We’re ramblin’ about Gwen Shamblin!
We’re ramblin’ about Gwen Shamblin!
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Speaker 1 0:00
So Jamie, there was a brief time in my life where I tried to get into religion because I always felt like a fucking weirdo and still do. But at that time, I thought like, oh, maybe I can, you know, get into a religion and stuff and I'll fit in. So, I was watching some kids programming on TBN trying to get myself to enjoy it. And they were talking about saving yourself for marriage and purity. So the kids on TBN guided me through making a pledge to save myself for marriage.
Unknown Speaker 1:00
And, um, did you?
no!
Speaker 2 1:07
Welcome to nervous laughter podcast where we believe in sex before marriage. Welcome.
Speaker 1 1:11
sex before marriage rules. You gotta do a test drive before you buy through. Yeah, I guess I was probably like 10 to 12 When that happened, but you didn't know what you're doing. Yeah. And it was just like, okay, repeat after me. I will save myself for myself.
Unknown Speaker 1:38
It kind of reminds me of when I asked Jesus into my heart.
Speaker 1 1:40
Yeah. Oh, another time. Before I really understood what abortion was one of my friends that was pretty religious. Had me promised her I would never get an abortion I don't even know we're pretty young because I didn't even really understand what that meant at the time.
Speaker 2 2:07
Imagine her being like so set like almost so please, please.
Speaker 1 2:12
Like why are we giving kids these really heavy subjects but okay. Yeah,
Speaker 2 2:20
who keeps a promise from when they're like a child anyway, that childhood friend?
Unknown Speaker 2:24
Yeah.
Speaker 2 2:25
Um And speaking of friends, we have a friend of the podcast who happened to was like a minor in Religion or a saint double major. I'm so sorry. I don't know my Rob lor.
Unknown Speaker 2:45
Sir Rob said is a former religion major. This episode was great. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 2:54
Critically acclaimed. Yes.
Speaker 1 2:58
I should point out though, that the original idea of Yawei, which is the God of the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an, was originally a formless, and by gender, being basically, Hebrew prayers often start with calling God. Fuck I didn't rehearse these before Elohim and Dani, which usually translate those to God and Lord, respectively. But Elohim is a masculine term and Adani a feminine that was on purpose according to current scholarship. And I asked if Rob knew when referring to God as a he started the patriarchy. Rob said they didn't actually know. My principal area of interest is Christianity in the Roman Empire. And God definitely had a penis by then.
Speaker 2 4:00
Of course, it was Christianity in the Roman Empire. That sounds so raw. But no, I love that. Just that idea of like, kind of like the gender list or at least two genders kind of thing. Well, there's
Speaker 1 4:17
a lot of people that thinks there's only two genders and
Speaker 2 4:21
you know, who wants them people live who? Gwendolyn Handley, Shamblin Leia. This is just a quick line from Wikipedia just to quickly kind of go over who she is. She was born February 18 1955. She was an American author, founder of the Christian diet program the way down workshop and founder of the Remnant Fellowship, which is her church.
Speaker 1 4:55
It sounds like this is something that I also would have been interested in since I've struggled with My weight throughout my whole life if I was at the right time and had the money because I'm assuming this cost a lot of money for this price free, yeah, why would it be?
Speaker 2 5:16
So I found out about this from a Lifetime movie I watch the lifetime lately. I thought it was some kind of just like joke thing or just, you know, not real. But then I realized it was based on a true story. So that's when I kind of dug into this. So just to give you an idea of what she looks like, think like Long Island Medium Nancy Grace, you know, just the type of sub perfect Southern women with the big blonde hair. I'm also a smidgen of E small from the Emperor's New Groove. Please don't get mad at me for saying that. I
Unknown Speaker 5:53
don't know who it is.
Unknown Speaker 5:54
I'll show you
Speaker 1 5:57
don't get mad at me for not knowing you're not a Disney. Oh, shit. Yeah, I can see that. I'm assuming that her hair is a wig, if not a ton of hair pieces. Yeah, that there's no way that could be all of her real hair.
Speaker 2 6:14
Or if it is, you know, what's her face? What's your question? Dan? Yeah, she I would be jealous, she would. So the way down was a program with the tagline the solution to permanent weight loss. If you go to their website, you will see something that says there is hope God is answering to gaining self control and staying healthy and happy with some testimonies like, quote, I have lost over 100 pounds by learning to love God more than food. I've found a new lift, and it gets better every day.
