Good evening.
Tonight we have a story uniting a toxic pseudoscientific health cure with a cultic organizational structure that goes exactly where you think it will but with a twist you won’t see coming. That later but first, is a new cult leader on the rise in the US? That’s the question on many people’s minds tonight due to recent reporting from The Guardian.
The situation? Reporting from the UK’s online magazine The Guardian this week exposed possible big money connections with an industrialist who founded a network of private lodges in Idaho and Texas which are men-only and invitation-only, who is now speculating he may become a warlord following the collapse of America. This bizarre premonition was apparently delivered by Charles Haywood, creator of the Society for American Civic Renewal and wannabe-cult leader.
Here’s what happened: Recent investigation by Guardian journalist Jason Wilson, also reported on by Business Insider, reveals a secretive far-right men’s organization called the Society for American Civic Renewal and the strange man who appears to be funding and leading it.And all indications are he intends to grow this paramilitary group into a kind of apocalypse survival group which will hold power after the collapse of United States society.
Charles Haywood became immensely wealthy in the last few years when he sold his Indianapolis-based shampoo company in September 2020 for an undisclosed price. Based on the fact Haywood’s company was on track to do $45 million in revenue in the year before its sale, there is no question Haywood is now independently wealthy, a fact he has bragged about on his own website when he wrote he is “rich beyond the dreams of avarice and looking to cause trouble” while also referring to himself as ‘Maximum Leader.’ He has since started writing for and appearing on Far Right podcasts and blogs such as The American Mind and the New Founding podcast.
Haywood’s messaging seems to focus around the certainty of societal collapse and armed resistance to national governments. A recurring theme on his website is creating what he calls an “armed patronage network” or “APN” under Haywood’s “warlord” leadership so they can maintain order and structure when society breaks down. More than just a citizen-volunteer organization to help, Haywood has a more disturbing vision of “more or less open warfare with the federal government, or some subset or remnant of it.”
Not surprisingly, Haywood praised the actions of the January 6th Capital rioters as “pretty awesome” and says he’s a “huge fan of the electoral justice protest” which is how he describes the insurrection. He has since allied himself with an organization called the Claremont Institute, a group described as “reactionary conservatists.” Laura Field, a political theorist with the Washington DC-based Niskanen Center said,”some of the Claremont Institute’s leaders have taken on an apocalyptic view of America and think we’re already in a situation where our society is more conflict-ridden than we were before the civil war.”
While many Americans have expressed varying degrees of skepticism and pessimism on social media over the social and ideological thought divides in the United States, Haywood and the Claremont Institute take this entire matter much further, alarming even fellow conservatives such as columnist Rod Dreher, who wrote last December that Haywood is writing his blog posts from a “Midwestern Führerbunker,” a clearly disturbing reference to Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. This is not a hyperbolic comparative when one views the suggested readings posted in numerous articles on Haywood’s website, where he offers repeatedly positive references to pre-war Nazi Germany and how they had things going on the correct path under Hitler’s direction.
The Claremont Institute and Haywood’s Society for American Civic Renewal follow in the footsteps of other far Right, anti-government extremist groups such as The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, all of whom demonstrate classic cult characteristics. The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009, promote anti-government conspiracy theories and focus their recruitment efforts on former military, law enforcement and first responders. A number of Oath Keepers have been found guilty of seditious conspiracy related to the January 6th insurrection. The Proud Boys have themselves become more organized in structure, with membership levels, paramilitary training camps and banning masturbation in an effort to instill loyalty. Four Proud Boy leaders were also found guilty of sedition in connection with January 6th.
Apparently Haywood has invested in property, weapons, stocks and supplies so he and his followers can survive the coming apocalypse. He wrote,”At this moment I preside over what amounts to an extended, quite sizable, compound, which when complete I like to say, accurately, will be impervious to anything but direct organized military attack.” Haywood is actively recruiting what he calls “shooters” to operate, defend and administer his facility. He is now appearing on more podcasts to spread his message of future destruction, which he refers to as “spicy times to come.”
