Remnant Fellowship 19: Leaning on the Everlasting Gwen

[Strawbernana]

5 hours ago, freefromthin said:

He said that he was asked to leave corporate America for a job at RF. I have no idea whether or not he's been to seminary, though.

The first google result when you search his name is his LinkedIn page, it shows a bachelors degree in education and then he’s worked in healthcare administration roles since graduating. No mention of any religious training but I guess one might not put such things on their LinkedIn. I’d be surprised if someone joined RF after actually going through seminary though, their theology is pretty far out from mainstream Christianity.

[cookingbutterchicken]

25 minutes ago, finacial ice said:

ooooh they like to focus on the men,  thinking that makes the church look really good!! They want to brag to the public how men stay in the church after the divorce (leadership secretly encourages manipulates spouse to get divorce)  then announce that the wife chooses to leave due to her not being under authority and wanting to be a really bad sinful wife (which is a lie) And then of course they are always saying how the church heals broken marriages!! 

Oh so true!!!! They definitely had a hand in my divorce!!!! So many emails I could tell were not written by him!  Just copied and pasted!  They have torn apart more families than they have “healed” that is for sure!

[ElleHouston]

I wish Durville would wake up to being the token black man for RF. He’s actually really nice. Sara on the other hand…..

[AmazonGrace]

Today's Show Me Your Eating Disorder And I'll Show You Mine tells us feelings of guilt are better than meals. 

James, the brother  of  Jesus: "people who look at themselves in the mirror are a bit scatterbrained"

Gwen Shamblin Lara, the wife of Joe: "I love to look at myself in the mirror"   

  

[TDHuggies]

15 hours ago, finacial ice said:

This is so true!!! This started when she divorced and remarried.....Her ex husband has a theology degree. I personally feel that he wrote her sermons for her. I believe he was very much the silent messenger, may explain why she had to pay out HUGE in the divorce.

Wow! You know, I had not really thought about it but this makes SO much sense...that her husband would be the one, with the theology knowledge, to be writing her sermons. I DID wonder when she had the time to do all of the research that it seemed she had behind her (albeit misguided) sermons.  

[Pathologic Antagonist]

FWIW, I suspect the Stites were the ghostwriters for Gwen for years. The coherency of her books and curricula had a lot of help. It was all product development when it came to her work and I'm certain that all of the focus group process was in play for them which meant that the writing likely was polished heavily.

David, from all I've heard, pretty quickly distanced himself from the religiosity she draped herself in as the RF vision coalesced in 1999.  He didn't actually take part in almost all of the RF services except when adding his musical skills in their worship service. Then that even stopped. Perhaps it was his last attempt to exercise some twisted legitimacy for his spirituality, making the "joyful noise" despite a lifetime of antipathy drilled into him from his CoC background as an act of conscience and support. There were many a contention over Gwen's mixing of religion and business which didn't endear him to her as their rift continued to grow. 

Whatever the reason, his conscience didn't keep him from sharing deeply of the ill gotten gains that WDW Inc.  bagged for them. Again, from all accounts, he socially isolated himself with other RF buds, played with his investments, and did as he pleased except, it seems, be an actual husband and mate with Gwen.  She had her own - shall we say - surrogate interests invested into her lifestyle to occupy herself yet painted herself as a tormented martyr before her Beulah support group, urging them on to do as she did .. until the fateful summer of 2019 when the fit hit the shan. 

 

[SayonaraLara]

Two-part podcast about Gwen that is worth a listen (especially anyone new). A few facts were slightly off, but it’s still a solid deep-dive summary with lively and relatable (and cuss-filled — just FYI) commentary. Links below or just search “Sinisterhood” on all the usual podcast apps.

https://www.sinisterhood.com/shownotes/episode-147-gwen-shamblin-lara-and-the-weigh-down-diet-part-1

https://www.sinisterhood.com/shownotes/episode-148-gwen-shamblin-lara-and-the-weigh-down-diet-part-2

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by SayonaraLara

[ManyGoats]

7 hours ago, SayonaraLara said:

Two-part podcast about Gwen that is worth a listen......

