Remnant Fellowship 19: Leaning on the Everlasting Gwen

[Blue]

3 hours ago, Bob said:

 

One of the major accusations I’ve read on many post is that when family or friends join remnant they abandon friends and family. I picked this quote to ask the question but I’ve read other people on here stating they also have friends in remnant. I’m confused by these two positions. Do they have friends outside the church or do they turn away from you if your not in the church?

That's a good observation. I will tell you this - while our family and friends talk to us, we are not involved in their lives. We are allowed to go to events, but not be a part of them. We can go to the blessing shower, but not speak. We can go to the wedding, but not be in the wedding party. So in OUR case, our family and friends maintain contact, but we are not allowed into their lives, so to speak.

We also have friends who have left RF... They are NOT granted the privileges we have. We're still considered "potential," but once you've joined and left, you're ostracized, with few exceptions.

"The difference between a church and a cult is what happens when you leave." Mike Rinder 🤷‍♀️

3 hours ago, Bob said:

 

I’m confused on the food rules statement. Everything I’ve seen from weighdown teaches against the food rules of all the diets out there. Matter of fact it teaches eat anything you want. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry and stop when your full. Am I missing something?

Oh RF has rules... Not the calorie counting rules... Or the no carb rules... Or the fasting hours rules... Or even the eat healthy rules, but they have lots of rules.

1. Eating before your stomach growls is sin.

2. Eating one bite past full is sin.

3. Wait up to 72 hours for a growl or you're listening to self.

4. If you exercise to lose weight then exercise is an idol.

5. If you're not losing weight anymore, it's because of your sin (and not because of any other reason).

6. If you take anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medication, it shows you are placing your trust in man and not God.

 

I'm sure former members can contribute more rules, but trust me... RF & WD have plenty of rules... They just consider their rules special and Biblical over "man's rules," like, you know, eat vegetables.

[formergothardite]

8 minutes ago, WeirdHarold said:

I haven't done weigh down, but that's my understanding too.

From reading her daily weight loss tips it isn’t really about hunger cues. She is obsessed with the stomach growl and not eating until your stomach begins to audible growl, even though for many by that point they will have been ignoring multiple other hunger cues. And even then she suggests trying to gulp down Diet Coke to keep your stomach from growling so you can avoid eating food. And when people do eat she encourages junk food instead of healthy foods that will provide more energy and keep people actually feeling full. Her adoration of junk food is how she ended up claiming God put the Frito recipe in the Bible.

[Strawbernana]

3 hours ago, Bob said:

I’m confused on the food rules statement. Everything I’ve seen from weighdown teaches against the food rules of all the diets out there. Matter of fact it teaches eat anything you want. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry and stop when your full. Am I missing something?

From reading many many of Gwen’s devotionals, I’ve gathered a few of her food rules:

-You may only eat once you’ve reached the growl, or if you’ve gone 36 hours without eating but still haven’t had a growl.

-You must eat slowly, with pauses between bites, so that you can pinpoint the exact moment you are no longer ravenous. If you eat one bite more you are making an idol out of food and sinning.

-You cannot be vegetarian, vegan, or concerned with eating healthy or whole foods, because that is following man’s plan and not God’s plan and reveals an unholy (rather than holy) obsession with food. You can only eat what Gwen considered “normal” foods. Same goes for counting calories or macronutrients, even if it has worked for you in the past and is not done in an obsessive way.

-You cannot exercise to lose weight, because that means that you are attempting a workaround of your sinful obsession with food. In fact exercising will make you hungry and you’ll end up eating more per Gwen. There is no other reason to exercise.

I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting, this is just off the top of my head. I’m sure all y’all will remember some more to add to the list. If you break these food rules you are not just failing a diet, you are committing the sins of idol worship, disobedience, gluttony, selfishness, greed, and questioning God’s plan, per Gwen.

 

edit: I see @Blue recalled the same points, thanks Blue!

