Gwen Shamblin Lara 17: The Hair Apparant

[hoipolloi]

15 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

She ate often, generous portions, and a lot of high sugar/salt/fat junk food. 

The very depressing truth is that there actually are some people whose metabolisms can manage all kinds of nutritional content with little or no exercise and jack shit happens to them -- no weight gain, no increases in blood pressure or bad cholesterol, no high blood sugar, no kidney problems, NADA. I've also met a few such individuals but am definitely not one of them. Even without an ED, food and eating behaviors are very complex and highly subject to social conditioning or influences. For many of us, managing our diet is a lifelong project in which one never seems to get ahead of the game no matter what you do or don't do.

I completely agree that Gwen's pronouncements on diets & eating were abusive & evil. What little science there may have been in the beginning vanished into the maw of her ego & greed. We'll never know how many people she damaged with her terrible ideas on diet. If she isn't in hell, she deserves to be there. She was a vile human being.

[throwaway9988]

5 hours ago, Blue said:

This. Because when it's ingrained in you that speaking ill of Gwen is pretty much sin, it's hard to deprogram that even if you manage to leave. This is the only place I've found where former members & family of members speak out (though it's my hope there are others I just don't know about).

For me it has been very therapeutic for me to be able to talk about things here. Being a Remnant member is so surreal because everyone around you is constantly lying to themselves that everything is perfect, lying to themselves that God is constantly interacting with them, and lying to themselves that their prayers are being answered no matter what the result is—so you start to think that, as the odd man out, maybe you’re the crazy one. And since even entertaining a critical thought about RF or a Remnant member was a sin, you get used to not thinking about how insane everything going on around you really is...and even if you did think about it, no one would talk about it with you...and even if they did, it would only be in order to gaslight you and then immediately report you to leadership. 
 

For a long time after finally escaping RF, my defense mechanism was to intellectualize everything I had gone through, and when I found this forum, I was finally able to channel that into breaking down my RF experiences in a step by step fashion for people who had no prior knowledge about Gwen or RF. It was very therapeutic and validating to have everyone here confirm that, yep, Gwen and RF are the crazy ones. 

 

1 hour ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

So what did Gwen say about the members of RF who eat a lot and have no weight to lose?  

I’m putting words in Gwen’s mouth here because I don’t have a direct quote, but I think she would say that naturally-thin people are eating when they are hungry and not worshipping the food or being greedy for the food. They are flying above the temptation of food, and God is letting them enjoy food without cursing them with fat because they don’t have greed in their hearts for food.  They have reached the promised land with regard to food, and that is what everyone struggling with food should strive for. These skinny people should focus on making sure their heart is pure for God in all other areas. 
 

To me it seems that even people with naturally very high metabolisms who can eat all day and all night without gaining weight might still be greedy in their hearts for food. These things aren’t mutually exclusive by definition. And I don’t recall anyone who lost all their weight testifying that their metabolisms were suddenly blessed and that they were suddenly able to eat a ton of food without regaining any weight. In Gwen’s world, people who laid down the sin of greed for food could just be permanently happy eating less food for the rest of their lives, because food would no longer  be a temptation for them. 
 

Maybe Gwen would have had a better explanation, but if so I’ve forgotten it. But based on all the holes in logic in her other teachings, she probably didn’t have a better explanation! ?

Edited June 7, 2021 by throwaway9988

[feministxtian]

23 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

The very depressing truth is that there actually are some people whose metabolisms can manage all kinds of nutritional content with little or no exercise and jack shit happens to them -- no weight gain, no increases in blood pressure or bad cholesterol, no high blood sugar, no kidney problems, NADA.

My husband was one of those people. He could eat enough for a football team and struggled to gain an ounce. If he missed a meal, he'd drop 5 pounds. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

26 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

The very depressing truth is that there actually are some people whose metabolisms can manage all kinds of nutritional content with little or no exercise and jack shit happens to them -- no weight gain, no increases in blood pressure or bad cholesterol, no high blood sugar, no kidney problems, NADA. I've also met a few such individuals but am definitely not one of them. Even without an ED, food and eating behaviors are very complex and highly subject to social conditioning or influences. For many of us, managing our diet is a lifelong project in which one never seems to get ahead of the game no matter what you do or don't do.

