Gwen Shamblin Lara's Remnant Cultism
Gwen Shamblin Lara was the founder of the "faith-based" weight loss program called the Weigh Down Diet as well as the new religious movement based upon it, the Remnant Fellowship of Franklin, Tennessee. Feted in the religious and secular media for the weight loss testimonials she had extensively collected and documented in glitzy promotional ads since the mid 1980's, Lara's movement was at one time present in thousands of churches across the United States. Her glory days have long ago ended and a little over a thousand faithful still hold fast to her precepts. The story behind her meteoric rise and fall into sectarianism is a cautionary tale for our time.
The tribes of "Remnant Saints" as she called them exude an enthusiastic practicality, inviting spirituality and seemingly inclusive and welcoming community focused on losing weight through embracing the principles of her Weigh Down diet program and the Remnant spirituality that reinforces it. Believing her "Message" to be a foundational revelation inspired of God, solely on the dubious "success" of weight loss and alleged "healing" of families, marriages and personal sanctity, thousands have become part of a "Remnant Nation" within our nation, claiming absolute approval and favor with Him.
But for all of Remnant's zealous piety they cannot hide the irrefutable evidence that Spiritwatch Ministries has compiled since 2002 revealing that their movement is essentially an abusive cult and Shamblin is its' authoritarian cult leader. Her weight loss business model ultimately requires unquestioning commitment to her cultic church's micromanagement of their lives. The religious busywork Shamblin fills her disciples' lives with is grotesquely called "mere Christianity" by them as a blatant cloak for their graceless legalism. The cheery yet abusive control of those who join her "Jerusalem" Remnant culture at her Tennessee stronghold or online is a classic study of cultic mind control, spiritual deception and shattered lives at its worst.
Tens of thousands of their non-Remnant family have found this out the hard way at their tragic expense.
Our exposes have truthfully documented this and Lara's legal efforts to silence them as slander have failed over and over. Spiritwatch Ministries remains committed to getting the truth told about the dark side of an antichristian cult flourishing in one of the buckles of the storied "Bible Belt" in the Southeast United States.
This page presents the online information and analysis of Shamblin's cultic worldview we've amassed over the past 20 years .. and so much more remains to be told. We are not responsible for the content of third party sites as presented here: they are offered for informational purposes and alternative perspectives which bring to light how the cultism created by Gwen Shamblin is deceiving and destroying lives, relationships and families across the nation.
S P I R I T W A T C H A R T I C L E SRemnant Fellowship: A Brief History And A Dire Warning
An Unhappy Proximity: Cults, Cultism And Gwen Shamblin’s Remnant Fellowship
An Unhappier Singularity:The Ongoing Maelstrom of Gwen Shamblin Lara's Cultism
Testimonies Of Former Members Of Remnant Fellowship
Fear Christianity: The Religious Terrorism Of Gwen Shamblin's RF & WDWorkshop
The Smith Family Tragedy ReduxFellowship Of The Bling: How The Remnant Fellowship Cult Uses The Media
Videos On Remnant Fellowship and Gwen Shamblin They Won't Be Webcasting (Vimeo)
The "Do Scriptures" Twisted By Gwen Shamblin : An 8 Part Bible Study
The Trinity Studies: An Analysis Of Gwen Shamblin's "Essence Of God" Statement (15 Parts)
Ten Years Later, Remnant, It Really Still Is All About You (Tent Of Meeting post)
Where Is The Prophet Now After Hurricane Katrina? (Tent Of Meeting post)
Hopeless Lies And A Truth Without - Ex-member Poem
The Other Side Of Shepherding - Lawrence Pile
O F F - S I T E L I N K SCOURT TV Articles On The Joseph/Sonya Smith Murder Trial (Archived)
Offsite Links On Gwen Shamblin, WDW & The Remnant Fellowship
Never Trust A Skinny Person - PDF