Unknown Speaker 6:53
God hates fatties. I
Speaker 2 6:56
mean that's kind of what her teachings it it'll trust me we'll touch on it quite a lot. Another testimony that I thought was interesting was um, brace yourself for this one. I tried bulimia Oh, bad and extreme diets harsh exercise nothing has given me the peace and permanent result like the way down
Speaker 1 7:23
that's such a responsible thing. Yeah, on that website. Good job.
Speaker 2 7:27
I'll team mentioned it all. That's just testament. Well, let's be real these people. The team wrote these SEO routers selves. Yeah, that's what I assumed about every testimony. I read on a website. They just
Speaker 1 7:39
slept. Lisa from Wisconsin on there. Yeah, go through.
Speaker 2 7:44
Um, and so I'll I'll touch on this a tiny bit later, but just after that testimony, like she also kind of claims that this can fix eating disorders and great and stuff, too.
Unknown Speaker 7:59
I'll give it a try. Yeah. This is real journal. I just need like $800.
Speaker 2 8:09
And there's a couple of fun quotes by Gwen to help set the stage. Every time you want to go to food, it may be 15 Maybe 20 times a day run to God. Stop bowing down to the refrigerator and bow down to him. Okay, home, so I can try that. Yeah, I'll try see how it goes. So wouldn't grew up obviously very religious and conservative. And she also studied Food and Nutrition at Memphis State University. So that's how we get this wonderful combination.
Speaker 1 8:46
I feel like her nutrition classes were just like, if you want to be cute, you got to drink unsweet tea.
Unknown Speaker 8:56
Got to stop drinking soda and start drinking sweet tea.
Speaker 1 9:01
You got to peel the skin off your fried chicken. That's the best part. Oh my god. Yeah, totally is only have one or two Angel legs. There is some protein in there.
Speaker 2 9:15
So I guess here's what she learned with that degree and God. This is a little intro to one of her classes that she makes later. Here we go. The
Speaker 3 9:30
core principle of wideout is found on the first pages of the book, you have of course your stomach, then you have your hurting heart. They're located so close to each other. I mean, your stomach and your heart. Understand why someone couldn't get confused.
Speaker 2 9:45
Why the fuck? So yeah, just because your heart and stomach are so close, like Hello.
Speaker 2 9:57
So I guess that's what she learned about Memphis State University. You. So if you're wondering where to get your degree from? Yeah. So do she went to college, she married David Champlin in 1978. And they had two kids. She became a registered dietician and worked professionally as a consultant and staff member of a school telling all the students that she was a weight loss success story. In 1986, she created her weight down Weight Loss Program, which was portion control and was very faith based. So yeah, she's basically just like, eat this much. But if you watch the videos, it's like, I think I'll get into it a little more later, but it's just like, take one tiny bite of your burger. Put it down, take a drink of something, wait a minute, you know, take another bite. So it's like maybe her meal consists of like two french fries and like, five bites of a burger. Like it's it's kind of like she's teaching eating disorders almost. I'm not. I don't know everything about that stuff. So don't Don't come at me. Um, so this her program was basically just putting more focus and faith rather than food. Like I mentioned before, she claimed that eating disorders could be cured through her program. Here's a little pitch from from it. And also just apologies of some of this seems just kind of mixed up. It was hard for me to consolidate the information.
Speaker 1 11:35
Oh, sorry. I thought you meant like she had an apology already. Not you're
Unknown Speaker 11:41
sorry. This is my personal apology. Doing
Speaker 1 11:43
great. I feel skinnier already. Jamie, thank you. God, damn,
Speaker 2 11:51
you can't listen to this podcast and meet a minimum BMI. But yeah, so here's, here's a little pitch for Lloyd down. And I think you're gonna give me a lot of eye rolls with this one too.
