Genesis II Church and MMS: The Bleach Sold as a Sacrament

Who gets hurt by MMS?

The people who buy MMS are usually frightened. A child has been diagnosed with autism. A parent has cancer. It is March 2020 and nobody knows what Covid will do. Imagine someone in an online group posts a video of a kind man who calls himself a bishop. He says God has given the world a simple mineral, and it cures nearly everything. The doctors, he says, do not want you to know.

You want to believe him. He talks about Jesus. He calls the product a sacrament. He asks only for a "donation."

Here is what happens next, in the words of real people. In January 2008 the FDA received its first known adverse event report about MMS. The consumer wrote that after taking 10 drops, "I developed a racing heartbeat and nausea, which resulted in vomiting of what appeared to be a yellow acid." In June 2015 a parent who had given MMS to a daughter with flu told the FDA: "My daughter started to violently vomit and had severe diarrhea... My daughter could have died!!!" Both reports were obtained by Consumer Reports through the Freedom of Information Act and published on 14 May 2020.

The FDA's own warning, issued on 12 August 2019, lists what drinking these products has done to people: severe vomiting, severe diarrhea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration, and acute liver failure. The Justice Department says the FDA has received reports of people "requiring hospitalizations, developing life-threatening conditions, and even dying after drinking MMS."

The danger goes beyond the bleach itself. A sick person who trusts MMS may stop the treatment that would have helped. As the US Attorney in Miami said in April 2020, the distribution and use of products like this "may prevent those who are sick from receiving the legitimate healthcare they need."

What did the courts find about Genesis II Church?

The record is unusually complete: an FDA warning letter, a civil injunction, a criminal indictment, a jury verdict, sentences, an appeal and a Supreme Court petition. Here it is in order.

Why were Mark and Joseph not convicted of contempt? The Associated Press reported on 6 October 2023 that US authorities agreed to drop those charges "as a condition of their extradition from Colombia." The Eleventh Circuit confirmed that the extradition agreement prohibited prosecution on those counts.

The evidence at trial was vivid. The jury saw photos and video of "a dirty rundown shed" in Jonathan Grenon's backyard in Bradenton where MMS was made, with "dozens of blue chemical drums containing nearly 10,000 pounds of sodium chlorite powder" and thousands of bottles, according to the US Attorney's Office. The drums carried warning labels saying the powder was toxic, flammable and highly dangerous to consume.

The government also said the Grenons threatened the federal judge in the civil case, and warned that if the government tried to enforce the court orders they would "pick up guns" and instigate "a Waco." When Jonathan was arrested, prosecutors told the court, officers found multiple loaded firearms, including a pump-action shotgun hidden in a custom-made violin case (US Attorney's Office, 28 July 2022).

Was Genesis II a real church?

By its own description, no. The US Attorney's Office in Miami says Genesis's websites described it as a "non-religious church," and that Mark Grenon "has repeatedly acknowledged that Genesis 'has nothing to do with religion,'" and that he founded it to "legalize the use of MMS" and avoid "going [ ] to jail."

The Eleventh Circuit's opinion of 22 December 2025 records more of the government's trial evidence. According to that evidence, the organization was structured this way "[t]o get around [g]overnment regulation and to not go to jail." A Genesis newsletter from around its founding said: "So here it is, we are forming a church of health and healing. Now, that [is] not religion, that [is] health and healing."

The same newsletter then pointed to the Catholic Church as its model. As quoted by the court, it said: "Do you understand the power that a church has that has [not] given up its power? Look at the Catholics. Their priests have been molesting women and children for centuries and the governments have not been able to stop it. If handled properly, a church can protect us."

Catholics should read that sentence slowly. The abuse of children by clergy, and the cover-ups by some bishops, are real and grievous sins, and our page on Church scandals and cover-ups deals with them honestly. The Genesis founders looked at that wound and saw a business model: a religious label as a wall against the law. The Church's answer to its own scandals has been to demand more accountability and cooperation with civil authorities. Genesis wanted the reverse.

The vocabulary did the rest. Bottles of sodium chlorite became "sacraments." Sellers became "health ministers." Leaders became bishops: Jonathan Grenon introduced himself to a federal judge "as a pastor and bishop." Prices became "donations." Each word was chosen to make a drug sale sound like worship.

How did MMS make money?

The scheme was simple, and the religious language sat on top of an ordinary mail-order business.