I just started but I'm hooked. One of the hosts says she understands quantum physics better than she understands Gwen's hair. 😂

[finacial ice]

On 8/13/2021 at 6:30 AM, ElleHouston said:

I wish Durville would wake up to being the token black man for RF. He’s actually really nice. Sara on the other hand…..

I agree.....

On 8/13/2021 at 2:51 PM, TDHuggies said:

Wow! You know, I had not really thought about it but this makes SO much sense...that her husband would be the one, with the theology knowledge, to be writing her sermons. I DID wonder when she had the time to do all of the research that it seemed she had behind her (albeit misguided) sermons.  

yes many are not aware of this. You can truly tell the difference in her sermons after the divorce (the few she gave anyway) not well put together at all. 

[AmazonGrace]

Today in Everything About This Is Wrong we are talking about slave masters.

 

Spoiler

Letting Go of the Old Master and Serving the New Master!

August 16, 2021

by Gwen Shamblin Lara

0 Comment

Once you choose a master as we discussed before, you must then walk away from the old master, let it go, repent.

The thing about slave masters, they didn't let you choose. They didn't let you just let go and walk away.  You could repent until the cows came home but your master wouldn't care that you feel bad about serving him.

Spoiler

Peter said to the crowd, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38

Very odd that he said nothing about not-eating.

Spoiler

To serve the new Master, you have to leave the other one; to work for McDonald’s, you have to put in your notice and leave Wendy’s.

Siri, show me privilege. (Gwen has never heard of people who have several minimum wage jobs at the same time. )

Spoiler

This repentance is like someone who wakes up from an affair and says, “I have got to get out of this affair because I cannot please two women.

An affair is a bad dream that just happens to you and then you wake up, not something that you decided to have.

Spoiler

One is going to leave me.

Let us not be so pessimistic. Let us have faith that both ladies will wise up and dump his cheating ass.

Spoiler

I am going to choose my wife before I end up having two women rob me of a marriage, my children, and my finances,”

Siri, show me misogyny. He chose to cheat and it's the women who hurt him.

Spoiler

and they get up and they go home to stay… forever.

Well there's still a chance that his wife will kick his cheating ass out.

Spoiler

You have to say goodbye forever to that way of living, that selfish love.

In the context this sounds like going home to stay is the bad thing but maybe it's the cheating.

Spoiler

Overeating or tobacco or alcohol or any vice is no different.

All things are similar and nothing is different when we have no concept of what words mean.

Spoiler

You either obey the voice of one or you obey the voice of the other.

Well I don't know about that, I am fairly certain that you don't have to choose, you CAN both smoke and drink alcohol.

Spoiler

You cannot please both the food and God.

True because the food isn't a thing that cares. Food doesn't make value judgements. Food neither likes  nor dislikes what you did.

Spoiler

And what is more, the passage brings out the point that you will hate the one and love the other.

Yeah, except the passage she quoted did not make that point. 

Spoiler

You yourself have to get out of these affairs before you are loving the wrong one.

Yeah, just like she divorced her first husband and hooked up with somebody else.

Spoiler

Go home to your wife; go home to God. The wrong slave master will be the death of you.

Well; I mean, any slave master could be the death of you, there is no such thing as the right kind of slave masters.  Wait, what? It means your wife and God, you say? Well but if they're slave masters you should run away from both.

Spoiler

That is why the children of God had to get out of Egypt.

There are lots of people who live in Egypt and seem to be doing fine.

[RFfamANON]

@AmazonGrace that slave master post of yours was on point!!  🎯 

Edited August 17, 2021 by RFfamANON

[ManyGoats]

Since things have slowed down here, it might be a good time for me to ask something I've always been curious about. Why did Gwen prefer the NIV? I've known lots of people who consider King James the only true translation but never the NIV. What's up with that?!