Edited August 25, 2021 by Strawbernana

[freefromthin]

4 hours ago, Bob said:

I’ve been watching from the sideline for awhile. I’m finally going to jump in and ask some clarifying questions. My background is, I’ve gone through the weighdown class and read the book. I have some friends in Remnant. I visit periodically.

I’m confused on the food rules statement. Everything I’ve seen from weighdown teaches against the food rules of all the diets out there. Matter of fact it teaches eat anything you want. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry and stop when your full. Am I missing something?

Except that her definition of "full" kept changing. First it was "politely full", or "satisfied". Then it became just enough food to "take away the growl". What this looked like in practice for me was getting a kids 4 piece chicken nugget meal and trying my best to only eat half of it, or cutting a small sandwich in half and eating that along with a "few" chips and washing it all down with a diet soda. If I got a regular kids soda, I could only drink half. I lost weight, too. I also became obsessed with my weight and afraid of "overeating" and experienced extreme guilt if I ever actually FELT the food in my stomach.

[SayonaraLara]

5 hours ago, Bob said:

I’m confused on the food rules statement. Everything I’ve seen from weighdown teaches against the food rules of all the diets out there. Matter of fact it teaches eat anything you want. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry and stop when your full. Am I missing something?

Many moons ago, I tried explaining Weigh Down to a significant other when I was taking classes.

“All you do is eat when your hungry and stop when your full!” I said, holding up my huge WD book.

The wise reply: “Shouldn’t it be a short book then?” 

 

(If that simple, straightforward message was all there was to the plan, then why so many books, classes, audios, YCO shows, Truthstream resources, etc.  ...?!)

Edited August 25, 2021 by SayonaraLara

[Bob]

4 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Except that isn’t her teachings. Her current teachings are to wait for The Growl. She doesn’t take into consideration that some people get extremely hungry way, way before their stomach growls and some don’t get stomach growls often. For those poor souls, they have to be content with junk food every 36 hours. It isn’t about hunger alone, it is about The Growl. 

From everything I’ve ever heard I think there’s two points I came away with.  I don’t think there’s a medical profession out there that would label your stomach growling as starvation. That’s simply waiting until your stomach is basically empty which is not starvation by any definition I’ve ever seen from a real medical professional. The second Is where did you get they only eat junk food? I’ve heard her teach that when people realize they have freedom to eat anything they might think they want to do that but After a short period of eating junk food their body will call for a variety of foods and you won’t want junk food all the time. It’s kind of like telling a kid they can eat candy for a whole week. It doesn’t last more than a day or two before they get tired of that and start eating normal food. I also recall a conversation I had with an individual when I was asking about the growl and whether or not you had to wait for it.  He worked for a shipping company and usually was not hungry in the morning so he thought he should not eat. Midway through his shift he would get hungry and because his job was so demanding he had trouble doing it. Gwen is the one who told him to not be legalistic and that when you know you’re going to be exerting yourself of course you eat before hand even if you’ve not felt the growl yet.

40 minutes ago, SayonaraLara said:

Many moons ago, I tried explaining Weigh Down to a significant other when I was taking classes.

“All you do is eat when your hungry and stop when your full!” I said, holding up my huge WD book.

The wise reply: “Shouldn’t it be a short book then?” 

 

(If that simple, straightforward message was all there was to the plan, then why so many books, classes, audios, YCO shows, Truthstream resources, etc.  ...?!)

I guess the same could be said of books written about intuitive eating or intermittent fasting. they add the reasoning behind what they teach along with whatever their motivating factors are that they are pushing. In Gwen’s case it is biblically-based and so she supports it with what she believes the Bible has to say about your body being a temple etc. etc.

[Queen Of Hearts]

Bob, I am not sure why you are here defending RF and arguing with past RF members who know what they are talking about?

I am not a member and have no ties to the cult but I have followed it for some time.  Everything these past members are saying is true and much of it is easily documented in Gwen's daily devotionals, You Tube videos, writings, etc.  If this all was not accurate there would not be a major miniseries being produced.  

