want religious experience and they are willing to put aside reason to find it. I have seen this over and over.
• People are afraid of death and they want some sort of assurance that there is something waiting for us, preferably something good.
• There must be forgiveness. It seems that Alex has a very strong Christian faith. I would hate to see the Church drive him away.

This is far from a detailed response to the story. These are simply things that I believe that we should keep in mind.

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