I completely agree that Gwen's pronouncements on diets & eating were abusive & evil. What little science there may have been in the beginning vanished into the maw of her ego & greed. We'll never know how many people she damaged with her terrible ideas on diet. If she isn't in hell, she deserves to be there. She was a vile human being.

I know multiple people like this. And if you look at each of those people, they have at least one parent the same way. Of course by middle age, these people might get a little belly. But they are never even close to obese. Which tells me it’s probably mostly genetic. 

[Ozlsn]

9 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I may not have experienced a good marriage, but I've seen them from the outside and I've noticed that most of them are made up of humans. 

.. and the others were penguins?

[Jacked]

The RF rabbit hole goes dangerously deep. 

The rescue ferrets were about to give up (after five days) right before they found me.

Still seems as if I’ve barely scratched the RF surface. These people are something.

[MamaJunebug]

28 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

.. and the others were penguins?

That's rumored in Arndtland.

[SuperNova]

On 6/6/2021 at 2:25 PM, NarcissismKills said:

The RF leaders didn't have to spin anything about Gwen's marriage to Joe Lara. These shameless people were all star-struck and were thrilled to be "upping their game". They were all dreaming of movie business contacts popping up on their omnipresent IPhones. Obviously they all want to be onstage and on screen as much and as often as possible. Look at that church building. Not an altar in sight, only an enormous sound stage with a phalanx of lights and cameras aimed at it. 

I just found this yesterday and already have somewhere to use it

23 hours ago, Queen Of Hearts said:

For those asking about how Gwen justified her divorce, here is a bit of 'light reading' on the cult's (Gwen's) view of divorce and when it is justified.

 https://www.remnantfellowship.org/divorce-and-remarriage/

I've seen a few people reference this. IIRC, someone here on FJ posted the original RF page on divorce and remarriage around the time of Gwen's divorce, just before the Tarzan proposal. After the proposal the wording had changed to reflect Gwen's new take on the topic. RF higher ups also came out with a statement on her speedy remarriage and sited Gwen and Joe's advanced age as a reason for why it was all happening so quickly. Anyone else remember this?

7 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Some of us know the very fast and real slope of going to licking/chewing food and spitting it out to needing to swallow and discovering purging.  Her entire food regime is based on everything they taught against in treatment for ED.

Thank you for sharing this. I've always found Gwen's wording around eating to be unusual. She very frequently framed eating as "chewing and swallowing" or would have language based specifically around swallowing. She also talked about the "magnetic pull" of the refrigerator. It read to me as disordered thinking rather than "I eat a little too often and could lose some weight".

I hope I phrased that in a kind way. I don't what language is appropriate or not when it comes to ED.

[Jacked]

Despite the ferret’s best efforts I just crawled back down the rabbit hole. Not too deep. The RF website now has a link to play the webcast for the funeral (?) on Saturday.

https://store.weighdown.com/webcast/WebcastLogin.aspx

Even with the horrible ideology and practices I still feel sad that there were 7 actual human beings who died in the crash. And I feel devastated for the lives that have been disturbed, the human beings traumatized by the teachings of Gwen. It’s good to realize that the two sentiments aren’t mutually exclusive.

[RFTies]

So out of curiosity, what was her philosophy on people who are naturally thin but eat all the time? 

There are actually whole sections of her book, many “You Can Overcome”
YouTube shows, and sermons devoted to this. In short, according to the Gospel of Gwen, “thin eaters” or “naturally thin” people have their focus outside of their food. They are busy doing so many wonderful, active things for God that they forget about eating and/or only have a short time to eat so they don’t eat much. Thin eaters are also more focused on the company around them when they eat and less focused on the food, so they naturally eat less. One of the people she interviews about this subject is actually Brandon Hannah who talks about how he’s always been thin because he “just doesn’t think/care about food.”

[ManyGoats]

23 minutes ago, RFTies said:

One of the people she interviews about this subject is actually Brandon Hannah who talks about how he’s always been thin because he “just doesn’t think/care about food.”

I would suggest that this can be credited to genes rather than righteousness.

[JermajestyDuggar]

28 minutes ago, RFTies said:

There are actually whole sections of her book, many “You Can Overcome”
YouTube shows, and sermons devoted to this. In short, according to the Gospel of Gwen, “thin eaters” or “naturally thin” people have their focus outside of their food. They are busy doing so many wonderful, active things for God that they forget about eating and/or only have a short time to eat so they don’t eat much. Thin eaters are also more focused on the company around them when they eat and less focused on the food, so they naturally eat less. One of the people she interviews about this subject is actually Brandon Hannah who talks about how he’s always been thin because he “just doesn’t think/care about food.”

