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“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.” Rita Rudner

All of the articles and videos from News Channel 5 written by Phil Williams are worth watching and reading. He is truly a long-time expert on this cult. I have included just 3 videos, but there are more worth watching in the linked article.

This one came as no surprise. In November, TWW looked at Gwen Shamblin with the help of some former members, Stephen and Kristy Hord, and two documentaries linked in the following posts.

• Weighing In on Gwen Shamblin Lara’s “Cult:” What Went Down With Weigh Down.
• Weighing in on Spiritual and Emotional Abuse in Weigh Down’s Cult-like Remnant Church: It’s the Same Old, Same Old.
• The Way Out to Freedom: Help for Those Abused in Cults and Churches by Stephen and Kristy Hord, Former Members of The Remnant

Elizabeth Hannah

When I spoke with the Hords, I remember feeling dissatisfied with one missing piece of the puzzle. Where were her kids in all of this? Her daughter, Elizabeth Hannah, lost her husband in the plane crash that took Shamblin and her husband. She is now stragely the de facto head of the Remnant, which appears to be puttering along. According to the Hords, Elizabeth seemed missing in action and but is now featured on the Remnant website. I highly recommend that you read her rather bizarre letter. Elizabeth continues to appear emaciated in the pictures I see of her, but I bet her mother would be proud.

In Elizabeth’s theology, the followers of Shablin’s theological meanderings are doing just fine.

Leaders are pure, husbands are kind like Christ, women are respectful to their husbands, and children obey their parents and find happiness in doing so. A place where members could lay down any sins, any addictions, or any worldly desires and have hearts free to love only God. We pulled out to see if that kind of Christ-based church could really exist… and we found that not only could it be done, it is continuing to be done here at Remnant Fellowship, over twenty years later.

…The families are strong, and the children could not be happier and more joy-filled! (And praise God, the children in our church families will not be trapped by worldly addictions that our generation fought to come out of.) We have actually found freedom

And as if that wasn’t enough, she believes they have no pride or gossip in their assembly of the pure.

People in our church have laid down anger, drugs, anxiety, cigarettes, anti-depressants, gossip, pride, over-shopping, over-drinking, over-eating, over-gaming, sexual lusts—any addictions in the heart that separate us from putting God first in our lives.

Yeah, right…No anxiety or pride? I believe that is a lie which makes me believe she is either delusional or out of touch. Oh, that ‘s right. She only phones in her talks…

Michael Shamblin tells his side of the story, which isn’t pretty.

Michael Shamblin said:

‘I look back on my life and go, ‘What were we doing? What was I thinking?

You must link to YouTube (Click on the line that says to Watch on YouTube) to watch this next video Please do it if you want to understand the total weirdness of Shablin’s divorce and remarriage to “Tarzan.”

News Channel 5 posted, ‘What were we doing?’ Gwen Shamblin’s son breaks silence about life inside her Brentwood ‘cult.’ This was written by Phil Williams, who followed this group for over twenty years.

Gwen Shamblin, who began her career with a diet program that she called the Weigh Down Workshop, was the focus of NewsChannel 5 investigations in 2001 and 2004.

Two years ago, an HBO Max documentary series — “The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin” — suggested, “how members of Remnant behave is a bit like Handmaid’s Tale.” The series also explored her controversial marriage to actor Joe Lara.

Yet, throughout all the controversies, Michael Shamblin was the one person who I firmly believed would one day have a story to tell.

Michael told Williams that the Remnant viewed him to be the ‘devil incarnate’ as he pursued this story for two decades.

Michael began to move away from the Remnant. He finally left after his mother’s death According to Williams:

Michael and I had connected on Twitter more than a year ago when he followed me from an account in the name of Michael S. Black. That’s an identity he’s now trying to establish professionally, creating profiles on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“The Michael S. Black type of thing is more of me. It’s a person who’s tired of being used and abused from Gwen Shamblin.”

Why Michael came to believe he was in a cult and exposed the underbelly?

Phil Williams wrote Secrets of Remnant Fellowship: ‘I’m going to say this, and the people of Remnant are not going to like this.’ Based on the previous interview, here are some allegations that Shaamblin kept notes on her followers.

• A “guidance stats” sheet that tracked the marital situations of certain members, how they were doing on their weight, and personal issues with which they were dealing (including lust).
• Instructions that certain members needed to “have their weight reported once a month” and entered into the guidance system.
• Dates and times that members signed onto Remnant webcasts — in one case noting that a member “usually has it going in the other room type thing and not necessarily listening.”
• A text noting that a member would need leadership permission to have a Facebook account, while another suggested the need to check a woman’s Instagram.
• Gwen Shamblin notifying her team that a female had been “monitored” by fellow members and Gwen was “saying yes to her request to return to church.”
• Documentation that a Remnant wife was “not completely under the authority and questions” her husband, that she had confessed to being “anti-authority and always having a better idea.”
• A note that another Remnant wife had been counseled to “STOP controlling and driving her husband insane,” that she needed to “just put the jeans on that he wants her to wear.” The woman was told that her husband “was starting to look at other women” and that “she’s making that happen.”

What does he say about his sister?

As for his sister, that was the one area where he was very protective.

He said he has enormous compassion for his sister — after all, she lost both her mother and husband in the plane crash.

Remnant still talks about her as their leader, although she only phones in her messages — instead of delivering them in person.

That is the most interesting part of this interview, in my opinion. Apparently, Elizabeth doesn’t come to the church. She merely phones in her messages. So, let’s all guess how long it will be before she leaves the church. It is my opinion that she is in a state of shock since she never expected to be the heir in such a swift manner. If she is still getting money from the church to maintain an upscale Nashville lifestyle (and I bet she is), she will keep making those ‘godly’ phone calls and ensuring she is underweight on the BMI scale until the dollars dry up. Then, she will earn more money “telling her weighty” story, which will involve a stay in a clinic for those with eating disorders.