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The Cult Dossier · No. 097 · Christian-Derived

Remnant Fellowship

Weigh Down Workshop

1986/1999 – present · Brentwood, Tennessee

XI. THERAPY, POLITICS AND THE SMALL GROUPS

Fully religious — diet-based Christian church

Who led it

GWEN SHAMBLIN LARA (18 February 1955 – 29 May 2021), a registered dietitian who built the Weigh Down Workshop into a Christian weight-loss programme used in thousands of churches, then founded her own church.

What it worshipped and taught

A theology in which OBESITY IS SIN — overeating is idolatry, hunger is to be answered with prayer, and thinness is evidence of obedience to God. Shamblin also rejected the Trinity in August 2000, and her publisher, Thomas Nelson, cancelled her book contract. Practices included instruction on the physical discipline of children, and public shaming for weight gain.

Who was in it

Gwen Shamblin Lara; Joe Lara, the actor (Tarzan: The Epic Adventures), her second husband; JOSEF SMITH, an 8-year-old member child who died in 2003; his parents Joseph and Sonya Smith, convicted of his murder in 2007, whose defence church members including Shamblin helped fund; her son MICHAEL SHAMBLIN, who left in 2021 and in 2024 called it a cult; the 2021 HBO series The Way Down.

How it ended, or where it stands

Active; the founder killed in a plane crash.

The dead

1 child (Josef Smith); 7 leaders in the 2021 crash

Of note

Included as the leading example of the diet-and-body-control religious group, a category that also includes several eating-disorder-adjacent wellness movements. The mechanism — moralising an involuntary bodily state — is a highly effective source of permanent guilt.

Its timeline

  1. 1986 Weigh Down Workshop founded; the book The Weigh Down Diet (1997) sells more than 1.2 million copies.
  2. 1999 Remnant Fellowship Church founded in Franklin, Tennessee.
  3. AUGUST 2000 Shamblin rejects the Trinity; Thomas Nelson cancels her book contract.
  4. 8 OCTOBER 2003 JOSEF SMITH, 8, dies in Georgia after his parents confine him in a box. In FEBRUARY 2007 his parents, Remnant members, are sentenced to life plus 30 years. The church denied instructing the abuse; prosecutors introduced its teachings on discipline.
  5. 29 MAY 2021 Gwen Shamblin Lara, her husband Joe Lara and five other church leaders are killed when their Cessna Citation crashes into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna, Tennessee. Joe Lara was piloting.
  6. 2021 The church passes to her children. MICHAEL SHAMBLIN LEAVES IN NOVEMBER 2021, leaving his sister ELIZABETH SHAMBLIN HANNAH as sole leader; the church stays in Brentwood, Tennessee. HBO Max releases The Way Down.
  7. MARCH 2023 THE NTSB FINAL REPORT FINDS the pilot lost control of the aircraft in the climb because of spatial disorientation.
  8. FEBRUARY 2024 Michael Shamblin publicly describes the church as a cult.

Its people

Gwen Shamblin Lara

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Founder, Weigh Down Workshop and Remnant Fellowship · 18 February 1955 – 29 May 2021 · active 1986–2021

A registered dietitian who built a Christian weight-loss programme used in thousands of churches, selling more than 1.2 million copies of her 1997 book, then founded her own church on the doctrine that obesity is sin — overeating as idolatry, thinness as evidence of obedience. When she rejected the Trinity in August 2000, her publisher, Thomas Nelson, cancelled her contract. In 2003 an eight-year-old member child, Josef Smith, died after his parents confined him in a box; his parents were convicted of murder, and prosecutors introduced the church's teachings on discipline. She was killed in 2021 when the private jet her husband was piloting crashed into a Tennessee lake.

Before the law. Never charged. The church denied instructing the abuse.

Where things stand. Deceased 2021. The church continues under her daughter.

  1. 1986 Weigh Down Workshop founded.
  2. 1999 Remnant Fellowship Church founded.
  3. 2000 Denies the Trinity; loses evangelical distribution.
  4. 8 OCTOBER 2003 Josef Smith, 8, dies in Georgia; in February 2007 his parents are sentenced to life plus 30 years.
  5. 29 MAY 2021 Killed with her husband and five other church leaders in a plane crash near Smyrna, Tennessee.

Checked 2026-09-17

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