May 1, 2011:

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“It Was Heavenly”

Last Sunday in my Easter sermon, I made a passing critical reference to "the testimony of little boys who go to heaven and come back to report to us what they have seen." Afterward, I realized many (most? all?) didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. But if I had been speaking in an evangelical church, most everyone would have known. Let me brief you.

Colton is the little boy who had a near-death experience when he was 4 years old during emergency surgery for a burst appendix. Doctors offered little hope he would survive. Not only did he live, but he says he went to heaven during the operation, met Jesus, John the Baptist, his great-grandfather whom he had never seen. Oh, yes, he also met a sister he didn’t even know he had because she had miscarried before he was born. Then he came back to tell his folks about the trip.

A book about Colton’s journey, "Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back" (Thomas Nelson, $16.99), is such a phenomenal best-seller that 3.4 million copies are in print and a re-printing is on the way. For the past three weeks it has been No. 1 on USA Today’s best-selling books list before dropping to No. 2 behind "Water for Elephants."

The book was written by the Rev. Todd Burpo, who has a small evangelical congregation in Imperial, Nebraska. It was co-written by Lynn Vincent, who collaborated with Sarah Palin on her best-seller "Going Rogue." Neither of these authors inspires much confidence in me about the veracity of the book. Blogs, not surprisingly, are alive with doubting Thomases. Personally, I would have been more convinced if Colton were the child of, say, atheist parents who never went near a church. Of course, the Rev. Burpo insists that it is all true. And, by the way, the book has made the Burpos millionaires though the family says they plan to donate a good deal of it to orphans and other charities. By the way, Colton’s memories of his trip are now fading away.

What to make of all this? Credulous people are always quick to pounce upon what they consider "proofs" of their beliefs. The "Shroud of Turin" nonsense has been around for years. I wonder if there are similar trips to heaven written by little Jewish or Roman Catholic or Mormon boys? Gasp, has there been such a trip by a little Muslim boy?!

History is full of religious visions reported by sincere as well as fraudulent people. In most cases, there is no way to challenge them. They convince those who want to believe in them and the rest of us are left cold. To me they have as much truthfulness as those folks who report that Elvis is still alive and they have met him. Now that’s something I could believe in. Not!

Love,
Pastor Dave