Gullibility, greed and the US legal system.

by Feòrag

United States: When both Charlie and Red Wolf draw my attention to a story, you know it must be good, and this one is a cracker.

A televangelist is being sued by her own family because her brother died of cancer after he decided to rely on his imaginary friend rather than medicine for a cure.

Darlene Bishop has published a book, Your Life Follows Your Words, in which she claims that she had been cured of breast cancer through prayer, and that her brother, Darrell "Wayne" Perry, had been healed of throat cancer using the same method. Perry died of the disease about 18 months ago. The book was published at a time when Perry's cancer had been in remission for over a year, although it is still on sale.

His children, Bryan, Justin, Olivia and Christian, have issued a lawsuit for wrongful death against Mrs Bishop because they claim she persuaded Perry to stop chemotherapy and rely instead on God's healing. They contend in legal depositions that at the moment Mrs Bishop and her brother were touring the country preaching about the miracle of his recovery, they were both aware that he had been advised by doctors that his illness was terminal.

Bishop denies the allegation and wrote in her blog (December 9th entry - permalinks are obviously far too complicated):

They are claming that I talked my brother Wayne out of going to the doctor when he learned of his throat cancer. I would NEVER EVER EVER tell someone to not go to the doctor. As a matter of fact I encouraged him to listen to the doctors, but he refused surgery saying he would rather die than have his voice box removed.

Presumably the family do not consider it likely that a 55-year-old religious man actually has a mind of his own.

Evangelist sued for claiming that God heals—The Independent, 2nd January 2007; Tele-evangelist sued over 'God can heal' claim—The Guardian, 2nd January 2007.

Tags: Christianity, religion, United States