For years now, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has been telling members to basically drink bleach to cure everything from cancer to HIV to Ebola. In 2016, ABC News even paid to attend a seminar hosted by church founder Jim Humble and exposed the place… but the church still exists.

Even the Department of Justice has gotten involved with this scheme, finding a man guilty of “selling industrial bleach as a miracle cure for numerous diseases and illnesses.”

This “church” should have been shut down a long time ago. It wasn’t. And this weekend, members are gathering at a hotel in Washington state to promote their “effective alternative healing.” The event’s organizer, Tom Merry, is even telling people that drinking the industrial bleach “could save your life, or the life of a loved one sent home to die.”

By exploiting peoples’ fears and distrust of modern medicine, they’re selling a dangerous substitute.

The “church” is asking attendants of the meeting to “donate” $450 each, or $800 per couple, in exchange for receiving membership to the organization as well as packages of the bleach, which they call “sacraments”. The chemical is referred to as MMS, or “miracle mineral solution or supplement”, and participants are promised they will acquire “the knowledge to help heal many people of this world’s terrible diseases”. In fact, MMS consists of chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach that is used both on textiles and in the industrial treatment of water. It has been banned in several countries around the world for use as a medical treatment.

In a promotional video for the event (around the 7:25 mark), an infant is shown drinking a cup of bleach to “cure” malaria. It’s unclear if that’s what actually going on, but the baby is screaming after being given the liquid.

Fiona O’Leary, a campaigner against pseudo science whose work helped to get MMS banned in Ireland in 2016, said she was horrified that the Genesis II Church, which she called a “bleach cult”, was hosting a public event in Washington. “This event is endangering people’s lives, especially children. We must protect vulnerable people from this dangerous quackery,” she said.

I don’t know why the event page is permitted on Facebook, or why the hotel is allowing them to gather there, or why local law enforcement officials haven’t put a stop to this already, but the event is happening as we speak, and there’s no telling how many people will be duped into drinking poison for their supposed well-being.

Blame the gullible people all you want, but when children and babies are involved, the organizers must be held responsible for the dangerous misinformation they’re spreading in the name of whatever-the-hell religion they belong to.

(Thanks to Daniel for the link)

