Church Spared Faith Healing Death Damages

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The state appeals court on Tuesday overturned a $9.15-million award against the Christian Science Church for the death of a boy whose mother treated his diabetes with prayer.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals’ 2-1 decision said the Boston-based First Church of Christ, Scientist, does not have to pay $9 million in punitive damages or $150,000 in compensatory damages to 11-year-old Ian Lundman’s father.

The church’s spiritual healing is protected by the Constitution, and the church did not act in “deliberate disregard” of Ian’s rights, the ruling said.

However, the court upheld $1.5 million in compensatory damages against Ian’s mother and stepfather, Kathleen and William McKown, and two practitioners they hired to provide spiritual treatment. The McKowns had a duty to protect the boy from harm, and the practitioners should have overruled the parents’ wishes and sought medical help, the panel said.

The court recognized “that all of the Christian Science defendants in this case had acted in good faith,” church spokesman Victor Westberg said in Boston.

Lundman sued the church and five members, saying Ian could have been successfully treated up until two hours before his death on May 9, 1989, after he lapsed into a diabetic coma.

The award was the first successful civil verdict against the 116-year-old church.