• The "donation." Genesis said MMS could only be obtained through a donation. The Justice Department says the amounts "were set at specific dollar amounts, and were mandatory, such that the donation amounts were effectively just sales prices." Consumer Reports reported in May 2020 that chapters provided the mixture, which Genesis called a "sacrament kit," for a "donation" starting at $20.
• The cure-all claim. Before Covid, MMS was promoted for cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, autism, malaria, hepatitis, Parkinson's, herpes and HIV/AIDS. Prosecutors said in court that videos pitched it as a cure for 95% of known diseases (Associated Press, 6 October 2023).
• The pandemic spike. According to the government's July 2020 filing, as reported by Consumer Reports, Genesis averaged about $32,000 a month in MMS sales from April to December 2019. In March 2020, when it began promoting MMS as a Covid-19 cure, it took in about $123,000.
• The network. ABC News found in 2016 that Genesis held seminars to train "health ministers" sanctioned to sell MMS, Consumer Reports noted. When the website stopped taking orders under the court order, the government alleged that Mark Grenon directed an undercover FDA investigator to an "alternate" source.
• The total. The Justice Department says the Grenons sold "tens of thousands of bottles of MMS nationwide" and "received more than $1 million."

The cost of making it was tiny. Sodium chlorite powder from industrial drums, water and a bottle. The value came from the story: a sacrament from God, suppressed by doctors, offered by a bishop for a gift.

What do the Grenons say?

The Grenons have always said they are a church and that MMS is their sacrament. They represented themselves at trial and, the Associated Press reported, declined to speak during it.

At his first court appearance in July 2020, as quoted in his Supreme Court petition, Jonathan Grenon told the magistrate judge: "as a pastor and bishop, the First Amendment is being broken completely here... chlorine dioxide, which is our sacrament, there are clinical trials going on in the world... For them to be saying it's a drug, it's totally against our religious rights." His brother Jordan said: "We have been doing this for over ten years, helping people, curing people, and we witnessed people be cured with life-threatening disease with our sacrament." Jonathan told the court that the solution had cured his own MRSA infection, and: "I don't know nothing about the scientific background of this. All I know is that the evidence was there."

On appeal, the brothers argued that the prosecution violated their free exercise of religion and that the case should have been dismissed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Their federal public defender took that question to the Supreme Court in May 2026, arguing that a defendant without a lawyer should not lose the defence just because he never cited the statute by name.

Mark Grenon, now released, tells his story as persecution. A podcast episode published on 7 June 2025 describes him as a missionary who found that chlorine dioxide healed his family of MRSA in 2006, says the trial "trampled constitutional rights," and states that there were "no victims claiming harm." The episode page links to a fundraising page for his sons and says he continues "sharing his knowledge about healing protocols."

The courts answered those claims on the record. The trial judge ruled that whether the religious freedom law applied was a question of law, and told the brothers to bring a motion to dismiss if they wished to raise it. The Eleventh Circuit found "[t]he brothers never did." The jury was instructed that the First Amendment was no defence to the charged conduct. On victims, the sentencing reports adopted by the court included enhancements for the number of victims, for vulnerable victims and for the amount of loss. The Supreme Court declined to take the case on 5 October 2026, and the convictions stand.

Where are the Grenons now?

The Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, checked on 29 October 2026, shows:

• Mark Grenon: released on 4 September 2024.
• Joseph Grenon: released on 30 August 2024.
• Jonathan Grenon: in federal prison, projected release 25 April 2030.
• Jordan Grenon: in federal prison, projected release 29 March 2030.

The convictions did not end the movement. MMS is still promoted online, often as "CD" or the "chlorine dioxide protocol", names the FDA listed in its 2019 warning, and the 2025 podcast page about Mark Grenon links to Genesis channels and to a discount code for ingredients to make "CD". So the questions a reader needs to ask stay the same, whatever the label on the bottle.

What are the red flags of a miracle cure sold in God's name?

• It cures everything. A single product for cancer, autism, malaria and Covid. Real medicines treat specific conditions and list their side effects.
• The "side effects" are called healing. If vomiting and diarrhea are explained away as "detox", someone is protecting the product at your expense.
• A religious label on a chemical. "Sacrament", "ministry", "church" or "bishop" attached to something you swallow. Check who ordained the bishop and which church recognises him.
• A fixed "donation." A gift with a set price and no product without it is a sale. Genesis's "donations" were mandatory, the Justice Department says.
• Doctors are the enemy. Any pitch that tells you to hide a treatment from your doctor, or to stop prescribed medicine, is dangerous on its face.
• Regulators are "persecutors." An FDA warning or a court order is answered with talk of martyrdom instead of evidence.
• Instructions to give it to children. The FDA's August 2019 warning says parents "should not give these products to their children for any reason."
• Check the regulator. Search the product name with "FDA warning" before you buy. The warnings about MMS go back to 2010.

