Darlene Bishop

The religious beliefs of an Ohio televangelist should protect her from a lawsuit alleging she caused the death of her brother by persuading him that the power of prayer would be enough to cure his cancer.

In her book “Your Life Follows Your Words,” Darlene Bishop quotes the Bible verse, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” The co-pastor of a Monroe, Ohio, church and host of the TV show “Sisters” also claims God miraculously “healed” her of breast cancer.

But according to an unusual wrongful-death suit, Bishop's belief in faith-based healing had a fatal effect on her brother, country music songwriter Darrell “Wayne” Perry, after he was diagnosed with throat cancer and moved from Tennessee to her Ohio mansion on a $2.6 million horse farm so she could care for him.

“Wayne relied on Defendant Bishop to his detriment, as she tried to create a miracle by persuading Wayne to rely on her rather than the [medical] experts,” the complaint, filed by Perry's four children in Butler County (Ohio) Court of Common Pleas, says.

Perry, who wrote songs for such artists as Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, died in May 2005 at age 55. His sister, the suit alleges, had “encouraged Wayne to go to God instead of going to the hospital.”

As a result, the cancer allegedly went from treatable to terminal. By the time Perry finally agreed to chemotherapy, his son Justin Jones told the New York Times, the tumors in his throat had swollen to the size of tennis balls.

Perry's children have also accused Bishop in probate court of mismanaging his estate. She has denied the wrongful-death allegations on her Web site, saying she would “NEVER EVER EVER tell someone to not go to the doctor,” and raised a First Amendment defense.

“Plaintiffs repeatedly attack defendants for their religious beliefs and for their faith in God,” she says in a counterclaim.

Bishop's credibility is certainly suspect –- she has admitted in a deposition that no doctor ever diagnosed her with cancer. And the Minnesota Court of Appeals has found liability in the case of a Christian Scientist who failed to seek medical care for a diabetic child.

“The right to hold one's own religious beliefs cannot include the right to persist to act in conformity with those beliefs to the point of imminent danger to a child,” it said in Lundman v. McKown, 530 N.W.2d 807 (1995).

But in a case which is more on point, the Illinois Court of Appeals found the First Amendment a bar to liability in the death of an adult who was cared for by a Christian Scientist. Adjudication of the case would require “a searching inquiry into Christian Science beliefs and the validity of such beliefs,” the court explained in Baumgartner v. First Church of Christ, 490 N.E.2d 1319 (1986).

The Perry children's claim requires intrusion into Bishop's beliefs and the plaintiffs do not allege that their father was anything less than a competent adult who chose to forego medical care out of his own free will.

“I’m going to show Sissy that I can be healed just like she was,” one of his ex-wives quoted him as saying.

By Matthew Heller
1/7/07