Speaker 3 12:08
Welcome to the way down workshops, Home Series call way down at home. My name is Gwen Shamblin. And I will be your host for this 12 lesson journey away from the magnetic pull of the refrigerator that actually has a hold on your mind and your heart. At the same time. It's a journey toward replacing this hole with the one who deserves all our attention. Our genius creator and father, God Almighty. This will be a program unlike anything you have ever done. But in it, you will find the truth. Years of restricted dieting have only strengthened the chains of slavery to food and have exacerbated rather than solved our problems. Just like the Israelites whose backs were breaking under the strain of their labor. We have lived through the hopelessness of losing weight, only to gain it back even more. This program is for you. God came to rescue his people from slavery. He rescued them all. God does not call perfect people. He calls imperfect people to be devoted to him so that we can see his awesome and mighty right hand rescue us.
Speaker 2 13:23
So yeah, what do you think about that? I mean, dieting. Let's be real. Okay. Have existing with the food we have today is exactly the same as slavery back in the day. Yes.
Speaker 1 13:35
And I'm very glad that that white woman pointed out what it was like to be enslaved. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 13:42
I mean, and I know she knows all all about that.
Speaker 1 13:44
I'm sure she's a huge history buff and, and loves facts. So that's good to know.
Speaker 2 13:55
So yeah, if you aren't familiar, we're obviously joking. She's very awful and constantly is comparing like food and dieting to like slavery. Day and it will come up again. Wonderful. So she started doing workshops out of her garage and then continued to and she made Bible studies around weight loss. She was
Unknown Speaker 14:24
so Dec. God wants you to be
Speaker 2 14:29
she would tell people that quote, God told her people weren't consistently losing weight because they weren't being faithful to him. Okay, in 1997, her workshops grew to 30,000 weekly meetings across 70 countries and had a TV show where she talked about the program. I'm surprised that spread to other countries is
Unknown Speaker 14:52
crazy. Your stomach is everywhere, I guess. All around the world. People love to get scammed.
Speaker 2 15:02
She also pushed her VHS and books to you know churches so it wasn't just individuals getting the stuff it was churches that were good. So
Speaker 1 15:12
there was like it yes, a God hates fatties sermon and then afterward, we could buy all the shit. That's really cool.
Speaker 2 15:21
Um, I don't know if this is bad joke or not, but I feel like instead of like Father, Son, Holy Spirit, they'd be like anorexia, bulimia, and some other eating disorder.
Unknown Speaker 15:35
Amazing.
Speaker 2 15:38
And if I hope people with eating disorders can get get help
Speaker 2 15:50
I think that is the thing we're trying to podcast.
Speaker 1 15:56
We're making fun of people like this. GWEN SHAMBLIN is a huge con. So don't listen to anything. She says. Yes. Listen to us. And yes, I send sister Crowley and I your grocery money, please. The
Speaker 2 16:11
music ministries. So, so yeah, so she she did a book tour and started making rounds on news and talk shows, like the Tyra Banks Show.
Speaker 1 16:34
I'm sure Tarot was all about. Yeah.
Speaker 2 16:39
So Oh, yeah. Do you want to guess what she called the segment? What Tyra Banks called the segment.
Unknown Speaker 16:46
Just everything is God hates fatties to me. I don't know.
Speaker 2 16:49
I mean, I wouldn't say let's kind of close that's called Church of the thin
Unknown Speaker 16:57
so I can't
Speaker 2 17:02
Well, so she just goes over how to do the diet. So the thing I told you where she's like, Yeah, take a drink. Basically, she took a shot of OJ before eating cuz she's like a little sugar, we'll get some of those cravings down and you'll eat less food. Eat slower to longer sit between bites. And then later she mentioned the Christ aspect. So it was almost like she was like, Hey, this is the diet plan and then just was trying to like, slide and religious stuff. I don't know if that was something you know, that was discussed before the show Tyra or
Speaker 1 17:45
what? But Tyra was probably like, yeah, the fat asses that come on my show could really
Speaker 2 17:52
and they're all like very reasonably underweight
Unknown Speaker 17:55
by a lot.
Speaker 2 18:00
A woman said that it cured her anorexia and joined them on the show later because she was talking to Tyra to event shows a group of nine women Gwen and her program church friends going out to a Mexican restaurant, Skinny Bitches Bible club. They pretty much can you pitch people. It appears they only order but to me changose With fajita meat. No beans inside and the Make Your Own tamales and then they split all of that. So I can't I can't imagine they left a reasonable tip.