[Bob]

2 hours ago, Blue said:

That's a good observation. I will tell you this - while our family and friends talk to us, we are not involved in their lives. We are allowed to go to events, but not be a part of them. We can go to the blessing shower, but not speak. We can go to the wedding, but not be in the wedding party. So in OUR case, our family and friends maintain contact, but we are not allowed into their lives, so to speak.

We also have friends who have left RF... They are NOT granted the privileges we have. We're still considered "potential," but once you've joined and left, you're ostracized, with few exceptions.

"The difference between a church and a cult is what happens when you leave." Mike Rinder 🤷‍♀️

 

I obviously cannot speak to your experiences. I do have friends who are Mormons and Catholics and no matter how good of friends I am with somebody I would not be allowed to participate in their religious ceremonies because I’m not part of their faith. Seems to me like that’s what Their stance is in some of these cases.

i’ve also met several members who have told me that they were returning members. Some have family who were still in the church some don’t and they returned on their own. If they’re ostracized when they leave the way I have Heard it spoken about in this forum how do they ever return? I have had a friend of mine in the church tell me that if somebody on the way out is attacking them or the church then they obviously disassociate with them while they are conducting themselves in that way. Which makes sense to me. I don’t know very many people in any organization or worldly situation that associates with people who attack them and their beliefs. He was actually the one who showed me the example of a few family members who left the church in a very negative way but then settle down and now the remnant family members and non-Remnant family members all have a very peaceful and normal relationship.

[Xan]

24 minutes ago, Bob said:

Gwen is the one who told him to not be legalistic and that when you know you’re going to be exerting yourself of course you eat before hand even if you’ve not felt the growl yet.

I guess the same could be said of books written about intuitive eating or intermittent fasting. they add the reasoning behind what they teach along with whatever their motivating factors are that they are pushing. In Gwen’s case it is biblically-based and so she supports it with what she believes the Bible has to say about your body being a temple etc. etc.

I am not a member of Remnant Fellowship but I did listen to Gwen's sermons and videos for quite some time.  I don't think I ever heard her say that you could eat before you felt the growl.

Also, I find your verb tense interesting.  Gwen, unfortunately, is no more.  In the words of Monty Python, she's an ex-person.  So her case might have been biblically-based and she could be said to have supported it.  I don't think you can still say she "supports it" and she "believes".  

 

Which makes sense to me. I don’t know very many people in any organization or worldly situation that associates with people who attack them and their beliefs.  

I've read about members who left and they didn't do it in a dramatic and offensive way.  They were careful to not say disparaging things as they still had family members in RF.  They were still ostracized.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Xan

[Bob]

5 minutes ago, Queen Of Hearts said:

Bob, I am not sure why you are here defending RF and arguing with past RF members who know what they are talking about?

I am not a member and have no ties to the cult but I have followed it for some time.  Everything these past members are saying is true and much of it is easily documented in Gwen's daily devotionals, You Tube videos, writings, etc.  If this all was not accurate there would not be a major miniseries being produced.  

I don’t know if I would consider myself defending anything. I’m simply giving my observations from what I have seen. I think I probably decided to speak up because it seems to me like a lot of people on here use each other’s information as fact checking. What you’re saying in regards to devotions and YouTube videos etc. seems like to me to be a lot of cherry picking statements to build a narrative that is obviously what this forum was created for. vs taking an overall understanding of the complete teaching which you can only get when you read the whole book or do the whole class.   I don’t feel the need to go point by point but a couple people responded to me on food rules. One person said you had to wait 36 hours while another person quoted 72 hours before you can eat if you did not have a growl. From doing the class what I know about it is she gives the suggestion of not going over 36 hours if you don’t Feel a growl and then eat something and that will probably kickstart your body into recognizing what true hunger is. Exercise was mentioned a few times. I understand the idea that she probably teaches to not allowing exercise to be an idol but I actually see members of Remnant at my gym all the time including a few  leadership members. So that certainly doesn’t add up. Another one would be the many comments that have been made about how cruel it is to have all this wonderful food at weddings and events when people can’t eat. I’ve been to both weddings and a few big events. I don’t really see anybody not eating a normal amount of food. What I don’t see is people piling it on like you see at a golden corral. They have kids tables that are not monitored. I’ve observe kids running up and eating as much as they want without any parents or anybody watching over them. Those are just a couple of inconsistencies between what I actually see happening there versus what I’ve read here and on other blogs. 
 

