The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin

One way that cults control people's thinking,

it's really simple.

They teach you to minimize

parts of the story that don't fit.

They teach you to deny parts of the story that don't fit.

They're operating inside of

a belief system that demands at certain times,

you be brutal for God.

Minimize denial.

Rewrite the narrative.

Testing, one, two, three, testing.

Don't look at the lens.

Don't look at the--

I see headlights, I see headlights.

Is this okay for you?

Yeah.

How has it been because you're, you know,

the leader of a church in the south

which is maybe a little bit conservative

and you're a woman. How is that for you?

Like, how has that been?

Again, if you're a public figure or if you're in

a role that maybe has been predominantly male driven,

then you're going to be under scrutiny.

The internet, for all public figures,

created a dynamic that all public figures

had to start trying to digest,

absorb and learn how to handle.

That's why it's important to eventually visit

original websites or get to the-- get to the bottom of it.

So, honestly, what do I say about negativity?

I'm all the better for it.

Go ahead and introduce yourself for us.

I'm Gwen Shamblin and founder of Weigh Down Workshop

and then leader and founder of Remnant Fellowship Churches.

I'm actually very moved by it.

I follow it and I try to imitate

everything that I can out of her

and hopefully pass it down to the next generation.

Because what she's teaching and preaching

and living would change America if they would follow suit.

I help a lot of women and marriages, you know?

Real believer in-- in

the women having their role and just letting the men be men.

And how fun it is to be, you know,

submissive and all that kind of stuff.

To play the role of a woman is beautiful.

One of the things that I couldn't stand

was the sound of his voice.

In the very first class or two, Gwen introduced as

"You fall in love with what you focus on."

I focused on his voice instead of turning from it.

And so then I fell in love with his voice.

It wasn't just the weight loss.

But it was like, I started having answered prayers

and I started having joy come back

and I started, like, talking sweet to my children,

instead of being angry with them.

What Weigh Down really is and what's going on in the churches

is a constant inventory of what's inside you.

Look, Candace, we just made it through a Thanksgiving meal

and didn't eat at all.

I-- this was my best one ever.

We did it, yay!

Gwen with this reality show wanted to soften

the image that she already has had

at being a stringent, striving prophet.

She wanted, of course, to come

across as being someone that you

could like, you could trust.

Someone who's just an ordinary

person like everybody else.

I don't remember the number of homes

but I-- I want to say that 140 homes I have remodeled,

I mean, 140 families, but then they've moved several times.

So we flipped, you know, a lot of houses.

I just want to say, I learned everything from this woman.

I got in there and it just rocked my world.

You flipping everything around and having this there, anyways.

The freedom, I think that-- I think it's--

the freedom of not tearing something apart and--

and putting it back together.

We're going to take the wood

all the way to the end of the hallway.

Yeah, I'm trying to make it all consistent.

And everything's being repainted, so praise God.

Why do they need more footage

of whatever it is that they do on a daily?

Miss Gwen doesn't do anything, first off.

She wakes up, she prays

and she might take care of her grandkids.

But truly, what do you do that you need a reality show for?

That lets you know that it's a fake ass church.

Remnant Fellowship's entire existence

is based upon maintaining an image.

After the premiere of the documentary,

they have labored long and hard

by mobilizing every means at hand to compel people,

to testify how real everything is.

Welcome to Remnant Fellowship.

A church family that was established in 1999

and has been active and strong ever since.

This truly is a place of peace and joy and love.

I would say one of the hallmark distinctions

between the children at Remnant Fellowship Church

and other children that I've seen

is that the parents are taught to take care of their children.

And to put their needs above their own.

I've never been body shamed.

I've never been told what to

look like. I've never been told

a weight that I had to be.

I've only been met with love and a genuineness.

Yes, I saw the videos.

That whole response is bullshit.

And I've said this before and I'll say it again

and I will say it to my last breath.

If so many people are coming forward

and saying they're traumatized by an organization,

how dare you tell us we're lying.

If you are truly doing what you think God wants you to do,

then you would take that information and reflect on it

and make the change necessary, not go on the defensive.

One other thing that I'd like to touch on

as we talk about people coming in and losing weight

or gaining weight is that everybody's different.

So God made us all different.

And so we have big, sturdy, muscular people.

We have thin, wispy people.

We have just all kinds of people.

Otis Rickman put out this little video

that everybody's body is different, right?

And that nobody gets shunned, or shamed, or whatever.

When his wife was sat out of the church

because she had gained weight.

So that's a lie.

It's the goddamn remix.

And God forbid that you were somebody that was, like,

on the national stage or featured in anything.

If you gained weight

after that, baby, they would hide you

better than the KFC secret.

And I swear for God.

That is the absolute truth.

That's what-- that's what happened.

My husband has known about my history with Remnant

and everything before that.

I thought I'd shown him pictures of Gwen Shamblin

before, but sitting down to watch the documentary,

he saw Gwen and he goes, "That's her?"

And I said, "Yeah, that's Gwen."

He goes, "I could never follow someone like that.

Are you kidding?"

And that is the general public's take on it.

I can't fault them for that thinking,

but where it gets dangerous, as a lot of people say,

"Well, I'm not stupid, I wouldn't do that."

And that is so unfair because I'm not stupid either.

Don't look at us and judge us for being

a part of this church, you know?

People come to Christ in different ways.

And especially for my black people.

Okay, so it's a white church.

It's a church that's full of white people.

Get over it.

I didn't go to the church because it was

a church full of white people.

I went to the church because I wanted to have

a group of like-minded people.

I wanted to have a better relationship with God.

And these people just happened to be white.

What people need to understand is that everybody is vulnerable.

At a certain point in your life when you're a little bit low

or you're in a time of transition

and the right leader comes along

with the right message, catching you at the right moment,

you could be vulnerable.

Frank?

I think I was nervous to speak up for years

because you know, Gwen was quick to seek legal action.

But I think I just can't remain silent.

It's time that we heal.

It's time that our voices matter,

even if it's for one person.

I'm sure the other people's stories are more heart wrenching

than my story, because they were in it.

They were stuck. They got tortured.

I was there and I literally observed,

I saw what they did to people.

Sitting in this chair was probably one of

the most difficult things I have ever done.

I feared it.

I got physically sick over it.

What are people, where I live, that have known me forever,

but don't really know this about me...

What're they gonna say?

You know, because when you think of somebody involved

with a cult, you think of a crazy person.

I don't feel as triggered as I thought as I would be,

because I feel that it has taken everything that I have