Speaker 1 18:40
Yeah, and I'm sure they were horribly behaved and Joe say we are going to spoil all of this. Okay, we need extra plates, and then someone that speaks fluent English.
Speaker 2 18:58
And then one of the ladies was like, we'll have like custom vaginas. With the jaw pelt wait jaw pain. Yeah. I like spicy. Can I get the case though? The case Oh, cheese.
Speaker 1 19:13
Oh, you're skinny bitch Bible.
Speaker 2 19:16
No cheese for Jesus thing. Um, and this is the little segments with that plate at the end.
Speaker 3 19:28
It's not that Hagia dos is evil and broccoli is righteous. It's volumes of food. And when you are, when you eat the right volumes, you are going to be closer to good health than any other nutritional practice that you could even come across. I'm telling me for those that are struggling, and they want to end this battle, crying out to God in any form or fashion go into God and just saying, God, please help me to want to do what you want me to do.
Speaker 4 20:06
You'll notice that even though their plates are still full, the family is done with their meal
Speaker 2 20:18
the whole family has an eating disorder. So yeah, of course, Tyra loves the concept. It's portion control, but it seems way too small of portions in my opinion. Anyway. She also did a Larry King Live interview that went a little crazy. Apparently people close to Gwen for call her watching the Larry King Live interview on repeat in her living her. And I'll just play it for you. It's like a little long. It's like two segments kind of squished together with a male commercial breaker whenever between, but um, she just says some shit that just wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 21:08
If I have to repair any holes in your drywall, I will.
Speaker 3 21:13
And the weight program more women than men? Absolutely. I mean, women are primary. I mean, they said 75% of women will like to, you know, or the what? Go to a hospital start with man don't go. So I mean, likewise, that's due to personnel, you look hormones. Why?
Speaker 5 21:30
Why did God not go in the way they look than men?
Speaker 3 21:33
Yes. You're trying to meet a need here. I mean, you are trying to mean that you're hurting you want out of this. And I think that women, I think pornography would be a stronger thing, probably for men, or there's other things differently harm you. If you watch them, I tell everyone that I've ever talked to. And a lot of times, I mean, they've come to me and told me that this program is helping they tell me it is a black pit. They just, I mean, once they got out I mean, they're weeping. And if something has a hold of you, you realize you're a slave to it. And you don't want to be a slave to it. You want to be able to control that secret won't be a control that food and
Speaker 5 22:09
it brings you enjoyment and you don't harm anyone. Right when a movie and shooting
Speaker 3 22:13
a movie. So well. I don't I'm not saying that. In and of itself. I mean, God made the woman once again, it's not the tobacco. It's not the beauty of the art of that it's over indulgence when you know, it is going from soft core to hard core to you're sick and now you're, you know, messing with children, something's wrong. And one always follows the other in your opinion, I believe that we will always grow in love. So if you stay in love with the refrigerator, you will look like a refrigerator at second level the pornography will go worse. If you fall in love with God. It gets better.
Speaker 5 22:48
We'll be back with our remaining moments with Gwen javelin, Tony Bennett tomorrow night. We'll Alabama last call. Hello.
Speaker 6 22:55
Hi, I'm one of your coordinators with a weight loss of 77 pounds that I've maintained for eight months, I'd like you to share the status of the program for children,
Unknown Speaker 23:05
you're gonna have seminars for it
Speaker 3 23:07
will be for children as well, we're gonna have to have it separate for for under 12 and then over 12. And so the lava 212
Unknown Speaker 23:17
is dealing with a weight problem. Oh,
Speaker 3 23:19
yeah. And a lot of that the parents will be going because the parents need to learn that we pass down to the next generation what we adore. And if we adore that food, we'll send it down. Thanks for Thank you Larry, for one javelin.
Unknown Speaker 23:35
Yeah, I would just think about that.
Speaker 1 23:37
If I ever see that woman it's fucking on site. beating the shit out of her. Yeah, you
Speaker 2 23:45
could tell Larry King was getting a little annoyed. Like she's talking at the end. He's like is shaking her hand like Alright, you're gonna get the fuck off.
Speaker 1 23:56
Wow. Also kind of reminds my mom a little bit. Oh, really? Yeah. Like get away from the refrigerator. Refrigerator. Now Yeah, but I did Weight Watchers and stuff with my mom. So that's that's a fond memory.