I’m interested to see the miniseries. I’m very curious to see if they will have something concrete or Will it simply be disgruntled ex members complaint. I guarantee you I can find ex members of any church that were disgruntled when they left and can point out all kinds of things that if you only listen or accept their version would make those churches look horrible. Heck, I’ve left a few that if you only listened to what I had to say about them you would think they were horrible. I could see how Gwen was a high profile person who went from main stream to being characterized as a cult, a producer would decided to run with it. 

[Strawbernana]

57 minutes ago, Bob said:

I obviously cannot speak to your experiences. I do have friends who are Mormons and Catholics and no matter how good of friends I am with somebody I would not be allowed to participate in their religious ceremonies because I’m not part of their faith. Seems to me like that’s what Their stance is in some of these cases.

I’ve never heard of Catholics not being allowed non-Catholic bridesmaids/groomsmen in their weddings. I do believe Mormons require that for temple weddings though, but if anyone knows for sure please correct me. Catholics and Mormons are allowed to have non-members at their wedding showers. Most religions I’ve encountered allow interested non-members to participate in services and festivals. Some examples include non-Jews attending Shabbat dinners and/or Passover Seder, Hindus allowing participation in Diwali, and a majority of religions I’m aware of allow non-members to attend services and holiday celebrations even if they have no intention of converting.

 

Since you seem to know a lot of current members, their stances/talking points on various matters, and what they believe, I am very curious to ask if you think they will be watching the upcoming documentary series. Also if you don’t mind sharing, why have you not joined Remnant Fellowship? It was asked a couple times before but this thread has a lot going on so maybe it got lost in the shuffle. I would be curious to know your reasons.

Edited August 25, 2021 by Strawbernana
Missed a “non-“

[AmazonGrace]

7 hours ago, Bob said:

I’ve been watching from the sideline for awhile. I’m finally going to jump in and ask some clarifying questions. My background is, I’ve gone through the weighdown class and read the book. I have some friends in Remnant. I visit periodically.

I’m confused on the food rules statement. Everything I’ve seen from weighdown teaches against the food rules of all the diets out there. Matter of fact it teaches eat anything you want. Just don’t eat until you’re hungry and stop when your full. Am I missing something?

Hi Bob, if you have read the threads I guess you already know that I think all the book excerpts that Gwen posted on her devotionals site were terrible. But maybe she only chose to post the bad bits and I would have a  better perspective if I ever read an entire book.

In my opinion, Gwen certainly liked to say that she was against man made food rules but this was a blatant falsehood  It only meant that she was against the healty diets advice of modern medical science and nutritionists who actually studied the subject. She substituted them with plenty of food rules of her own making. The end result was a muddled mess about the growl and eating junkfood and diet coke,  making up completely unbiblical hallucinations about how God wants you to eat, and tying obedience to her man-made rules into your entire worth as a God's child by implying it was all or nothing, Gwen's rules or not loving God enough, always getting thinner or not loving God enough....

[Blue]

1 hour ago, Bob said:

I obviously cannot speak to your experiences. I do have friends who are Mormons and Catholics and no matter how good of friends I am with somebody I would not be allowed to participate in their religious ceremonies because I’m not part of their faith. Seems to me like that’s what Their stance is in some of these cases.

i’ve also met several members who have told me that they were returning members. Some have family who were still in the church some don’t and they returned on their own. If they’re ostracized when they leave the way I have Heard it spoken about in this forum how do they ever return? I have had a friend of mine in the church tell me that if somebody on the way out is attacking them or the church then they obviously disassociate with them while they are conducting themselves in that way. Which makes sense to me. I don’t know very many people in any organization or worldly situation that associates with people who attack them and their beliefs. He was actually the one who showed me the example of a few family members who left the church in a very negative way but then settle down and now the remnant family members and non-Remnant family members all have a very peaceful and normal relationship.