In times of socioeconomic stress, when the future is uncertain, bank accounts are sparse and even our weather seems to be turning against us, it is a certain fact that many people will look beyond authorities and societal structures for safety and security. This is exactly how predatory personalities and cult leaders gain a foothold because they sound to some like they are talking good sense. Authoritarian rule, proto-dictators and cult leaders never look as seductive or useful as they do when times are difficult and survival is uncertain. By revving up life concerns so they become terrifying fears and using other emotional influence techniques, such people make bad situations markedly worse, distract from positive and real solutions and position themselves as the ones who should be in charge. Yet history shows us these cults never accomplish their goals and almost invariably make matters far worse. Beware of con men selling certainty for you or your family and friends. We are sure to see more of this kind of thing in the coming months and years and it’s in our best interests to identify and dismiss such wannabe cult leaders before they gain enough support to actually pose a threat to the society around them. Charles Haywood is going around the country talking a good talk but he is not walking a good walk. Before investing your money, time, resources or energy in such a man, make sure you know exactly what you are committing to.
And for our second story tonight, we premiere a new segment we’re calling Accountability Watch, where we can focus on the actions being taken by local, state and national governments or official bodies to hold accountable those who abuse, assault or hurt others in the name of religion, cultic belief or for purposes of coercive control. And fittingly, our first story comes from our own backyard here in Colorado.
An all-too-common situation for former members and children raised in destructive cults is the experience of sexual assault or violations. Since the exposure of institutional coverups of child abuse in the Catholic Church in 2003 to the explosion of the #MeToo movement, public awareness about the gigantic problem of hidden sexual assault has risen and efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice have been initiated around the US. Often, states impose statutes of limitations for criminal and civil claims to be made, meaning victims only have so many years after the fact to bring charges against their assailants. The length of these time limits and the requirements around them vary greatly.
In 2021, the Colorado legislature passed Senate Bill 88, which gave sexual assault vicitms a 3-year window to bring suits against their assailants and the institutions that allowed their abuse regardless of the state’s existing statues of limitation. But in June, the state supreme court struck that law down, citing the constitution’s ban on retroactive justice. In a nutshell, the state’s constitution prohibits any laws which would allow for prosecution of acts committed which were not illegal at the time they were committed but which are later deemed illegal by statute. While there are certainly cases where this makes sense, this context is not one of them and this decision sparked outrage among those who put Senate Bill 88 into motion in the first place.
“Let’s just say it the way it was, these people were raped as children,” child sex assault survivor Ray Desser said. “This is about getting those perpetrators who are still in our communities off the street.”
Other states have passed laws giving victims of child sex assault from decades past a window to sue. Until 2022, child sex abuse survivors in Colorado had just six years after they turned 18 to file a lawsuit. Senate Bill 88 sought to change all that and give victims a second chance but that chance has now been taken right back away from them by a Supreme Court who may just be doing their job, but somehow miss the entire point of what the justice system is for when it comes to accountability.
However, this issue is not dead in the water. Quite the opposite, in fact. Since the state Supreme Court’s decision, Democratic state Sen. Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge, plans to ask the legislature next year to pass a resolution referring a measure to voters in November 2024 that would narrowly amend the Colorado Constitution to let child sex assault victims bypass the expired statute of limitations in their cases.
It’s not clear how closely the proposed constitutional amendment would track to Senate Bill 88. Danielson said those details haven’t been ironed out. As he put it, “There is no draft, it’s very early.” But Danielson is not the only one working on this. Senate Bill 88 had fully bipartisan support in its passage and those same legislators and public activists will be pushing hard to get the new constitutional amendment ironed out and on the floor within the first few days of the state’s next legislative session in January of next year.
