Well, the world has now heard about Alex Malarkey’s brave journey and the opposition he has faced by Christian book retailers. For Alex, his journey to reveal his truth began over two years ago. For the Pulpit & Pen, our journey regarding this specific incident began on December 23 when Director of Lifeway Research, Ed Stetzer, decided to marginalize us by calling us “Fifteen Angry Calvinists.” The background on what has come to be known as #the15 can be found here, here and here. The next day, he tweeted out a veiled statement, calling us trolls. Soon, #the15 became a movement. Alex Malarkey is a part of that movement.
We were told we would never be listened to because of our tone. We felt that our tone was honest and well-deserved. But apparently, in much thanks to Alex, Lifeway’s ways have been brought to light and his story now shared in the last 24 hours among the following major media outlets:
And on and on and on it goes…
The local or regional newspapers, radio or television news services who have covered this story are simply too numerous to list.
We list all of these major media outlets for a reason. There is one media outlet that remains noticeably silent. The Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Press has yet to report on the story.
This story revolves around an open letter from Alex Malarkey to Southern Baptists’ Lifeway, and it is the only retailer mentioned by name by the courageous young man in the title of his open letter. This is inherently a Southern Baptist story, a run-away convention entity that has thumbed its nose at the will of the messengers who by passing a resolution, repudiated Heavenly Tourism at the 2014 convention. This is about Lifeway’s president, Thom Rainer, who was told this book was fabricated in May of last year, and chose to do nothing.
The Baptist Press is silent. And that silence is deafening.