What does the Church teach about healing and medicine?

The Catholic faith holds prayer and medicine together, and has done so since the Old Testament. "Honor the physician with the honor due him, according to your need of him, for the Lord created him," says Sirach 38:1, and a few verses later: "The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them" (Sirach 38:4). The same chapter tells the sick to pray, repent, and then "give the physician his place" (Sirach 38:12). Prayer and the doctor work together.

The Catechism teaches that "life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God" and that "we must take reasonable care of them" (Catechism 2288). Choosing an untested bleach over proven treatment fails that duty, however sincere the hope behind it.

The Church does have a sacrament for the sick. In the Anointing of the Sick, the priest prays over the sick person and anoints him with oil, as St James instructed (James 5:14 to 15). Its first gift is spiritual: strength, peace and courage, union with the Passion of Christ, and forgiveness of sins. Sometimes God also restores bodily health. It is never sold. The sacraments, the Catechism says, are "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church" (Catechism 1131). No one can invent one, and no one can put a price on one.

Selling spiritual things has a name in the Church: simony, "the buying or selling of spiritual things" (Catechism 2121). It is named after Simon Magus, who offered the apostles money for the power of the Spirit. St Peter's answer still stands: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!" (Acts 8:20).

God does heal, and the Church takes miracles seriously enough to test them with doctors. Our page on how the Church verifies miracles explains how cures at Lourdes are examined by a medical bureau before anyone calls them miraculous. For how to pray for someone who is sick, with hope and without magic, read how to pray for healing.

MMS also belongs to a longer story. During the Covid lockdown, Jim Bakker offered Silver Solution on his television show and later settled a Missouri lawsuit over it. Decades earlier, Peter Popoff sold "miracle water." The pattern is the one Jesus warned about: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing" (Matthew 7:15). Our page on the biblical tests for false prophets sets out how to recognise them.

What should you do if someone you love is taking MMS?

1. If they are unwell now, get medical help. In the US, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 or emergency services. Tell the doctor exactly what was taken: sodium chlorite or chlorine dioxide.
2. Never give it to a child. If a child has been given MMS, speak to a doctor today, even if the child seems fine.
3. Talk with love. People turn to MMS out of fear and hope. Mockery drives them deeper in. Ask what they are afraid of, and offer to go to the doctor with them.
4. Show them the record. The FDA warnings, the Justice Department releases, and the court rulings are public. Let them read the Grenons' own words that Genesis "has nothing to do with religion."
5. Report harm. The FDA asks people to report adverse effects through MedWatch at 800-FDA-1088.
6. Pray with them. Ask your parish priest about the Anointing of the Sick for anyone seriously ill. It is free, and it is the Church's real sacrament for the sick.

Sources

• US Food and Drug Administration, "FDA warns consumers about the dangerous and potentially life threatening side effects of Miracle Mineral Solution", press release, 12 August 2019.
• US Department of Justice, "Justice Department Seeks to End Illegal Online Sale of Industrial Bleach Marketed as 'Miracle' Treatment for COVID-19", 17 April 2020.
• Consumer Reports, "Why Did It Take a Pandemic for the FDA to Crack Down on a Bogus Bleach 'Miracle' Cure?", by Ryan Felton, 14 May 2020, updated 8 July 2020.
• CBS Miami, "Florida Father, Sons Accused Of Selling Toxic Bleach As COVID-19 Cure Charged In Miami Federal Court", 8 July 2020.
• US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, "Leader of 'Genesis II Church of Health and Healing'... Extradited from Colombia to the United States", 28 July 2022.
• US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, "Leader of 'Genesis II Church of Health and Healing'... Guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States", 21 July 2023.
• US Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida, "Leaders of 'Genesis II Church of Health and Healing'... sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison", 6 October 2023.
• Associated Press, "4 members of Florida family are sentenced for selling fake COVID-19 cure through online church", 6 October 2023.
• US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, United States v. Jonathan David Grenon et al., No. 23-13478, unpublished opinion, 22 December 2025.
• Supreme Court of the United States, Jonathan David Grenon v. United States, No. 25-7507, petition filed 29 May 2026, docket entry "Petition DENIED", 5 October 2026.
• Deconstructing Conventional podcast, "Mark Grenon: Imprisoned, Poisoned, Debanked, Deplatformed, and Unstoppable", episode page, 7 June 2025.
• Federal Bureau of Prisons, inmate locator, records for Mark, Joseph, Jonathan and Jordan Grenon, checked 29 October 2026.

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