My nephew is tall and thin like Brandon and he thinks about food ALL THE TIME. I swear he’s always eating. He’s never had a weight problem. He loves food so much. He’s out eaten me at meals since he was 7! Yet he has never been overweight in his life. 

[MamaJunebug]

Wow-whee! Searching for information on David Shamblin has turned up some doozy websites!

This may have been offered before, but here it is anyway:

Circa 2004 report on RF & WDW

It's long, with lots of careful, considerate explanations of actual Christian doctrine to show the differences in the RF method.  However, if you search for David you'll find that he was - in my words - an infrequent participant.  I think it's footnote 14 that brings it home  to me that he won't at all be involved in the operation post-plane crash.  

There's a lot about Mr. David Martin in the website.  He's one of those lost at lake, right?  This website makes it appear that he was the man behind the successful [sic] woman in this set-up.

(It's a bugaboo of mine to use the honorifics when writing about the deceased.  Not that anybody asked, but it was imprinted upon us back in Bronze-Age journalism training. It has no other significance as to my respect for or agreement with anything RF-related. [Just in case anybody wondered.]  )

[Queen Of Hearts]

1 hour ago, MamaJunebug said:

That's rumored in Arndtland.

Only in their dreams!

1 hour ago, Jacked said:

Despite the ferret’s best efforts I just crawled back down the rabbit hole. Not too deep. The RF website now has a link to play the webcast for the funeral (?) on Saturday.

https://store.weighdown.com/webcast/WebcastLogin.aspx

Even with the horrible ideology and practices I still feel sad that there were 7 actual human beings who died in the crash. And I feel devastated for the lives that have been disturbed, the human beings traumatized by the teachings of Gwen. It’s good to realize that the two sentiments aren’t mutually exclusive.

I can't get the link to work. I just get a 10 second message saying the webcast would be available soon. Is anyone else having this problem?

[ManyGoats]

7 minutes ago, Queen Of Hearts said:

I can't get the link to work. I just get a 10 second message saying the webcast would be available soon. Is anyone else having this problem?

I don't think it's been posted yet. At the bottom of the screen it says, "A replay will be available soon."

[freefromthin]

Gwen has consistently maintained that people who are thin simply eat less food. She has never (that I can recall) given much credence to "naturally thin" people without circling back to the idea that they simply ate less in a given day than other people do. In fact, she credited the start of her Weigh Down ministry with an interview with a thin friend who could stop in the middle of a hamburger and she had no idea HOW she could do it. She proceeded to ask her friend whether or not she was sick or if she was even American.

I saw the interview that she did with Brandon as well as another lady. She had a segment (I think it was during her WD Basics class) for people who have never had issues with food or weight and she always emphasized the fact that they were not FOCUSED on food. When she was speaking to Brandon, she asked leading questions and he ultimately agreed to whatever she was saying. He made it seem as if he liked to get mealtimes over quickly so that he could move on to whatever else he had going on, as if stopping to eat was an inconvenience for him.

Gwen was oddly focused on encouraging people NOT to drag out mealtimes while simultaneously encouraging people to push their food around on the plate, take small bites, and sip between bites. Participating in her classes was a very confusing for me, because I was hungry OFTEN, but when I DID get hungry, I felt guilty for actually being excited about "getting" to eat, because she said that we shouldn't be too excited about eating.

I was able to lose a significant amount of weight, but also gained an ED.

[Granwych]

9 hours ago, formergothardite said:

God liking Fritos so much that he put the recipe in the Bible will never not be funny. 

Dammit, why isn’t the recipe for taco-flavored Doritos in there too?

[AmazonGrace]

3 hours ago, RFTies said:

In short, according to the Gospel of Gwen, “thin eaters” or “naturally thin” people have their focus outside of their food. They are busy doing so many wonderful, active things for God that they forget about eating and/or only have a short time to eat so they don’t eat much. 

How do we explain thin heathens?

[MamaJunebug]

6 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

How do we explain thin heathens?

Or skinny Christians who “eat like a horse” and never gain weight?  Big Mama Junebug, my own sweet mama, was one of those.