I have friends who are Mormon and Catholic as well... Non-Catholics were allowed to be in their bridal parties and while non-Mormons couldn't enter the temple ceremony, they were allowed to be a part of the reception and even bridal party pictures. I can also assure you that in no case were members of their bridal parties vetoed by their leadership for their faith, and certainly not their weight, as RF has done 🙄 

At the end of the day, if you think it's good and not a cult - awesome, join. I can honestly tell you that when we were first exposed by family we were in the same boat as you (well, the boat you say you're in 😉) We read a book, watched a few sermons, visited a few times... And it all seemed normal and good. The deeper we got, the more unhealthy the weight advice was, and the more Biblically inaccurate her theology became.

But with all due respect, don't act like those of us who have experienced these things first hand have no idea what we're talking about. We have family in, so we know first hand how they treat non RF family... It's not speculation. Other former members have detailed how they were ostracized, so they know first hand. People who literally sat in the building for years and listened to her teachings are trying to explain how it plays out in reality, so take that as you want I guess.

You seem to know "somebody" for every scenario we put forward, which is awesome. I'm glad you've been able to fly above the radar and see the great things about RF... And there ARE good things. But the negative we've discussed here is well documented. Her teachings on diet are well documented. If you choose to keep the good and toss the rest, that's great, but I can't see how you don't understand that many DON'T and CAN'T toss the rest... And it becomes both physically dangerous and spiritually abusive.

[ManyGoats]

1 hour ago, Bob said:

I’m very curious to see if they will have something concrete or Will it simply be disgruntled ex members complaint.

What do you consider to be 'concrete' since you discount what those with direct experience have to say?

Edited August 25, 2021 by ManyGoats

[RFsurvivor]

8 hours ago, Bob said:

I have read most of the posts that are put in this forum. As I said I also read her book and went through the class. It’s very similar to intuitive eating or even as Gwen would probably say, a more spirit lead version of intermittent fasting. Curious of people’s thoughts of those teachings. 

Based on the questions you are asking I feel like you haven’t digested what was said in the previous threads. Quite a few ex members including myself and many people who have direct connection to Remnant Fellowship via family or friends have talked about their experiences in detail.
 

There are many posts discussing the disassociation and disconnect with non members. There are posts discussing eating disorders. I know my time in RF royally fucked up how I deal with food. Tying my eternal salvation to your pant size will do that to you. You are also referencing the written and public facing doctrine. If you weren’t losing weight fast enough you were given more and more extreme advice. I was told at one point I had enough weight to lose (maybe 15-20 lbs at that time) that I should be good with a few crackers and vitamins a day for a few weeks to “get my heart right and stop making food an idol”. I was brainwashed enough to do it. I threw up multiple times, almost passed out at work from hunger, had no energy and was dizzy 24/7. Hunger does not present the same to everyone and Gwen’s teaching leads to disordered eating. Just because someone lost weight doesn’t mean they aren’t dealing with disordered eating. 

Since you are so tight with Remnant there are a few questions people have wondered about. 
1) what are they being told about the documentary? 
2) have they been told not to watch it?

3) do they know anything about the terms/reasons of Gwen’s divorce with David? 

Not sure if you have dug into remnant doctrine deeply but ask them any doctrine question. Saved by faith vs works? What about the Trinity? Is the Bible the perfect word of God? Old Testament vs New Testament? Odds are they will give a vague answer and just say you need to come and see the fruit for yourself!! My life is amazing and blessed! They will struggle with details on doctrine because Gwen’s teachings historically speaking have been confusing, unclear and inconsistent. 
 

Lastly, I would love to know what’s stopping you from joining? And how are you benefiting from talking to a bunch of random people on the internet about a church you don’t even attend. 

[Mrs Ms]

@Bob A lot of people are talking about having family members in and not just friends. Ever thought that might make a difference?

