Gwen Shamblin Lara's son says mother’s Remnant Fellowship was a ‘cult’: 'Hard to call it a church'
The son of controversial Remnant Fellowship Church leader Gwen Shamblin Lara recently opened up about his rocky relationship with his late mother and believes that her church was a "cult."
A Christian diet guru who later founded her own religious organization known as Remnant Fellowship, Shamblin Lara died in a plane crash along with her husband, actor Joe Lara, in Tennessee on May 29, 2021.
Michael Shamblin, 43, spoke with NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee, in an interview published earlier this month, calling his late mother "narcissistic."
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"She loved the attention. She loved the spotlight. ... There was a more humble Gwen Shamblin at one point," Michael Shamblin said. "[But], she started getting the praise from people. She started getting lifted up."
"Gwen started making herself look bizarre. It was frightening. Over the years, she started loosening her morals that she had been preaching to other people."
Michael Shamblin said his mother was also experimenting with drugs, including marijuana, before her death, saying that it seemed to be "constant intoxication on trips and things like that."
Michael Shamblin, who was once a worship leader at Remnant Fellowship, said the church was "a group of people who are devoted to a person, Gwen Shamblin Lara."
"It's hard to call it a church in my mind. It is a church, but … it's a cult," he said, adding that he finds this to be true due to the multitudes of people who have claimed they were harmed by the church.
Shamblin Lara also gained notoriety in the 1990s as the founder of Weigh Down Ministries, which sought to help people turn to God instead of unwanted behaviors and emotions. Shamblin Lara founded Remnant Fellowship in 1999, with Weigh Down participants becoming church members. She took on the role of the ministry's primary leader.
Elizabeth Hannah, Shamblin Lara's daughter, took over as the leader of Remnant Fellowship after her mother's death — a position that she still holds.
In September 2021, a docuseries titled "The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin" was released by HBO Max, with two more episodes released in April 2022.
The documentarians interviewed former church members to argue that Shamblin Lara was a cult leader and that the Remnant Fellowship was spiritually abusive. Former members claimed they were brainwashed and faced abuse, eating disorders and suicidal ideation.
"I think they actually did a fantastic job," Michael Shamblin said of the documentary. "Of course, Remnant, they're not even allowed to watch that in Remnant — that's how closed of an environment it is."
Remnant Fellowship has denied the claims of the HBO MAX docuseries, arguing that it and a Lifetime film about the organization's late founder were full of "absurd, defamatory statements and accusations."
"On behalf of Remnant Fellowship Church and the teachings of Gwen Lara, we vehemently deny that Gwen has ever taught anything that would support child abuse in any form," stated Remnant.
"We do not body shame or bully anyone, as we know that God created all of us uniquely with different sizes, shapes and weights. We also do not approach anyone about weight, but we help those who approach us wanting help."
Regarding the plane crash that killed his mother and several church leaders, Michael Shamblin told NewsChannel 5 that he suffered from such intense levels of "abuse from some of these people that I never shed one tear. Not one. And to this day, I have never cried about it."
Nicole Alcindor is a reporter for The Christian Post.