Speaker 2 24:17
Oh, man. Yeah, I did any weight stuff with my mom. Kids
Speaker 1 24:23
are just like ugly sometimes. They go through phases where they're just,
Unknown Speaker 24:31
you know, nerd.
Speaker 1 24:32
You Yeah, sorry. To skinny and then they get chubby and it's just what happens when you grow up the bar growing. But yeah, I will beat the shit out of her if I ever get a chance. Yeah,
Speaker 2 24:51
I mean, I'm not saying that. Eating Disorders, how they age too young or too old. But I don't think that that's where those children need to get there.
Unknown Speaker 25:12
Yeah, it's just like start.
Speaker 2 25:17
Yeah, we got to get those habits in them early so they can be there
Speaker 1 25:20
for their wedding when they're 16 to get there on their can travel or then they
Speaker 2 25:28
do do all the member marriages at their state area or whatever to so
Speaker 1 25:33
that's beautiful and the refreshments are like, meant some water for your reception.
Speaker 2 25:41
Sherman. As gwynn's program grew bigger, she started including things about self fulfillment and claiming her program could help with other problems like Target addiction. Oh, that's really responsible. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 25:58
somebody's in the hair when
Speaker 2 26:02
the Lord will fix that with this program that you have to buy. I can assume that she probably put like porn addiction in there too since she was talking about that in a while. That went off real. That was yeah, that was a crazy path. In 1999, she started the church Remnant Fellowship. She was basically setting herself up to become a prophet figure, which is denying the Trinity I guess and people were not having it. Good. I don't know a lot about religion, but a lot of Christians and stuff seem to fucking hate it when you denied the Trinity
Speaker 1 26:42
and Father, Son and Holy Spirit, baby. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2 26:46
she changed it. Remember, the three eating disorders. Churches and individuals were sending her learning materials back, and she canceled her upcoming book. Glenn's response to the situation was claiming it was all a witch hunt, of course, and quote, people can't. People don't care about this. They don't care about the Trinity. This is going to pass. What the women want is Whitelaw Oh, yeah. They care about their bodies being a temple in their lives turned over to the Lord. That's what my ministry is about. And so that's what she said, Cool. In 2005, former employees of the Way Down Workshop sued Gwen for religious discrimination, because it became basically a condition that employees at the workshop need to be a part of the Fellowship Church. Some of the things mentioned in the trial are one employee talked about using her lunch hour to pray and when told her that she pays people to pray and she didn't need her prayers. Oh, she prays for her prayers. According to the same employee, quote, Gwen would tell us that grace isn't the message of God and that she is a prophet. She said the Antichrist resides within each of us. It's pretty muddled. She was fired from the Way Down Workshop after leaving the Remnant Fellowship. So
Unknown Speaker 28:33
Whoa, why
Speaker 2 28:39
a woman who was baptized who was Baptist was fired and replaced with a member of the Remnant Fellowship Church. After some time she received a letter that was saying it was an accident that she was fired and was allowed to resign. They wanted her to sign for that. And she didn't of course, Yeah, makes sense. So a smart lady she kept all the documents and sent them to an attorney held during the deposition under oath, the attorney was asking Gwen about practices at the way down and Glenn said, quote, when people were in prison camps and ate less weight, all of them, the attorney replied, Miss Shamblin certainly you aren't making comparisons between the forced starvation of a population and the middle class Americans eating habits. Are you honestly doing that? And Glenn said, I have been for 15 years and many people responded. Wow, find the video on that. I'll put it up. But it was I didn't know take the time in my notes. So when
Speaker 3 29:48
people were in prison camps and ate less food, they lost weight. All of them
Speaker 2 29:58
sure would. Surely you're not making it comparison between the forced starvation of a population and middle class Americans eating habits. Are you honestly doing that?
Speaker 3 30:10
I have been for 15 years and a lot of people have responded. Yeah,
Speaker 1 30:15
that reminds me of that quote from Luann and king of the hill where she's like, I'm a proud ignorant
Speaker 2 30:26
one is that? Well, I don't I feel like I like that title, though. I don't want to give that.
