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

Weigh Down Workshop

No one?

Is there more than one docs on this story?

[quote] Spoiler: she died on her way to a Trump rally in Florida.

Thank you, Jesus. They say you work in mysterious ways. Although, perhaps sometimes you don't.

R3 what do you mean?

R4 I don't wish death on anyone, but of all things.

R5 - I think I did watch this, but I was wondering if there was another doc based on the same story (I believe it’s also going to be a scripted mini-series also).

So many of these stories I’ve watched in more than one incarnation.

R7 I'm not sure. The HBO one was the first I've heard of it.

There’s also a tv movie with Jennifer Greta’s Gwen.

R6 But, I didn't wish death upon Gwen. I didn't even know who she was before she died and I saw the whole sordid story on The Way Down..

How could anyone think she was sane with the way she looked? Good doc that could have been one episode shorter, like so many docs today. But a crazy story too

R11 I agree it was an episode too long.

Any good weight loss tips from this doc?

R13 Pray

You are fat OP and Jesus thinks so too.

R15 lol no I'm not

All religions use fear to keep people in the congregation. Fear is necessary to instill in order to achieve compliance, submission, and subservience.

R17 the Presbyterian's team love right?

Those are some flattering (and old) pictures of Gwen Shamblin! This is what she looked in recent years. Her second husband Joe Lara, who was flying their plane to both of their dooms, was a one-time actor who once played Tarzan in a TV movie and a mid- '90's TV show. She dumped her first husband (despite the fact that the "religion" she founded was against divorce) to marry him. The fake religion she founded (based on her weight loss system) made her very wealthy but I'm sure Joe Lara married her for love.

R19 Joe was a notorious gigolo and escort

Watch the vid at R19 and go to 1:36 to see a terrifying looking anorexic woman starving to death. Anorexia was next to godliness in this religion, since Gwen used the Holocaust as an example of a successful weight-loss program. How many girls became anorexic following her? Terrifying what you see in certain brief moments of that video.

This just hit me: her whole life was preaching about how being fat meant you were a sinner, but she died en route to a Trump rally

LOLOLOLOLOL

This is Gwen's daughter Elizabeth who married Ryan Kaufmann and is still running Remnant. I saw this photo and thought it was Little Edie. I also thought she was wearing a scarf, but that's her starving hair... Holy shit...

So Jesus wants you to be a skeleton, and Gwen finally achieved that. Blessed be.

[quote] Spoiler: she died on her way to a Trump rally in Florida.

Sometimes, the trash takes itself out.

Ariana Grande is starting to look like the daughter.

This video is not private.

I didn't know they were on the way to a Trump rally. As always, @#ETTD. Didn't to take days and days for divers to find and recover the bodies from the swampy lake?

[quote]Didn't to take days and days for divers to find and recover the bodies from the swampy lake?

The crash site was just off the shore and was very shallow. The plane went deep into the mud.

That hair cracks me up. It was awful.

[quote]That hair cracks me up. It was awful.

You should see it now.

"You can be free from the heartless slavedriver called food!"

(No props for racial sensitivity, at least).

Yes, Jesus DOES know if you are "sneaking" around and "having a secret rendezvous with that fudge."

"Having a secret rendezvous with THE fudge."

(She is Comedic Gold).

We had some legendary and hysterical threads on the crash, the people, the hair and the documentary.

Good times!

Four years after the plane crash, Gwen has finally hit her goal weight! 🙌

Here's Gwen's fat son, who's changed his last name to Black. He has no realationship with his sister Elizabeth or the church. Even overweight (or DL big-boned), I'd say he's a lot healthier than her...

That daughter is just TERRIFYING. The son referenced above linked to recordings of her admonishing church members. She is as scary as her mother.

Those folks were decimated in that crash. They barely has enough of Joe to do basic tests that they do on pilots for alcohol ect.

THE WAY DOWN must have been terrifying.

Truly creepy, scary folks-- and one scary AF church.