[formergothardite]

9 hours ago, MamaJunebug said:

However, if you search for David you'll find that he was - in my words - an infrequent participant

It seems to me like David Shamblin was it in for the money and didn’t care who got hurt along the way. There are several stories of former RF members who say David was right there by Gwen’s side love bombing potential cult members at events held at Gwen’s house. I always thought David was just as shady and unethical as Gwen. He may not have shared her religious beliefs but he did defend them and I bet it was because they brought him wealth. He walked away from this with loads of money taken from vulnerable people. 

[AmazonGrace]

@HerNameIsBuffy quoted:

Quote

The Remnant affirms the sanctity of marriage. A Remnant marriage by definition is one where a man and a woman are both believers; therefore, they have put God, Christ and His Church first. Both are idol free and truly believe in putting others above themselves, and as a result, they are never egocentric, always looking inward, and never projecting fault onto others, which creates a marriage that is full of peace, tranquility, love and respect. Unity and harmony are expected as God’s will is first in both the husband’s heart and the wife’s heart.

 

This is a pretty sweet deal if you happen to be the prophet of your own religion. If your spouse disagrees with you about anything  he's disagreeing with God and you can throw his sorry ass into the hills and beyond.

[AmazonGrace]

12 hours ago, RFTies said:

There are actually whole sections of her book, many “You Can Overcome”
YouTube shows, and sermons devoted to this. In short, according to the Gospel of Gwen, “thin eaters” or “naturally thin” people have their focus outside of their food. They are busy doing so many wonderful, active things for God that they forget about eating and/or only have a short time to eat so they don’t eat much. Thin eaters are also more focused on the company around them when they eat and less focused on the food, so they naturally eat less. One of the people she interviews about this subject is actually Brandon Hannah who talks about how he’s always been thin because he “just doesn’t think/care about food.”

He joined a church that is all about teaching that eating food is evil. He thought about food.

[SassyPants]

15 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I know multiple people like this. And if you look at each of those people, they have at least one parent the same way. Of course by middle age, these people might get a little belly. But they are never even close to obese. Which tells me it’s probably mostly genetic. 

My mom and oldest brother are these people. My mom is 85 YO and aside from during pregnancy, has never had an ounce of belly fat. She is tall and rail thin. She eats and drinks whatever she wants and has never purposely exercised a day in her life. Unfortunately, I did not get those genes. I’m of the short, must monitor every calorie variety, much like my dad. Although once he hit about 80, his metabolism changed and he is quite thin too. There’s hope-

[Alisamer]

12 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

My nephew is tall and thin like Brandon and he thinks about food ALL THE TIME. I swear he’s always eating. He’s never had a weight problem. He loves food so much. He’s out eaten me at meals since he was 7! Yet he has never been overweight in his life. 

Sounds like my brother-in-law, though he's not especially tall. Gwen would probably have called him a "thin eater" - but she'd be wrong about everything else. He eats ALL THE TIME. My sister jokes she has to feed him every two hours. He takes a snack with him on the way out to dinner. Any drive over half an hour he packs snacks and a cooler. We took him to Walt Disney World during the Food and Wine festival and he ate at every single kiosk, sometimes more than one item. And then made another round. I normally refuse to go grocery shopping with my sister because it's an hours-long ordeal, and then because she's a coupon fiend (has to be, feeding him) it takes forever to check out. 

And is he "not focused on food" and "focusing on God" instead?

Nope. He definitely thinks about food. A lot. And he is not religious in any way - one set of parents are fanatically Jehovah's Witnesses, his grandma was Catholic, he doesn't identify as either and he only attends our church when there's food to be had. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

My mom and oldest brother are these people. My mom is 85 YO and aside from during pregnancy, has never had an ounce of belly fat. She is tall and rail thin. She eats and drinks whatever she wants and has never purposely exercised a day in her life. Unfortunately, I did not get those genes. I’m of the short, must monitor every calorie variety, much like my dad. Although once he hit about 80, his metabolism changed and he is quite thin too. There’s hope-

My mom has always worked with older folks and she says the metabolism changes in the elderly. They just aren’t as hungry as they were in middle age. And that’s why you will see thinner elderly folks that used to have a few extra pounds in middle age. And sometimes it’s actually quite hard to get some pounds on some elderly folks. My mom bought so many nutritional drinks for my elderly cousin because she was getting too thin. She said she just wasn’t hungry.