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

I had stumbled onto this good documentary on HBOMax and had no idea this Church of God likes skinny people existed. Run by a questionable woman using Christianity as her prop to turn out clones of herself and her beliefs, Gwen Shamblin, she operated for decades under this horrific religious guise. Families suffered, relationship suffered in ways I hadn't seen before.

Physical abuse of children. Forced pregnancies. Forced Divorces. Forced weight loss. Etc. All under the name of God, but you'll find that SHE was taking the god moniker for herself, and these folks followed - to a point.

And that is what this documentary puts across effectively.

This documentary also gets across that Gwen Shamblin-Lara and her Church of Heavenly Weight Loss, is also a cautionary tale as it seems so successful as we watch her and those in her orbit run amok with her lavish lifestyle

This tale ends unexpectedly tragic for all the main members and it's a doozy. And their end may make you think whether you're a believer of Christianity or not, that their God doesn't appreciate being mocked.

Interesting documentary. I wish the structure was more in order as it was a bit all over the place, but there was a lot of information and I enjoyed it. It makes me so sad that people get sucked into cults like this. I feel so sorry for all of the children, especially Joseph.

I wish we got to hear how the people who left the Church were able to do it and what happened afterward.

I wonder if God brought the plane down...awkward!

Looking forward to the new episodes next year.

This certainly takes you for a ride. The first episode was a little slow but overall good, the second episode was more captivating and informative, and the third episode had my heart strings pulled in every direction.

Glad someone made this documentary. In high school my friends and I drove to the church on a dare one night. Here in Tennessee's Tri-State area, religion is a part of almost every household. We are used to "out there" Christian practices and we always joked about Remnant being a cult, but we had no idea it was so crazy. We got a scary/eery feeling that something was off. Maybe it was just the superstition that made us think that, but we couldn't wait to get out of there. It is important for Christians to also stand up to other churches when they are wrong. Christians often feel that we are in this battle of the world hating us together, but it is also up to religious people to hold their own accountable. These are the people that cause others to distrust religious people and Christians.

As Episode 1 of "The Way Down" (2021-22 release; 5 episodes of about 50 min each) opens, it is "May 29, 2021" and a private plan seems to have crashed shortly after takeoff in suburban Nashville, with all 7 people aboard presumed dead. We then go to "Two Years Earlier", where we see a woman giving a deposition in a law suit. Turns out the woman is Gwen Shamblin, a leader (THE leader?) of the Remnants Fellowship Church, a bizarro mix of weight loss evangelical teachings. Yea, you read that right. We then go back to "1992", and are introduced to Gwen's upbringing. At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Marina Zenovich ("LANCE", "Robin WIlliams: Come Inside My Mind"). Here she looks at the truly strange thing that is the Remnants Fellowship Church. It is strange because it somehow connects conservative Christian faith to a weight-loss program. It also stands out because the de facto founder and leader is a woman, which is unheard of in evangelical circles. There a bunch of other stuff going on which I will let you explore on your own as you watch this. It all makes for fascinating viewing, frankly from the get-go, and I got completely sucked into and enjoying it. I mean, you can't make this stuff up! I don't know why the series is listed here as "The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin", as in the series itself, it's simple billed as "The Way Down". (As a complete aside: the docu-series reveals that at the time of the plane crash, the group was flying to... a Trump MAGA event in Florida. Of course! As the polls consistently show, 75-80% of supposed peaceful, church-going, Jesus-loving, family-friendly Christian conservatives love above all a bullying, serial-lying, narcissistic, racist, Bible-ignorant, anti-democratic dictator-wannabe insurrectionist who would love nothing more than to become "the American Putin". Christian conservatives and the Big Loser. Truly a match made in heaven!)

"The Way Down" premiered on HBO in 2021 with 3 episodes and then 2 more episodes came earlier this year. I'm just now catching up on it on HBO Max, which suggested it to me based on my viewing habits. Great suggestion! If you like documentaries and/or are interested in how one woman built and business empire turned into a church movement, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.