[finacial ice]

22 minutes ago, ManyGoats said:

Since things have slowed down here, it might be a good time for me to ask something I've always been curious about. Why did Gwen prefer the NIV? I've known lots of people who consider King James the only true translation but never the NIV. What's up with that?!

Im not sure on why she preferred only NIV.  I do know that we could only use the NIV bibles that were published before 1982. This was because after 1983, they changed a few verses that she didn't agree with 

[ManyGoats]

19 minutes ago, finacial ice said:

Im not sure on why she preferred only NIV.  I do know that we could only use the NIV bibles that were published before 1982. This was because after 1983, they changed a few verses that she didn't agree with 

Thank you.

Do you recall what the verses were and how they were changed?

[WeirdHarold]

3 hours ago, finacial ice said:

Im not sure on why she preferred only NIV.  I do know that we could only use the NIV bibles that were published before 1982. This was because after 1983, they changed a few verses that she didn't agree with 

I presume it was related to her denial of the trinity.

[My Fam in RF]

I believe the most major difference between the 1984 and 2011 editions is that they made it more gender inclusive. Meaning wherever the greek used a gender neutral word, they tried to translate it that way. So it will say "brothers and sisters" instead of "brothers" or "that person" instead of "he/him". However, they didn't just throw the differences in gender out the window, so where it clearly is talking about only men or only women they keep it that way.

Also, in 1 Tim 2:12 it changes from "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." to "I do not permit a woman to teach or assume authority over a man; she must be quiet."

So really I don't understand why she would not endorse the updated translation since she's the leader and the older translation seems to not condone that on the surface. (Which, PS - I really believe a deeper study of context shows that there are clearly women leaders in the Bible and this verse is referencing a specific church where the women were wildin out!)

[freefromthin]

Tonight they are replaying a You Can Overcome Show. I guess they really ARE going to watch videos of Gwen for a while.

In regards to the NIV, when I was in the International Churches of Christ (ICOC), they heavily endorsed the NIV84. They said that it was easier to understand, as it was written in today's English rather than Elizabethan (or Old) English, which might confuse new converts. I know that Gwen came out of the Church of Christ, and the ICOC did as well. So that could be a connection. 

 

[formergothardite]

The general opinion of scholars is that Paul didn’t even write that book of the Bible. But whoever did write almost certainly had no idea that thousands of years later people would think his words came from God and should be followed in all instances. If I remember correctly from a class I once took at an Episcopal church, a lot of Timothy is addressing Gnosticism which was taking off at the time. Christian leaders were annoyed that women were liking the beliefs that they might have a divine connection. 
 

Despite being a leader, Gwen weirdly clung to patriarchy.

Edited August 18, 2021 by formergothardite

[throwaway9988]

Let me start out by saying that I personally think that the CoC theory is the most likely reason why Gwen always told people to use the NIV—it was the truth she was used to, and so she found reasons to prefer it.
 

The reasons for preferring the NIV that Gwen gave to Remnant members during the years way back when I was in Remnant boiled down to that she felt the NIV used words that are in common parlance. I do remember that when revisions to the NIV eventually came out, Gwen went over the changes and said she didn’t agree with some of the changes, but I forget if she mentioned any specific changes or verses at that time. Hopefully others can remember better than I. 
 

Several threads ago, @Marmion cited several verses from the KJV, all of which used the word “fat” to cleary mean “blessed” or “prosperous.”  In contrast, the NIV did not use the word “fat” in any of those verses. No, I do not think that Gwen chose the NIV for this reason; I think the NIV is probably just what she was used to. But it was an interesting discovery!

 

[finacial ice]

21 hours ago, ManyGoats said:

Thank you.

Do you recall what the verses were and how they were changed?

I can not remember right at this moment. I'm not able to ask close family members due to leaders stalking this sight just waiting for a clue as to who I am.

