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

Good afternoon. Initial reports indicated

that a plane crashed into the water that a plane crashed into the water

just off the shore of the Fate Sanders recreational area.

We do anticipate search-and-rescue efforts We do anticipate search-and-rescue efforts

to continue through the night.

We will provide updates as we have them. We will provide updates as we have them.

The search continues The search continues

after a plane went down into Percy Priest Lake.

Investigators updated us just about an hour ago, Investigators updated us just about an hour ago,

and they told me that their rescue efforts and they told me that their rescue efforts

have now turned into recovery efforts.

Rutherford County officials

just confirmed the seven people on board

are all leaders at Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood. are all leaders at Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood.

This is a legal video deposition

of Gwen Shamblin on May 23, 2019. of Gwen Shamblin on May 23, 2019.

Court reporter, would you please swear in the witness. Court reporter, would you please swear in the witness.

Will you raise your right hand?

Do you swear or affirm

the testimony that you give in this matter the testimony that you give in this matter

will be the truth, the whole truth

and nothing but the truth?

- I do. - Okay.

What is your position with Remnant Fellowship? What is your position with Remnant Fellowship?

I am one of the leaders. I am one of the leaders.

Have any of the members of Remnant Fellowship Have any of the members of Remnant Fellowship

been asked to leave Remnant Fellowship been asked to leave Remnant Fellowship

because they're overweight

after being there for a long period of time? after being there for a long period of time?

No. No.

Have you ever shunned a member of your Remnant Fellowship

because they had not yet lost all of their weight?

Never.

Do you encourage members of the Remnant Fellowship

not to socialize with non-Remnant members?

No.

To your knowledge,

do any of the members of the Remnant Fellowship

consider you to be a prophet?

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

to promote your weight-loss plan?

- I can give you-- - Okay, that--that's enough,

I think. Let's go. Let's go.

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.

Brentwood is located

in the wealthiest county in Tennessee.

It feels safe and protected

from the harsh realities of the real world.

People sometimes refer to it as the Brentwood Bubble.

You grow up with the same people

from kindergarten through high school.

You know the community members.

Everyone goes to football games on Friday night

and goes to church on Sunday mornings.

There's a church on almost every corner,

I mean, kind of in the same way

there's a Starbucks on every corner.

Most everyone's on the same kind of class.

There's not a lot of racial diversity.

There's not a lot of diversity of any sort.

Because it's in that bubble, I think I am surprised

that more people don't know that live right there

about this place. You know?

The house that I grew up in and lived in for over 20 years

is about a mile from Remnant Fellowship Church,

so I drove by all the time.

It's surreal to just see it standing there in an open field.

There's a church next door,

so it just kind of flows and fits in with Brentwood.

You know, church after church.

And you would never guess that this church

was so different from all the others.

There are guesses

about how many people are members of the church.

We suspect it's around 2,000.

Most of the church resides in Brentwood,

and there have been quite a few families

who have relocated from out of state to Brentwood

just so they could be there at the church.

The heart of the church is in Brentwood.

Forty acres. Huge church. Beautiful church.

And members either share housing

or live very close to the church.

And Ashlawn is less than five minutes away.

Gwen Shamblin's Ashlawn plantation,

I think it's a seven-bedroom, 25-acre estate.

I mean, if you can park your helicopter there,

then you can probably imagine that it's fairly big.

It's right in the center of Brentwood

near the Franklin border,

and it's used as an event venue for Remnant Fellowship.

The weddings are very abundant,

very overdone.

It's all about reputation and appearances.

They want you to be clones of them.

Everyone dresses the same way,

and the children are dressed

in, I would say, turn-of-the-century

with lots of ruffles and lace.

And even the little boys look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

And the people are always happy.

Or they "look" happy.

How members of Remnant behave

is a bit like "The Handmaid's Tale"

and "Stepford Wives."

There is a little bit of this fake persona

and over-the-top bubbly, happy

that, you know, is just for show.

I am right now on fire... I am right now on fire... I am right now on fire...

- Go. - ...for God to get his way.

That's what I want. That's what I want.

God to get his way.

When Gwen first started, I truly believed

she really wanted to help people.

She was so charismatic.

And the joy on Gwen's face

when she would talk about the Lord--

And when Gwen would talk about just her relationship with God,

there was so much joy there that you wanted what she had.

...all about God!

It was teaching you how to focus on God

and how to really grow your relationship with God,

and it was probably one of the best times of my life,

believe it or not.

It was one of the best times of my life.

You have this person and a whole movement

who really wanna do whatever God wants them to do

and are idealistic and wanna change the world

with their faith.

It sucks you in, you know.

And it's not till you get a good way in

that you see some of the other stuff

that's behind the curtain.

I wanted to raise children

that would be good citizens, hard-working, successful.

You talk to 'em about drugs and alcohol

and driving too fast and teenage pregnancy,

but you never think to coach your kids on a cult.

It's just-- It's not in the manual.

Both my oldest and youngest are very independent.

Delaney wasn't as much.

She's extremely smart.

She's one of these kids that get straight A's

without cracking a book.

She's very, very intelligent.

We'd heard very few rumors

about Remnant Fellowship Church.

But you never really would hear any details

because, of course, those things are coming from people

who really didn't have experience.

It was just outsiders hearing just that they're weird

or that they're kind of shut people off

and they're not inclusive, stuff like that.

But it wasn't anything super concerning at that point.

So when she met Jackson,

I said, "You don't treat him any different,"

because I knew that that was probably a thing

that some people probably treated him different

because of the church he went to.

And at some point, I started to feel like

there was probably something else going on

that she wasn't telling us.

We became aware of it in 2016.

They were in the same grade together,

and she started taking an interest in this boy

and they were in a play together.

She was in the midst of applying for colleges,

trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life.

You know? Just senior year was kind of traumatic for her.

We were told by one ex-member of Remnant

that they had a high opinion of Jackson.

He's very much extroverted. He talks a lot.

He's generally friendly.

But because of what I know, there's an undercurrent there,