Maybe I am just weird, but aside from really strict, legalistic and abusive religious groups, not a single group of anything my family, my friends or myself have attended has a large part of its membership leaving in such bad standing that all they talk about is how bad it was and get cut off from their former friends and family. Granted, the majority of them are into very mainstream things, but even us weirdos who are into wackier stuff don’t have that issue. Most of us just leave if we don’t want to be there anymore. The only 3 I can think of had that happen when they left what was later classified a cult 🤫

[treemom]

While we wait for Bob to share more than a Remanent hagiography, have weddings started back again?  I’ve been very curious as to how that works without Gwen, since she really was the focus of the weddings. 

Also just support to those who left or have family in.  I’m sure you have heard what Bob is selling before and it’s hard to have your experiences and feelings dismissed.  I’m sorry. 

[formergothardite]

7 hours ago, Bob said:

don’t think there’s a medical profession out there that would label your stomach growling as starvation

So you don’t think a doctor would be concerned if a patient told them that they get hungry but their stomach doesn’t growl so their religious leader told them they can only eat two to three bites of food every 36 hours? That is literally the advice given by Gwen on a livestream when someone asked about their stomach not growling. You actually think eating a couple bites of food every 36 hours is NOT a starvation diet? And if you’ve read these threads you will have read the numerous discussions about how with eating disorders your stomach can stop growling and it is hard to pick up hunger cues. So Gwen’s advice wouldn’t work for many, many people, a topic you don’t seem interested in acknowledging. 
 

As for eating only junk food. I got that straight from the horse’s mouth, Gwen. I’ve watched her laugh and mock people for eating healthy food instead of her beloved junk food. Gwen is a woman so addicted to diet soda that she acted shocked that anyone would think she would give it up during a time when she was supposedly fasting and praying. Gwen couldn’t even give her diet soda up for God! 
 

And maybe she did tell the man that about eating. She constantly contradicted herself, but her main message was you must wait till your stomach growled. And if you didn’t follow her diet you were sinning.

What is your thoughts, Bob, on her gluttonous lifestyle? Gluttony is not just food, so if gluttony is a sin, then Gwen was wallowing in sin because her life was nothing but taking more than what she needed. 
 

Hugs to all the victims of RF who are seeing this guy try to gaslight them into thinking they didn’t experience what they experienced. 

[Xan]

My feeling is that the remaining powers that be in RF will try to say that Gwen is speaking through Elizabeth.  (That's why Michael is still peripheral.  It only works if the "voice" comes through one person.)  They might say that Gwen in now the spiritual leader of the church and Elizabeth will get the messages and interpret.  That way, they can keep Gwen and her image and her books front and center.  I hope I'm wrong.

First, Elizabeth has been overshadowed by her mother her whole life and I don't think, despite the money, that it has been a psychologically easy life.  Now that Gwen is gone, Elizabeth deserves to make a life of her own and determine her own rules.  

Second, it was weird enough for a large group of people to be following Gwen in the first place.  She twisted the Bible to fit her diet plan and, by the end, had fairly disordered reasoning skills and a bizarre self-image that included a haystack hairstyle, platform heels, and clothing meant for a much younger person.  The only thing worse than following her in real life would be to make a deity of her and pretend to follow her "messages" after her death.  That's just creepy.

I don't know if Bob is an RF member trying to present the other side or if Bob is the leading edge of some campaign to shore up the church before any bad press about the upcoming movie.  I do think that referring to Gwen in the present tense is an indicator that she might still be referred to as being present in spirit  That's troubling.

[formergothardite]

6 hours ago, Blue said:

You seem to know "somebody" for every scenario we put forward, which is awesome.

Did DGayle join RF! 😅 
 

For those who don’t know, DGayle is a former FJ member who no matter what other posters said, had a story to one up or contradict them. 