On 8/13/2021 at 3:52 PM, Pathologic Antagonist said:

FWIW, I suspect the Stites were the ghostwriters for Gwen for years. The coherency of her books and curricula had a lot of help. It was all product development when it came to her work and I'm certain that all of the focus group process was in play for them which meant that the writing likely was polished heavily.

David, from all I've heard, pretty quickly distanced himself from the religiosity she draped herself in as the RF vision coalesced in 1999.  He didn't actually take part in almost all of the RF services except when adding his musical skills in their worship service. Then that even stopped. Perhaps it was his last attempt to exercise some twisted legitimacy for his spirituality, making the "joyful noise" despite a lifetime of antipathy drilled into him from his CoC background as an act of conscience and support. There were many a contention over Gwen's mixing of religion and business which didn't endear him to her as their rift continued to grow. 

Whatever the reason, his conscience didn't keep him from sharing deeply of the ill gotten gains that WDW Inc.  bagged for them. Again, from all accounts, he socially isolated himself with other RF buds, played with his investments, and did as he pleased except, it seems, be an actual husband and mate with Gwen.  She had her own - shall we say - surrogate interests invested into her lifestyle to occupy herself yet painted herself as a tormented martyr before her Beulah support group, urging them on to do as she did .. until the fateful summer of 2019 when the fit hit the shan. 

 

yes but David lived a wealthy lifestyle, I am sure he knew what he had to do to keep it.

[finacial ice]

2 hours ago, finacial ice said:

I can not remember right at this moment. I'm not able to ask close family members due to leaders stalking this sight just waiting for a clue as to who I am.

yes but David lived a wealthy lifestyle, I am sure he knew what he had to do to keep it.

Wasn't  surprised to see what all he got in the divorce

[finacial ice]

On 8/8/2021 at 6:55 PM, RFfamANON said:

Oh I 100% agree!!

honestly now that gwen is gone, the 'church" is really no more than an elite social club. Their leader is gone. Members moved to the the area because of her and her leadership. Now they are just scrambling trying to keep it all together so all the businesses that were tied in, keep successfully thriving $$$. There would be such financial devastation to many families if church doesn't continue on  

[finacial ice]

On 8/10/2021 at 9:54 PM, Bluebirdbluebell said:

My question is: how many families is 150 kids?

Unlike IBLP, the remenant families tend to be smaller from what I've seen. Still it's probably around 40-75 families, which is not a lont. 

Its very sad how they brain wash these kids at this age. If their  parents decide to leave the church for whatever reason, leadership immediately runs to any member of the family preferably kids this age and brain wash them to stay in church.  This is how the church prevents their parents to be quiet and not speaking out the truth about this cult.  They use the child as a pawn.  Parents open their mouth, they don't get to see their child, or child wont have anything to do with the parents if they start talking.  People dont realize how evil this place really is. Just scary the things they do to families and kids.

1 minute ago, finacial ice said:

Its very sad how they brain wash these kids at this age. If their  parents decide to leave the church for whatever reason, leadership immediately runs to any member of the family preferably kids this age and brain wash them to stay in church.  This is how the church prevents their parents to be quiet and not speaking out the truth about this cult.  They use the child as a pawn.  Parents open their mouth, they don't get to see their child, or child wont have anything to do with the parents if they start talking.  People dont realize how evil this place really is. Just scary the things they do to families and kids.

But it does look like to me, God has had enough, and clearly warning and showing them that he is God. NOT gwen......

[ManyGoats]

I've been trying to listen to Elizabeth's phone call to the church during their Saturday service and whew! She's almost as incoherent as her mother.

She's talking about reading Gwen's journals and papers, trying to figure out where she was headed and where the church needs to go and she's determined to figure it all out. So it sounds like, though it seems like Elizabeth was the heir apparent, no actual training or briefing or anything was done to prepare her to take over.

The gist of her message to the church it is that God's helping Elizabeth figure out what Gwen wanted to do.

Got that? 

[Coconut Flan]

May people drift away during this time of confusion.