The Boy Who Lied About Going To Heaven

RAMCHANDRA KC 

August 20, 2020

Inside a best-selling Christian book filled with lies that set off a firestorm within the Evangelical publishing industry and drove a family apart.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven, co-written by Kevin and Alex Malarkey, is a best-selling Christian-based book.

Published in 2010, the book purports to describe the story of Alex Malarkey’s experiences in heaven after a drastic car accident in 2004.

The book sold over one million copies, spent months on the New York Times bestseller list and became adapted to television film in 2010.

The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven tells the story of Alex Malarkey, the oldest son of the Malarkey’s who was involved in a ghastly car accident with his father on their way home from Church in 2004.

After suffering from severe multiple injuries and two months in a coma Alex wakes up paralyzed and recounts his entire experience dying going to heaven, meeting Jesus, plus insights on heaven, angels, the devil, and then coming back to life.

Alex’s account of his near-death experience increasingly became popular and was soon at the forefront of a spike in the popular genre of “Heavenly Tourism”, which are stories about people’s trips to heaven in Evangelical faith and Christian Publishing.

But the entire story was filled with lies and like a typical house of cards, it eventually collapsed.

The cover of the book says it was based on a true story, but Alex himself now a teenager– who is still dependent on full-time care as he has been a quadriplegic because of the various injuries he suffered from the accident, publicly refutes those claims, saying none of it was true.

On January 13, 2015, Conservative Christian blog – Pulpit and pen published an open letter sent in by Alex Malarkey addressing Christian Publishers, bookstores, retailers, marketers, and buyers of the book.

In the letter, Alex renounces the book, writing–

“I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.

I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible. . .”

Since the scandal, Kevin Malarkey, Alex’s who is a co-author of the book and the agent who secured the book deal, has not spoken publicly about the issue and refuses to answer press inquiries about the falsehood of the book’s accounts.

But Beth Malarkey, Alex’s mother who is no longer with his father and was against the book from the onset, released a statement saying;

“It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book- the boy who came back from Heaven to not inky continue to sell, but to continue for the most part to not be questioned.”

Ever since the scandal gained traction in the public eye, the book has since been taken out of print by the publishers and off shelves by retailers and bookstores.

Behind the scenes, it has just been a series of dramatic events filled with anger lawsuits, accusations, money fights, bitterness, a messy divorce, and a family at odds with one another.