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

["Sharp Dressed Man" by ZZ Top playing]

I've known Joe

since I was 16 years old,

and he was 21 years old or something like that.

We met in acting class.

We were in acting class together for

I would say six years total,

and we used to rehearse 50 hours a week,

every single day.

Look what I found. Tarzan.

- Hi, Joe, how are you? - I'm fine, how are you?

He was "Tarzan in Manhattan."

It was a TV movie of the week.

He was 6'2", 6'3".

Blue eyes, gorgeous skin, gorgeous teeth.

Stunning.

Back then he would walk into a room

and women would just fall all over him.

- Okay. Here we go. - What are we talking about?

Well, let's just make it up here.

When he met Gwen,

I feel like he won the lottery,

and he also was cast in her production.

She honed in on him,

he saw an opportunity in her, and it was a match made in--

in Revenant Fellowship heaven.

God has taken 86 pounds off of me.

I have lost 53 pounds.

I have lost 50 pounds just following my wife.

She has lost 178.

I had sleep apnea. I had high blood pressure.

I had acid reflux.

I'm not on any medications anymore.

I don't have to use a machine to breathe at night.

I'm just free.

I've always looked for God's guidance,

and so apparently He was able to use me.

Even at a young age, I adored Him.

And so, He used me,

and what I do in this program

is teach people how to stop

bowing down to the refrigerator

and how to bow back down to Him.

We just thank you for this teaching

that has given us freedom

and kept our weight off all this time, God.

Do you think it's appropriate

for you to use the Holocaust...

- I believe that-- - ...to promote

- your weight loss plan? - I can give--I can give you--

Okay. That--that's enough. I think--let's just--

- Let's go. Let's go. - Okay.

What does the state of the church

have to do with weight loss?

The answer is everything.

I've known for some time that resistance

to doing the will of God was increasing in the church,

but we're headed for trouble,

and someone has got to warn the people.

Say hello, Joe.

Hello, Joe.

Joe was very attractive,

and his attitude that he didn't want you

made you more interested.

From 1984, Joe and I dated on and off.

There were red flags all over the place,

but when you see somebody who's so good-looking

and you want to be with them,

you push away the red flags.

I was young, you know, and I thought

that's what life was,

but life is not looks.

And that's a lesson for me,

and it's also a lesson for Gwen.

Joe was born in San Diego

and spent most of his life in California.

His mom married a very wealthy CEO of Wells Fargo Bank,

and he lived in Newport Beach,

and his stepdad had race cars and a plane,

and he was exposed to the rich lifestyle.

And he also dated women

that could fulfill his lifestyle needs.

There was a lady in our class,

Dorrie Forstmann was her name. I remember her.

Tall blonde, really beautiful lady,

and she was in her 50s.

I know that he moved into her house.

And she had bought him a Harley-Davidson.

Now, you've got to remember, he's not working.

I don't even actually know

how he paid for his acting classes.

She might have paid for them.

And something happened, so she--

either he cheated on her or something,

but she kicked him out

and lit that Harley-Davidson on fire.

And then he moved on to another one.

And he didn't get his own place

and start working at a job.

He moved into somebody else's place.

He bought a piece of land

in the desert next to Palmdale.

He lived in a double-wide mobile home,

smoked a lot of pot and took a lot of drugs.

He's had drug problems since he was 14, he said.

He was a recluse.

He's evaded taxes. I mean,

his whole life is how to evade paying anything,

but having a lifestyle of fun

and doing what he likes to do,

mostly his hobbies-- flying, falconry.

In 2007, I cut off all communication with him

and I was done, until December of 2008.

He called me up.

At that age, my biological clock was ticking,

and I still had hope, maybe, for him.

I fell for him again.

My daughter was born on November 29, 2010.

That's the best day of my life.

That's the best day of my life.

Oh, sweetheart, I love you.

- Miss you. - You know I love you, right?

- I love you, too. - And you're my mama.

She was so excited about

the prospect of living with him,

and she was happy when they moved to Nashville.

She was like, "Oh, we gotta get more furniture and stuff,

"but it's gonna be great.

And Joe's pursuing his country music career."

I'm thinking, when did he start that?

Our agreement was that

he would attempt his music career

until our daughter was of kindergarten age,

and at that point, we would relocate to Chicago

where I have a home,

I have 30 relatives within a 4-mile radius,

where I can find work, where he could find work.

When it came time to move,

he didn't want to move. He didn't want to work.

And in 2015,

in order stop me from taking our daughter to Chicago,

he filed with the police and the children's department

that I sexually abused our 4-year-old daughter.

And our little girl watched as the police took me away.

I was just thinking on the ride in the car, like,

"How could this be happening to me?"

They interviewed with many doctors,

the child, and they found out that he was lying.

She's so loving and protective of her daughter.

So, for him to do that,

I don't think that's a good person.

That's not...

a religious person.

That's not a spiritual person.

That's not a person with a conscience.

Since that day, he never looked at me

in my eyes again.

He was a handyman and belonged to

a networking group locally

that turned him onto the church,

and then he met

Gwen Shamblin.

She's a very wealthy woman, and so this was

a huge opportunity for him.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

- - We love you.

We love you.

He wants to become a country music star.

They have a recording studio

in Remnant Fellowship.

So, of course he would marry Gwen!

I really feel that he wasn't so much in love with her

as he was charming her to get what he wanted.

Because it was all about his music career.

And now that didn't happen,

so now he's got another career.

Hey, everybody. We want to welcome you

to "Life with Gwen and Joe."

I'm Joe. This is Gwen.

And we're here for another exciting show.

What are we gonna talk about today, darling?

- Well, today-- - To hear him talking

on his show, "Life with Gwen and Joe"

like he is some preacher with abundance of this

greatness in his life and some Gandhi,

it was just mind-boggling.

God--God is the ultimate architect,

the ultimate orchestrator of--of--

of the heart and the mind.

When I saw the tapes of him and Gwen,

I was rolling down laughing,

because he's acting like he's sincere,

like he's this Bible thumper, and he's not.