When Jacqueline Crank, above, was convicted in 2012 for child neglect after choosing faith healing rather than medical help for her cancer-stricken daughter, the case drew attention to a Tennessee “spiritual treatment” law, enacted in 1994, that that protected faith-healing believers from prosecution.

The reason Crank was prosecuted because she went down the “wrong” healing path.

The Tennessee law says that a child shall not be considered abused, neglected or endangered solely because the child’s illness is treated with prayer rather than surgical or medical care. The law shields parents and others from prosecution if a child:

Is being provided treatment by spiritual means through prayer alone, in accordance with the tenets or practices of a recognized church or religious denomination by a duly accredited practitioner.

Crank’s “mistake” was to involve an unaccredited healer: Ariel Ben Sherman, who called himself the “spiritual father” of 15-year-old Jessica Crank, who died ten years earlier from Ewing’s Sarcoma. Testimony showed Sherman was accredited by the Universal Life Church, which will accredit anyone who fills out an application.

Crank testified in court that even after Jessica died, she and others prayed and laid hands on the girl in an attempt to resurrect her.

Sherman was convicted along with Crank of misdemeanor neglect in 2012. Both appealed the conviction, but Sherman died before the appeal was complete.

Crank’s attorney, Gregory P Isaacs, pictured above with Crank, said his client had continued to fight her conviction despite her very minor sentence (11 months and 29 days, suspended to unsupervised probation) because she did not want others who rely on faith healing for their children’s illnesses to be prosecuted as she was. He added:

She was treated very harshly by the criminal justice system. She was charged with a felony and given a high bond. They took her daughter away, and her access was limited as her daughter was battling cancer and dying.

Isaacs said Crank did not neglect her daughter.

She wanted to heal her in the way she thought was best.



Well, Tennessee’s exemption to the state’s child abuse and neglect statute that protects some faith healers but not others is now to be scrapped.

According to this report, a repeal bill, Senate Bill 1761, was sponsored by Senator Richard Briggs, above, a cardiac surgeon, and Representative Andrew Farmer, a lawyer. It won unanimous Senate approval in March and an 85-1 vote last Thursday in the House and now goes to Governor Bill Haslam, who’s expected to sign it into law.

Briggs said representatives of two groups that he wouldn’t identify came to talk with him against repealing the exemption.

They were arguing both on religious and parental rights, that even if a child dies, the parent has a right to do what they want to do. I told them they had just made a great case for abortion, because the right to life does not stop at birth. The right to life is for the entire life. Part of your parental rights, duties and responsibility includes obtaining medical care when your child needs it.



One of the groups changed their mind and supported the bill. The other didn’t.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn