Gwen Shamblin Lara 9: Perfecting Hypocrisy

[freefromthin]

10 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

As far as I can tell you can't delete books straight from the Kindle app but it's possible to delete them if you go to the Amazon home page on the computer. Click where it says, Hello Yourname, Account and Lists, -> Your Content and Devices,, and you get to a searchable list in which you can select items and delete.

If you delete it's gone from the account and you have to buy it again if you wish to return to it but Amazon still remembers the date you bought it last.

Thanks for this!

 

42 minutes ago, Blue said:

I remember that as well. They tried to play it off like it was a much better deal, but it no longer included classes. I could see people not having it in the budget... especially because the subscription thing could have been used for a full household... I'm not sure classes could be.

Yeah, I remember the launch for the subscription and how "exciting" it seemed. Add to that the fact that most of the higher ups are saying that they "stay in a class" and encourage others to do so, and you likely have people struggling to pay for it because they feel like they "should". There were also offers to scholarship a few months of All Access for people who were struggling to pay. I don't know how that will work with the new system that they have come up with.

[ManyGoats]

Hello, everyone! I'm new here. I've been lurking for awhile but decided to finally join the conversation. These are somewhat random thoughts but I'd like to share them anyway.

Gwen and Elizabeth seem to be the only really anorexic people in the group. I've looked at pictures of the leaders and they seem to be normal, not excessively thin. (And one of them I once knew personally actually looks heavier than she did when I knew her.) I'm thinking maybe they don't all just take 3 bites and wait for tomorrow or whatever the guideline is. Maybe they follow her original directions from years ago which is to wait until you're hungry and then eat until you're "politely full."

Also, I do see some chubby people in the pics on the RF site. I wonder if they are responding to comments here. I'm not criticizing because I have my own issues with weight but not only Michael but one of the granddaughters is a little chubby.

And like many on this site, I'm concerned for Elizabeth. She does not look good. I don't know, maybe people in her world are expressing concern and encouraging her to get healthy. I'd just like to see her making some progress.

Though it does make me wonder if they are blind to it. Another example of blindness -- Gwen's hair -- good grief! Or as others have suggested, maybe it's just that no one dares contradict Gwen.

And though I dislike Gwen, I'm concerned for her, too. When you listen to her talk, she barely makes sense most of the time and no sense at all the rest of the time. Starving isn't good for your brain.

 

[Blue]

33 minutes ago, ManyGoats said:

Gwen and Elizabeth seem to be the only really anorexic people in the group. I've looked at pictures of the leaders and they seem to be normal, not excessively thin. (And one of them I once knew personally actually looks heavier than she did when I knew her.) I'm thinking maybe they don't all just take 3 bites and wait for tomorrow or whatever the guideline is. Maybe they follow her original directions from years ago which is to wait until you're hungry and then eat until you're "politely full."

When we've been around the RF congregation, there are definitely people there who are INCREDIBLY skinny... to the point where it can't be healthy. Sometimes I think that the moniker that the camera adds 10 pounds is true... I've seen pictures of a few of our loved ones and in the pictures they look thin, but not sickly so - it person however, it's very concerning. I've even had people (who know nothing about RF) see our loved ones and come to us genuinely concerned. One person asked me if our loved one was recovering from an illness because it looked like they could just break apart... they looked that frail. Maybe it's just us and the people we know though. There are obviously plenty of people there who are a healthy weight.

[ManyGoats]

3 minutes ago, Blue said:

Sometimes I think that the moniker that the camera adds 10 pounds is true... I've seen pictures of a few of our loved ones and in the pictures they look thin, but not sickly so - it person however, it's very concerning. I've even had people (who know nothing about RF) see our loved ones and come to us genuinely concerned. One person asked me if our loved one was recovering from an illness because it looked like they could just break apart... they looked that frail. Maybe it's just us and the people we know though. There are obviously plenty of people there who are a healthy weight.

Good point about the camera adding 10#! I didn't think of that. 

I'm so sorry your loved ones are involved. 

[Blue]

7 minutes ago, ManyGoats said:

Good point about the camera adding 10#! I didn't think of that. 

I'm so sorry your loved ones are involved. 

And I don't know how true it is... I just know that anytime our loved ones are in the RF pictures on Facebook or where ever, they don't necessarily look unhealthy... but when we're actually present it's just so sad.

It makes me sad. They're good people and we care so deeply for them, but the brainwashing is so incredibly deep that it makes a normal relationship nearly impossible.

[ManyGoats]

38 minutes ago, Blue said:

And I don't know how true it is... I just know that anytime our loved ones are in the RF pictures on Facebook or where ever, they don't necessarily look unhealthy... but when we're actually present it's just so sad.

It makes me sad. They're good people and we care so deeply for them, but the brainwashing is so incredibly deep that it makes a normal relationship nearly impossible.

And, ironically, by putting all that emphasis on weight and food, Gwen is actually creating an obsession. Which is the opposite of what she purports to teach. A healthy relationship to food and eating is what people need but she is creating the opposite.

Plus, damaging or destroying their relationship with loved ones.

[Truth sets you free]

I just wanted to say thank you, freefromthin. You have taken the thoughts right out of my mind. Sometimes I think I am going crazy so counseling would probably be a good option but then I think how stupid I must be to get duped by this group! And I'm still triggered and can still be talked into starting WD again! Even though I know. It has a strange power over you. The beautiful people display their perfect lives on social media and it's very easy to think that all you need to do is follow WD and RF for your life to be that perfect. I vacillate between hiding all of my books and then dragging them all out again. It's seriously crazy.

[Marmion]

5 hours ago, Insightful said:

I remember conversation on FJ a month or two ago that all of Gwen Shamblin Lara's prices for her anorexia diet skyrocketed.  It appeared everyone was praising their dear leader and said it was worth the additional cash.  Perhaps their budgets did not match their outward enthusiasm. 

Once again , this was mentioned on the BITE model , under behavior control  .  

Quote

7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence  

P.S. On another note , is it just me or does it seem as if Gwen Shamblin Lara has been taking cues from the  character Regina George , from the the film " Mean Girls "   ?  It sort of seems as if Remnant Fellowship is like a religious based version of the " Plastics " .  For comparative example , here are some videos pertaining to the film .  

  

 

[freefromthin]

1 hour ago, Truth sets you free said:

I just wanted to say thank you, freefromthin. You have taken the thoughts right out of my mind. Sometimes I think I am going crazy so counseling would probably be a good option but then I think how stupid I must be to get duped by this group! And I'm still triggered and can still be talked into starting WD again! Even though I know. It has a strange power over you. The beautiful people display their perfect lives on social media and it's very easy to think that all you need to do is follow WD and RF for your life to be that perfect. I vacillate between hiding all of my books and then dragging them all out again. It's seriously crazy.

I have several years of experience with WD. I originally found the book in the late 90's, but didn't take anything really seriously till around 2006 or so. I started taking classes around 2007/2008. Someone should have slapped me or at least bonked me on the head, but it is the "norm" to diet in some fashion. At any rate, I was on and off again for many years in between then and March 2018. I totally get the pull but I have not looked back since I left the last time. I think being lightheaded and dizzy and ending up at the doctor's office pretty much did it for me. I did end up seeing a psychiatrist and a psychologist, but not so much for the purpose of healing from WD as it was for GENERAL healing from the mentality that allowed me to be susceptible to it in the first place. A lot of my help was self-help in the form of listening to podcasts that were body positive and reading books like Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating for starters.

Someone mentioned that WD will lead to be obsessed of focused on food and I can attest to this. After breaking free from that program, I had to relearn how to feed myself. I was so used to hearing "wait for the growl" and having that defined FOR me that I didn't trust myself to be able to know when to start eating and when to stop. Hunger and fullness was highly emphasized, and "politely full" came to mean eating just enough to take away the hunger. So if I ever felt the least bit "full" I would think that I had OVER eaten. In wanted to share my experience in the event that others who have tried this program were reading here and wondering if they were doing something wrong.

I think this program, RF, and anything like it appeals to people who are both insecure and  LIKE to (or feel they NEED to) have rules. I don't even have time to go into the many ways that I fit that bill. Suffice it to say that I had conditioning PRIOR to WD that made me even MORE susceptible to it.

One more thing..."Life With Gwen and Joe" is Gwen Shamblin Lara's latest endeavor, Someone share a tweet about it here. It's a LOT like  "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and in the trailer for it she shares how she has an vineyard and an orchard on her property as well as their private plane, vacation getaways,  and all of that. It's been really odd to see RF members praise  that, because it comes across as them showing off their affluence, yet they are using the Bible to justify each thing that they show. I think the trailer for it might be up on Gwen Shamblin Lara's FB page.

[ManyGoats]

1 hour ago, freefromthin said:

I think the trailer for it might be up on Gwen Shamblin Lara's FB page.

I don't where else it is but it's on YouTube for sure. Whew! That's all I need to hear of that song.

[Blue]

1 hour ago, freefromthin said:

I think this program, RF, and anything like it appeals to people who are both insecure and  LIKE to (or feel they NEED to) have rules. I don't even have time to go into the many ways that I fit that bill. Suffice it to say that I had conditioning PRIOR to WD that made me even MORE susceptible to it.

I was telling a friend of mine all about RF and WD and she truly couldn't understand how someone (especially who has some Biblical understanding) could possibly fall for it.

THIS. This right here. Because RF and WD provide a step by step program for salvation and perfection. Because grace means you have to have faith that even though you haven't DONE enough (because you never could, not in a million human lifetimes), you're LOVED enough through the atonement to compensate for your imperfection...

RF doesn't require faith... According to RF if you're taking the right steps and doing the right things and looking the right way, then you're good to go. If you're following the "rules" set by Gwen and her theology, then you can feel confident in your salvation. It's like a checklist and as you check each thing off... weight loss, perfect submission to your spouse/parents/leadership, being "happy" 24/7, beautiful house/car/clothes (because she uses those as evidence that you're pleasing God)... then you're finishing up a predetermined list that says you've made yourself acceptable to God. It's painfully sad for their mental health and painfully devastating from a Biblical standpoint.

[Marmion]

4 minutes ago, Blue said:

I was telling a friend of mine all about RF and WD and she truly couldn't understand how someone (especially who has some Biblical understanding) could possibly fall for it.

THIS. This right here. Because RF and WD provide a step by step program for salvation and perfection. Because grace means you have to have faith that even though you haven't DONE enough (because you never could, not in a million human lifetimes), you're LOVED enough through the atonement to compensate for your imperfection...

RF doesn't require faith... According to RF if you're taking the right steps and doing the right things and looking the right way, then you're good to go. If you're following the "rules" set by Gwen and her theology, then you can feel confident in your salvation. It's like a checklist and as you check each thing off... weight loss, perfect submission to your spouse/parents/leadership, being "happy" 24/7, beautiful house/car/clothes (because she uses those as evidence that you're pleasing God)... then you're finishing up a predetermined list that says you've made yourself acceptable to God. It's painfully sad for their mental health and painfully devastating from a Biblical standpoint.

The only thing that I have to add to what you posted here , is that if someone were to have grown up in a church that teaches perfectionism , such as the Church of the Nazarene , for just one example , as I did , then what ever you learned about the Bible would have been skewed by the preconceived narrative of the church doctrine . Like we had bible quizzing   , but the questions and answers were tied to reinforcing the framework of such distinctive doctrines as  Christian perfection  .  Rather than just letting the text speak for itself , it was twisted to fit with the church's teachings . So eventhough some of us might be lead to think that we are well versed in the Bible , we might still end up being preconditioned to be susceptible to the appeal of involvement in various cults .  A notorious case in point , Jim Jones  .  

[WeirdHarold]

7 hours ago, ManyGoats said:

And, ironically, by putting all that emphasis on weight and food, Gwen is actually creating an obsession. Which is the opposite of what she purports to teach. A healthy relationship to food and eating is what people need but she is creating the opposite.

Plus, damaging or destroying their relationship with loved ones.

Yes, it's the legalism.  It only makes things worse.

Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.  7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.  8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.  9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.  10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.  11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

[RFfree]

5 hours ago, Truth sets you free said:

I just wanted to say thank you, freefromthin. You have taken the thoughts right out of my mind. Sometimes I think I am going crazy so counseling would probably be a good option but then I think how stupid I must be to get duped by this group! And I'm still triggered and can still be talked into starting WD again! Even though I know. It has a strange power over you. The beautiful people display their perfect lives on social media and it's very easy to think that all you need to do is follow WD and RF for your life to be that perfect. I vacillate between hiding all of my books and then dragging them all out again. It's seriously crazy.

THANK YOU for sharing that, because I'm usually there too...I KNOW that Weigh Down/Remnant Fellowship is bad, yet I will still have intrusive thoughts of wanting to go back, Gwen isn't really that bad, I miss it/them...etc, etc. Then I have to wake myself out of that mirage (haha, unintentional desert oasis pun ??) But yeah, my brain knows better, yet at the same time I feel like they could creep back into my head if I don't stay vigilant.

[WeirdHarold]

3 hours ago, freefromthin said:

One more thing..."Life With Gwen and Joe" is Gwen Shamblin Lara's latest endeavor, Someone share a tweet about it here. It's a LOT like  "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and in the trailer for it she shares how she has an vineyard and an orchard on her property as well as their private plane, vacation getaways,  and all of that. It's been really odd to see RF members praise  that, because it comes across as them showing off their affluence, yet they are using the Bible to justify each thing that they show. I think the trailer for it might be up on Gwen Shamblin Lara's FB page.

 

[Blue]

1 hour ago, Marmion said:

The only thing that I have to add to what you posted here , is that if someone were to have grown up in a church that teaches perfectionism , such as the Church of the Nazarene , for just one example , as I did , then what ever you learned about the Bible would have been skewed by the preconceived narrative of the church doctrine . Like we had bible quizzing   , but the questions and answers were tied to reinforcing the framework of such distinctive doctrines as  Christian perfection  .  Rather than just letting the text speak for itself , it was twisted to fit with the church's teachings . So even though some of us might be lead to think that we are well versed in the Bible , we might still end up being preconditioned to be susceptible to the appeal of involvement in various cults .  A notorious case in point , Jim Jones  .  

I do see your point... I was thinking so micro about specific people that I wasn't thinking about other circumstances. For my situation, the people I know have a solid foundation in Biblical understanding so it was/is truly surprising that they fell for it... but again, at the same time, I can see how her theology is just easier to wrap someone's head (and life) around. 

I also think it attracts people who are sort of pretentious in their old churches. People who think they're "all in" and they look down on the others who they see as less devoted... now all those people are together in one place trying to compete for who can be the most devoted... the most loyal... the most perfect... and now they look down on everyone else as a group.

[freefromthin]

15 minutes ago, Blue said:

I do see your point... I was thinking so micro about specific people that I wasn't thinking about other circumstances. For my situation, the people I know have a solid foundation in Biblical understanding so it was/is truly surprising that they fell for it... but again, at the same time, I can see how her theology is just easier to wrap someone's head (and life) around. 

I also think it attracts people who are sort of pretentious in their old churches. People who think they're "all in" and they look down on the others who they see as less devoted... now all those people are together in one place trying to compete for who can be the most devoted... the most loyal... the most perfect... and now they look down on everyone else as a group.

This was VERY true for me in some ways. I was once a part of the ICOC and during that time, confession of sin and trying to live "sin-free" was VERY big in that movement. They often used scripture to "convict" people. I also know of other people who were once in the ICOC that are now in RF. Both groups have VERY intelligent people in them, many in leadership.

If you've never been hooked in, I can TOTALLY see how it might be difficult to understand why others might fall prey to it. 

For those who have posted that they are tempted to go back, I hope you don't. However, that last time was TRULY the charm for me. I got in so deep and ended up hurting so badly that I am VERY grateful to have gotten out of it. All I could think about what what I was going to eat next, how much I should eat at every meal, whether or not my weight was going up or down, and whether or not God was "truly" pleased with me. After all Gwen often said that we needed to "make God look good".

[AmazonGrace]

Gwen weirdly assumes that everyone always  thrives on WeighDown for the first two weeks and then gives up. Not the first time she's written of this. 

Spoiler

— Main Menu —HOME ABOUT BOOKS- Receive Excerpts - See Full Collection TV- Remnant Fellowship TV - Weigh Down TV MEDIA DEVOTIONAL CONTACT 

The Path to Success

September 19, 2019

by Gwen Shamblin Lara

0 Comment

How do you return to that Zone you experienced in the first two weeks of WeighDown? What was going on then? You focused all day only on God with no gimmicks. The gimmicks that you might have picked up after Week Three of your original class that then diverted your all-essential focus. You wanted to speed up the weight loss, so you mixed dieting (man-made rules) in with God’s simple focus, and so you lost your focus. When you take your mind off of God’s will of hunger and fullness inside of you, the next thing you know you are back to nightly bingeing or the all-day nibbling and grazing and decisions outside of you. We are not going to do that again.

How do we return to those glorious first two weeks of WeighDown that I know that you did so well in? You focus up…and if you get off focus, you use your memory and remember the glorious feeling of losing all that weight. There is nothing like it. You feel so sky-high with God and so sky-high with mankind, you do not even care if someone yells at you or is mean to you—it would not burst your new bubble of focus and hope. The Zone of only eating when hungry and stopping at full gives you spiritual hope and boundless physical energy.

 

If you get so high on the glorious feeling of losing weight that you don't even care when people are mean to you, you're anorexic.

[CTRLZero]

17 hours ago, freefromthin said:

One more thing..."Life With Gwen and Joe" is Gwen Shamblin Lara's latest endeavor, Someone share a tweet about it here. It's a LOT like  "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and in the trailer for it she shares how she has an vineyard and an orchard on her property as well as their private plane, vacation getaways,  and all of that.

That video is one big exercise in excess!  I'm glad to see that Gwod wears gobs of 50+ spf sunscreen on her face, even though it doesn't photograph very well.  (/snark)  Is her message really that if you worship correctly, you, too, can have this incredible lifestyle?  Her minions must feel like failures if they don't yet have a plantation, plane, or pilot.  

I just don't understand the willingness to throw money at these creatures. 

[freefromthin]

1 hour ago, CTRLZero said:

That video is one big exercise in excess!  I'm glad to see that Gwod wears gobs of 50+ spf sunscreen on her face, even though it doesn't photograph very well.  (/snark)  Is her message really that if you worship correctly, you, too, can have this incredible lifestyle?  Her minions must feel like failures if they don't yet have a plantation, plane, or pilot.  

I just don't understand the willingness to throw money at these creatures. 

She DOES talk a LOT about receiving jewels for obedience. She has said that if we're obeying (particularly in the area of eating) then one day we will receive an unexpected compliment or something like that. She alludes to the fact that her material possessions are God's blessings for her obedience, because she has often told the story of how she was submissive to her ex-husband when he wanted to sell a previous home and god gave her an even bigger one! She did follow that statement up with, "...but you wouldn't want a house the size of mine to clean..." but then she seems to REALLY enjoy that house, so...

[AmazonGrace]

Gotta say one thing for Gwen, she has a way with words. They're having an extravagant tropical holiday, complete with a private plane, and it's  "a ministry of piloting"

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by AmazonGrace

[Alisamer]

22 minutes ago, freefromthin said:

"...but you wouldn't want a house the size of mine to clean..." but then she seems to REALLY enjoy that house, so...

Does anyone believe that Gwen actually cleans that house? At all? 

Me either.

11 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Gotta say one thing for Gwen, she has a way with words. They're having an extravagant tropical holiday, complete with a private plane, and it's  "a ministry of piloting"

Dear God, I would very much like to have a ministry of going to Walt Disney World monthly, accompanied by a ministry of staying in all their luxury resorts. This would ideally be combined with a ministry of being so wealthy I don't have to work anymore, which would naturally lead to a ministry of traveling worldwide. Thanks! Amen.

(All those "ministries" made me think of the Ministry of Magic.)

[Marmion]

19 hours ago, freefromthin said:

This was VERY true for me in some ways. I was once a part of the ICOC and during that time, confession of sin and trying to live "sin-free" was VERY big in that movement. They often used scripture to "convict" people. I also know of other people who were once in the ICOC that are now in RF. Both groups have VERY intelligent people in them, many in leadership.

 

That makes sense , considering that Gwen Shamblin derived her underlying ideas from the International Church of Christ , as this video I had posted earlier mentions .   

 

[NarcissismKills]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Gotta say one thing for Gwen, she has a way with words. They're having an extravagant tropical holiday, complete with a private plane, and it's  "a ministry of piloting"

 

These people are scum, Gwen Shamblin Lara (and new husband) and her parasite daughter-in-law, Erin Frisby Shamblin. Their selfish hedonism knows no bounds. So they went to the Bahamas. Bully for them. No mention whatsoever of the need for help that exists there right now. There are zero ministries associated with the Remnant Fellowship cult. They do nothing for anyone who isn't in the cult. No feeding the hungry or clothing the poor here. A narcissistic cult run by a gaggle of narcissists.

[AmazonGrace]

Today we learn that if you eat you will have all manner of ailments and unpleasant  physical symptoms and feel stupid and useless but if you stop eating you will never be tired again and you will have to start sewing (I am assuming it's because all your clothes are too large unless you take the seams in)

Spoiler

 

The Pain of the Past

September 20, 2019

by Gwen Shamblin Lara

0 Comment

Now that we have started on the path of remembering our journey, recall how exhausting being out of the Zone of hunger and fullness is. Are you sick of being tired after lunch or after dinner? I am sure you do not want to be tired anymore; you do not want pain anymore…the backache, the joint aches, headaches, heartburn, your feet hurt, knees, hips, heart fluttering, indigestion problems, loss of sleep… just overall exhaustion. On the other hand, remember back when you were in the Zone, remember the energy you had for things beyond eating and bingeing…you had hobbies, sewing, cleaning, friends, calling or helping the hurting, spending time with kids and spouse… Whatever it may be, energy is better than sleeping your life away or being nauseated for hours from a binge, overdrinking, smoking or drugs. You are very tired of being drained, sick to death of feeling guilt and then feeling achy and sick—it is an emotional, spiritual, physical, painful nightmare.

There is no worse feeling than life passing you by. Remembering these positives and negatives help to transform your mind and fix your focus on God, and that is what has brought you back to WeighDown. I know that God has used the pain to guide you, train you and prepare you. Now you are ready—whether you know it or not, you are very different than you were years ago when you first started WeighDown because the pride has been chipped away and perhaps it is gone…for it is the biggest enemy. What has God been doing with all these failures and all this pain? He has been building internal motivation. Until all motivation comes from wisdom that is within you, you will not be successful.

 

Whether you know it or not, WeighDown damaged you.