The Catholic Church was an opponent of Senate Bill 88 and had no comment when contacted about this new effort to rejuvenate it. Public schools and local governments were also critics of the measure, saying it posed a major financial burden because of the legal costs stemming from how many lawsuits they would have to defend against. Just as an editorial comment, if there are so many backlogged cases of sexual assault that it would be a burden on the state to defend against them, that may not be as good a reason as someone thinks for not giving those victims the opportunity for justice. They also argued the measure was plainly unconstitutional, which turned out to have the agreement of the state Supreme Court. However, as the court itself said, the issue should be put to the voters and that is exactly what should happen next.
Whether they were in a destructive cult environment, raised in a predatory household, or were the victim of some other circumstances, it has become an all-too-common litany in the media that sexual assault survivors are simply unable to get their day in court or hold their attackers to account. A lot of people worked very hard to gain ground for these survivors yet the structures of justice in our country sometimes seem determined to squash the victims and leave the perpetrators free to commit violent crimes and atrocities against not just individuals, but whole groups. This behavior must stop and the only way that will happen is for law enforcement and our legislators to get real about the magnitude of the cult problem and the severity of response necessary to stop cults and predators in their tracks. We will be keeping a close eye on this Colorado constitutional amendment next year as well as identify and track other legislation at the state and federal level which targets coercive control by cult leaders and sexual predators. We anticipate we’ll have our hands full with some of that but look forward to it.
And for our feature segment this evening, we look at a Miami health guru, a toxicly dangerous product and the Cult of Bleach that was built around it.
The situation? A federal jury in Miami has found Mark Grenon, 65, and his three sons guilty of conspiracy to defraud the United States by distributing an unapproved and misbranded drug. The Grenons, all of Bradenton, Florida, manufactured, promoted, and sold a product they named Miracle Mineral Solution (“MMS”), a chemical solution they promoted for a laundry list of health benefits and medical cures which, in fact, turns into chlorine dioxide when ingested. Chlorine dioxide is a powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment and is a toxic poison to a human body. Yet the Grenons claimed that ingesting MMS could treat, prevent, and cure COVID-19. In fact, the FDA has not only not approved this for such use, but officially warned consumers not to purchase or use MMS for any reason, explaining that drinking MMS was the same as drinking bleach and could cause dangerous side effects, including severe vomiting, diarrhea, and life-threatening low blood pressure.
Before marketing MMS as a cure for COVID-19, the Grenons had claimed MMS could cure brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, leukemia and a host of other ailments. While these claims have no basis in fact, the Grenons successfully sold tens of thousands of bottles across the country. Authorities said in July 2022 that they had received reports of people requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and even dying after drinking the solution. The Grenons received more than $1 million from selling MMS.
A Miami federal judge ordered the church to stop selling the substance in 2020, but that was ignored.
And to add insult to injury, Grenon used religion as the vehicle to sell his product, incorporating his business under the name Genesis II Health and Healing, or Genesis for short, a religious entity created to avoid government regulation of MMS and to protect the Grenons from prosecution.
Genesis’ websites describe Genesis as a “non-religious church,” and defendant Mark Grenon, the co-founder of Genesis, has repeatedly acknowledged that Genesis “has nothing to do with religion.” He admitted he founded Genesis to “legalize the use of MMS” and avoid “going to jail.” MMS could only be acquired through a donation to Genesis, but as has been seen with other cultic institutions disguised as religions, the fixed donation rates were effectively just sales prices.
Earlier civil court efforts by the government attempting to halt the Grenons’ distribution of MMS were met with willful noncompliance and actual threats made by the family against the federal judge presiding over the case. They communicated that should the government attempt to enforce the court orders halting their distribution of MMS, the Grenons would “pick up guns and instigate a Waco.”
While the Grenon family is being prosecuted for their crimes, the origin story of MMS actually has its roots in a man named Jim Humble, a former Scientologist who claimed he discovered MMS in the jungles of South America. He also claimed to be a billion-year-old god from the Andromeda galaxy. Humble was also heard to claim in another video that he had “just treated 800 cases of HIV just recently in Africa, every one of them came out good.” Mark Grenon picked up on this narrative and became the “archbishop” of the organization, selling MMS at seminars. Believers said MMS is their religious sacrament and believe it will cure almost anything that is wrong with them. Eventually Humble distanced himself from his earlier curative claims and stated that MMS will not cure anything, yet that didn’t stop him from continuing to profit from its sales.