[FiveAcres]

8 hours ago, Bob said:

I don’t know if I would consider myself defending anything. I’m simply giving my observations from what I have seen. I think I probably decided to speak up because it seems to me like a lot of people on here use each other’s information as fact checking. What you’re saying in regards to devotions and YouTube videos etc. seems like to me to be a lot of cherry picking statements to build a narrative that is obviously what this forum was created for. vs taking an overall understanding of the complete teaching which you can only get when you read the whole book or do the whole class.   I don’t feel the need to go point by point but a couple people responded to me on food rules. One person said you had to wait 36 hours while another person quoted 72 hours before you can eat if you did not have a growl. From doing the class what I know about it is she gives the suggestion of not going over 36 hours if you don’t Feel a growl and then eat something and that will probably kickstart your body into recognizing what true hunger is. Exercise was mentioned a few times. I understand the idea that she probably teaches to not allowing exercise to be an idol but I actually see members of Remnant at my gym all the time including a few  leadership members. So that certainly doesn’t add up. Another one would be the many comments that have been made about how cruel it is to have all this wonderful food at weddings and events when people can’t eat. I’ve been to both weddings and a few big events. I don’t really see anybody not eating a normal amount of food. What I don’t see is people piling it on like you see at a golden corral. They have kids tables that are not monitored. I’ve observe kids running up and eating as much as they want without any parents or anybody watching over them. Those are just a couple of inconsistencies between what I actually see happening there versus what I’ve read here and on other blogs. 
 

I’m interested to see the miniseries. I’m very curious to see if they will have something concrete or Will it simply be disgruntled ex members complaint. I guarantee you I can find ex members of any church that were disgruntled when they left and can point out all kinds of things that if you only listen or accept their version would make those churches look horrible. Heck, I’ve left a few that if you only listened to what I had to say about them you would think they were horrible. I could see how Gwen was a high profile person who went from main stream to being characterized as a cult, a producer would decided to run with it. 

Sea Lion.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning at wikipedia for explanation of term.

And here is the original comic from which sealions got their names.

Spoiler

 

[AmazonGrace]

If someone claimed that the goal is to get, and I quote,  ALL your weight off, would you call  it a balanced attitude or a starvation diet?

 

Gwen Shamblin Lara

29 April at 16:10 ·

Day 6: This 20-day walk is exciting! So many people are losing weight! We are all going to get all our weight off now.

 

April 19, 2020

by Gwen Shamblin Lara

Comments are off

You are never going to lose ALL the weight until you finally say, “I am not having a relationship with that food anymore!”

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, FiveAcres said:

Sea Lion.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning at wikipedia for explanation of term.

And here is the original comic from which sealions got their names.

  Hide contents

 

Yes! I had forgotten the term Sea-Lioning! Bob is a sea lion. 

[Alisamer]

The simple fact that this is a CHURCH based entirely on a DIET program is enough for me to know it is seriously F'd up. 

No matter whether you're taking a few bites of healthy food or just licking a Frito (I believe Gwen herself said if you are craving chips just to lick the salt off then throw the chip away), no matter how long you're "waiting on the growl", no matter whether you're polite to your non-remnant friends and family or if you shun them, it's still seriously MESSED UP. 

Gwen's entire "theology" - based on her own devotionals and videos - was "God doesn't want you to eat, and not being skinny is a sin". 

Despite the fact that the Bible says nothing of the sort.

Sure, out of context and on the surface her diet advice might seem perfectly reasonable - eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, eat slowly so you don't overeat. But when you get into the details? It's seriously unhealthy, and worse, she's making it an issue of salvation. 

And anyone who can look at Gwen or Elizabeth and say "Oh, yeah, this is perfectly healthy!" is deluding themselves. Elizabeth looks like she's auditioning for a part in a Tim Burton claymation movie. Gwen looked like an ancient pharaoh's dessicated mummy with a bad wig and wearing a prom dress and stripper heels. 

An eating disorder is not something to found a church on, no matter how much money it brings in.

[ManyGoats]

11 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Yes! I had forgotten the term Sea-Lioning! Bob is a sea lion. 

Yes, and I think we all knew that after reading his first post.