Unknown Speaker 30:31
Yeah, we will. It's just
Speaker 2 30:35
so Gwen started referring to her church as the true Church, claiming she's claiming she found God's true church. And of course, people started seeing the church as more of a cult. Obviously. She got 40 acres of land, build a church. This is in Britain, one Tennessee, under the church, kind of like umbrella. I guess she bought a huge 25 acre pre Civil War plantation house. And you're heard about right, yeah, yeah. It's called Ashlynn. And this is also used for the remnant followers weddings. Like I mentioned earlier, sugar
Unknown Speaker 31:19
free mints.
Speaker 2 31:23
There were a lot of companies and services under the church's umbrella, like a financial planning company, a real estate company, car repair, wedding events, homeschool programs, and a contracting program like construction. And so members of remnant were expected to use all of these services. And only church members could work at these places. So it feels very clear water Florida. Apology like bad. Yeah. So she wanted people dependent on the church community. But there was also the park have more money going into the church and of course, it's all tax free, maybe.
Speaker 2 32:19
So, time's going on. The crossover of weight loss and religion is only getting worse. Two things are definitely true. With Glenn Gwynn. The higher the hair the closer to God, and the faster you lose weight, the closer you are to guy. Gordon said, You gotta make Zion look good. You don't make the church look good if you're overweight, or if children are not obedient. So like you're saying, No fatties for the Lord.
Speaker 1 32:54
You gotta be let so that God can lift you up for that rep. If you're a fatty, you're gonna be stuck here with the fasteners.
Unknown Speaker 33:03
And he has to pick all those people up. Gotta make it easier for the lower gotta make it like picking up sticks. When told members who didn't lose two pounds a week? Oh,
Speaker 2 33:22
yeah, that's that's very aggressive. So she told them to fast. One person said people would fast up to 40 days. After losing 130 pounds in 18 months, the same person was told to stop eating and keep losing weight. When demanded everyone take way down classes on the regular, but at their own expense. And it was way down TV is 1999 a month, or 234 99 for a yearly subscription savings sleeve. In one of the segments, Cohen said quote, instead of buying extra food this week, buy this book and keep it by your side.
Unknown Speaker 34:07
Jan vibes.
Speaker 2 34:09
Jan vibes send me the money. Like Tobey Maguire, show me the money. So yeah, that kind of reminded me of Andrew taint with the don't buy your mom a birthday gift. Send it to me. Yeah. Someone on the HBO documentary? Oh, yeah, there was an HBO documentary on this too. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 34:34
I need to watch that. Yeah, it's pretty good. Um, so like, I remember seeing it now that you say that.
Speaker 2 34:42
Someone on the dock said she was so concerned about what she looked like, what the church looked like to the world. And as she said, all the time, you gotta, you gotta make the sign look good. You don't glorify God. You don't make the church look good if you're overweight. or if the children are not obedient, which is kind of the same code I had earlier. There was a lot of child control and abuse. Even kids as young as nine were encouraged to discipline children as young as five, just because they were older. A little trigger warning for this next part because it touches a little more on child abuse. But that's the same reason I'm not going to talk about it for a long time. If you want to know more, you can look it up. In 2003 more eyes were on the church because there was an FBI raid as part of a murder investigation. Yes. Whoa. That was murdered. No. Remember the trigger warning. Sadly, two members of the church and program abused their child to death, basically.
Unknown Speaker 35:57
Oh my god. And
Speaker 2 35:58
since the parents claimed this brutal punishment was part of their religion. That's when the FBI got interested in the raid kicked off. Of course, when denied preaching anything like this to anyone New Channel Five Nashville had an audio recording of her saying beat the shit out of your kids. Basically, if they're not scared of spanking, you haven't spanked them? Damn. Yeah. And if you haven't really spent them yet then you don't love them. You love yourself. Wow, one member David. One of the highest ranking members talked about a quote showdown with their two year old daughter Oh, and they had to spank her over and over on all night. Ah, and he would would routinely lock his son in his room for long periods of time like the example they gave was Friday through Monday. Why yeah all this sounds really awful of course but remnant paid their lawyers to basically protect the church from anything bad being said about them. At the very least those parents that killed their son were found guilty to life in prison. Yeah, fuck those people. I hope to get fucking beat up in prison all the time. There is also a website set up that talks about the innocence of the church kind of reminds me of the Jodi Arias one but of course it also mentions the amazing weight loss of these Child Murders and links to the weekend website I don't have it like with me right now but like whenever you go to like read more about it it's like you know they talk about the parents and like they found like so much help with the way down workshop and lost this much weight this
Speaker 1 38:05
is truly fucking awful. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2 38:08
just a spiral that keeps going down right? Yeah, they are Child Murders but they looked really good doing it Oh God it's gonna be like her new workout playing
Speaker 2 38:27
lashings flashing back I'm the same website there's also a link in like the Sites menu that goes to the church and the way down program. So obviously that all just feels very, very inappropriate for the situation. And rip little Joseph. I didn't want to give his full name I just I know that he's he's passed away. But uh, I don't know it just felt appropriate to share before information but you guys can all look it up if you want Should we do a palate cleanser after that?
