On January 12, 2015, Garland County Sheriff’s Deputies and DPS entered Hal and Michelle Stanley’s home, demanding that Hal and Michelle wait outside in the cold while they searched the house and talked to the children. There were reportedly at least 30 people, including a SWAT team, Arkansas State Troopers, a coroner, a doctor, a dozen cars, a medical van, and a sniper (see more details at medicalkidnap.com) in a ditch allegedly aiming at the parents on the front porch to search for a mineral supplement that has not been approved by the FDA called MMS or Miracle Mineral Supplement.  Supposedly this is such a dangerous supplement that if found in a home, it would be cause to remove all the children from the home without any explanation, warning, or charge, and to keep these children in foster care for an indefinite period of time . . . or so goes the reasoning behind the Human Services agents and their department. Sounds a lot like Justina Pelletier’s nightmare all over again. According to Hal, he was the only one in the family taking the supplement orally and says that the main use of it was as a water purifier for the water they used to hydrate their vegetable garden.

Before I chose to hit the “Submit” button and let this post go out over the www, I called the Arkansas Department of Human Services to get their side of the story. I told them I was about to blog about this, and I needed the facts from both sides. I spoke to Amy Webb (501-682-8946), the media relations person and the response was “We can’t talk about a specific ongoing case”.  I asked her to speak theoretically about any family having toxic chemicals in their home such as bleach or drain cleaner (see argument below), and would those substances be so toxic that the children would have to be taken away? She said she could not speak to a hypothetical situation. She wanted to assure me that this was not about home-schooling and they do their best when they take home-schooled children out of a home that they continue their home-schooling in a foster home, but when asked about the Stanley’s she said she could not speak about a specific ongoing case (they are not being home-schooled).

Here is my main point however. Why are not thousands of people calling the authorities in Arkansas demanding they return those children immediately and offer an apology as well?  There should be hundreds of people within a radius of 50 miles showing up to protest outside the offices of DHS and the Sheriff’s Department.  Why aren’t there?  There should be thousands calling from across the country demanding the same so that the phone lines start melting.  Perhaps they are, I sure hope so, but I sincerely doubt it. There should be thousands of emails flooding the governor’s office asking him to step in and see that the children are returned back to their parents.

Mom and dad, if it can happen to the Stanleys, it can happen to you.  Wouldn’t you want 10,000 people coming to your aid to fight an overreaching, overzealous and out-of-control government agency?  Hal Stanley reported that the department won’t even let him pray with his kids during the monitored visits and as soon as he tries he is ordered to leave immediately, long before his time was up. (I asked Amy about this as well but again she said she could not comment on a specific ongoing case.) Prayer and Scripture reading are not allowed evidently. They must be as dangerous as MMS.

Perhaps you are thinking that the DHS has a valid case and that the children are in real danger. Here is a link to gather more information about MMS and the controversy over its effectiveness. Some will say that it is nothing more than a scam. Others will say it is a wonder drug that eliminates germs and viruses in their body.  I do not know. I went to Amazon.com to read the reviews of this product, (yes, it can be purchased via Amazon!!!! which indicates this must be a really dangerous product that should only be sold on the dark web) and either people hate it (no stars) or they love it (5 stars) and there don’t seem to be too many stars in the middle. But, none of that matters, not really. The question is, were the children in any danger? I keep bleach in the house for many purposes but when the grandkids are around, it is hardly within reach.  Even I have a hard time getting the childproof caps off, so I’m sure they would have a harder time getting the cap removed, that is, if they could get to the bottle in the first place.  Then again, I don’t trust the childproof locks. If I need help opening one of them I just might turn to my two grandsons, Luke or Wyatt, and say “hey buddies, can you help grandpa open this silly top?” It would of course come open within seconds, but that’s why the bleach, drain cleaner and hydrogen peroxide are kept out of reach. So why isn’t the DHS arresting me for having those products in my home?  They should. I’ll call them up and reveal to them my nefariousness and sinister motives.  I am really a dangerous grandpa having toxic chemicals in my home designed to keep it germ free. Please report me.

Hopefully you are getting the picture. THIS IS ALL INSANE! A Bible believing family has been torn apart and their children will suffer significant psychological damage because of it. Perhaps DHS feels the trauma of separation is minimal and thinks that their intervention is the lesser of two evils because what they are doing is in the best interest of the children. But, according to the family attorney there was never any physical abuse and he also states the children were examined immediately by a physician and found to be in perfect health with no indications of any physical abuse whatsoever. If parents do not rally and protest over these incursions into parental rights, this nanny state nonsense (wow, that sounds way too tame) will only get worse and spread to more departments in more cities across our country. It is not nanny state-ism.  It is blatant criminal activity called kidnapping only with the veneer of semi-legality. I am serious. These parents are guilty before being proven innocent, or so it appears by the actions of DHS.

If you are at all concerned about what I have just written, please take action, would you? Please help stop this madness, and then listen in to my sermons on the Book of Daniel to hear how a 14 year old was also taken hostage and deported from his family 2600 years ago and how he managed to survive and thrive in a foreign land where God was hated and God followers were killed. Does this sound like what is happening in many countries around the world today? It may soon be here and we will need God’s wisdom to know what to do and then the faith to do it.

Here’s my caveat. Just possibly there might have been something truly sinister going on in the Stanley home that I am not aware of such as sexual abuse, in which case I am glad we have government agencies we can turn to for the protection of innocent children, but nowhere in any of the news reports has such an accusation been made. If those unspoken charges are made and can be proven, then I take everything back, it’s just a department doing their job.  I took the time to listen to the elder son’s take on this who says his parents could be better parents and could learn some lessons through all of this (and indeed if they are humble, godly people they should always learning) but nowhere in the clip did he say there was abuse and I did not hear from anything he said, anything that would give me cause to remove the children from the home.

Here are phone numbers and email addresses that you can use to contact the authorities in charge.

The family has requested that the public call the following people:

• State Police Headquarters: 501-767-8836
• Kathy Finnegan 501-767-8550 (head investigator at State police department of our case.)
• DHS Department 501-321-2583 on menu choose Dept. of Children and Family
• Garland County Sheriff office Main Office Phone: (501) 622-3660 ask why did Mike Write (Wright?) make the decision to hold these kids.
• Judge Wade Naramore, (501) 622-3770 who is presiding over the case in Juvenile Court and ruled that the children must remain in state custody. (Email address listed here – Circuit Court Division II .)