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Baptist Press Silent on SBC’s Heaven Scam, While Major Media Talks

News Division

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:

New York Times

Washington Post

NPR

Time Magazine

Drudge Report 

Christianity Today

Christian Post

Huffington Post

Christian Today

Christian News Service

US Magazine 

People Magazine 

USA Today

New York Daily News

Business Insider 

Christian Science Monitor

World Net Daily

London Telegraph

Buzz Feed 

Raw Story

The Blaze 

The New York Post

The Daily Beast 

The Today Show

UK Daily Mail 

The Consumerist Magazine

The Guardian 

World Magazine

Christian Examiner 

Yahoo News

CBS News

Washington Times 

Toronto Star

Inside Edition

Fox News

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.