Unfortunately, even despite this exposure and prosecution, today if you search on Amazon.com or other online sales sites for “Miracle Mineral Solution,” a wide selection of products will appear which online reviewers say cure everything from asthma to arthritis. The problem is that the cure-all potion commonly known as MMS is, in essence, industrial grade bleach. And selling this toxic and sometimes deadly chemical concoction as medicine is illegal.
It didn’t help when former President Donald Trump in 2020 floated disinfectant as a possible Covid treatment, causing MMS sales to skyrocket and incidents of dangerous ingestion of these bleach products to rise in hospitals across the country. “It is designed to kill bacteria, pathogens, germs,” said Richard Parsons, a toxicologist at King’s College London. “It will do that to human tissue.”
The idea was swiftly debunked, but existing sellers seized on the global attention, catapulting a fringe operation into a big business where sellers on mainstream shopping sites like Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Poshmark openly sell pseudoscientific garbage such as MMS. One of the largest was the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, which court records show tripled their monthly sales to about $120,000 after Trump’s endorsement.
In 2020, 4% of Americans reported drinking or gargling diluted bleach, according to a CDC poll conducted of about 500 online participants.
Their trial is scheduled for later this year, but the Grenons continue to tout MMS from their prison cells via the messaging app Telegram. Meanwhile, a new array of salespeople have popped up to peddle the dangerous wonders of MMS including Andreas Kalcker, who is accused of promoting a bleach-based Covid cure that was involved in the death of a five-year-old boy in Argentina.
Though sellers may go to lengths to make their products appear legit, it’s clear many customers are buying MMS because they think it’s a cure-all. In online reviews, Amazon customers cited MMS as an antidote for myriad medical uses, from detoxification to treating colon infections. One Etsy customer reported using it to help their paralyzed dog.
The sad truth is that desperate people will turn to desperate remedies to cure what ails them. People cannot be blamed for looking for solutions to their problems, but they can most certainly take the time to cure their ignorance about the dangers of putting industrial-grade chemicals in their bodies. Warnings have been posted across news and social media for the last many years about toxic, pseudoscientific nonsense being positioned as miracle cures. There is not and never has been such a thing as a “miracle cure.” They simply do not exist. But people who are so desperate that they will literally drink bleach are people who have given up on facts and are willing to believe anyone who will tell them what they want to hear. This is so true that millions and millions of dollars were wasted by such individuals, gorging the bank accounts of immoral, unscrupulous con artists such as the Grenons or Jim Humble. Such predators are a dime a dozen and they will not hesitate to profit off of not just pain or misery but actual death. It is up to us as responsible consumers to use critical thinking and the technology and tools at our disposal to fact check these con men before we become their marks. As the old saying goes, “Caveat emptor”, which is Latin for ‘let the buyer beware.’ As it was, so it is and so it shall always be.
Thank you for tuning in tonight. At Critical Cult News, it is our intention to bring you news from the cult world every week in an effort to not just inform but educate and hopefully prevent the spread of cultic beliefs and ideas. It’s not possible to live a flawless life and be a human being, but it is possible to learn from our mistakes. News are events that have happened and are reported on, but they only have value to us to the degree we can learn from the experience of others so we don’t repeat their mistakes or bad fortune.
Have a great evening and best of luck to you out there. Good night.
Sources:
Church of Bleach
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mark-grenon-sons-convicted-selling-fake-covid-19-cure-online-church/
https://abc7news.com/church-of-bleach-genesis-ii-2-health-and-healing/1578927/
Charles Haywood
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/22/charles-haywood-claremont-institute-sacr-far-right
Accountability Watch
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/lawmaker-explores-amendment-child-sex-abuse-law-ruled-unconstitutional/
https://coloradosun.com/2023/07/31/colorado-child-sex-abuse-constitutional-amendment/