Unknown Speaker 39:09
Now's the time. jump off a bridge.
Unknown Speaker 39:17
Sorry, I kind of forgot about the palate cleanser. So yeah, definitely need one after that.
Speaker 1 39:22
I will find us a song. So something I enjoy is going on tick tock and finding remixes of popular songs that Christians do. Yeah, that's fun. So I'm gonna play a couple for us. Oh, so this is going to be Snoop Dogg. Drop it like it's hot.
Speaker 7 39:49
Get it? You drop it off to God. Drop it off to God shopping, stress trying to get it you drop it. Drop it. Drop it out To jump in
Unknown Speaker 40:03
so that one's not very creative
Speaker 2 40:06
I think leave it up to God would have been a better one but I guess it goes better with drop it like it's hot.
Speaker 1 40:12
Well who would think that one people that wrote these women do a good job?
Speaker 2 40:17
I got the holy on my arm and I'm pouring holy water like I got going on.
Speaker 1 40:24
It should have hired you to do it. I know. See what else we have. Okay, so this one I don't know who actually sings this. But I feel like I hear it all the time lately and it's like somebody pulled me up a double shot of whiskey. Oh yeah, I've seen it in fucking reels dumb so here's these popular Christian boys are doing song and dance they miracle boys. They are que
Speaker 8 40:55
cosa to two to three to the fourth. Tell us sing another one because we go praise the Lord say setting on the altar. We don't need a dance floor. Oh my Lord Jesus Christ nama testify everybody gotta know my God.
Speaker 2 41:19
All the videos I've seen of people doing that stuff is like these things. They've done a really cool thing.
Speaker 1 41:29
Yeah, that really got me for like really uncomfortable. There on the beach dancing and I can just imagine being a bystander and like walking on the beach and you see that happening? And you're like, Oh my God, no, I
Unknown Speaker 41:47
would be like, Oh my God, it's the miracle.
Unknown Speaker 41:53
autograph.
Speaker 2 41:56
Um, so back to Gwen after that nice little palate cleanser. I
Unknown Speaker 42:03
may feel more uncomfortable. Not really, but that was
Speaker 2 42:11
as gwynn's hair grew larger, her lifestyle became more lavish. She threw lots of parties like one called goddess so good festival. Members would do her hair makeup and other party services for free since it was quote serving God. Totally. You know, all those services were under the church anyway.
Unknown Speaker 42:34
I mean, yeah, it's a tax free party. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 42:36
Tax Free party.
Speaker 1 42:41
I should have set up my Halloween party is like a religious organization. You should do a whole house. ship for free. That would
Speaker 2 42:52
be an awesome party thing. People would also bring gifts to these parties like lavish gift baskets,
Unknown Speaker 42:59
sugar free mints
Speaker 2 43:02
no spray just flowers Yeah. But when requested people stopped bringing loads and bring cash instead the Lord asked for it. You know these are the Lord really likes cash I mean
Speaker 1 43:17
I already have a lifetime supply of sugar free mints Deborah Lord breeze
Speaker 2 43:26
the church started implementing family checkups to investigate members wrongdoings
Unknown Speaker 43:32
most is a full on calls.
Speaker 2 43:34
Oh yeah, for sure lawn everywhere. It's just it becomes basically a kind of like Scientology, or I mean, yeah, any cool. There was a hierarchy in the church and Gwen was in full control of that. And all these leaders go in hired were these men that everyone was supposed to go to with any kind of family or personal issue.
Speaker 1 43:55
It's man. Yeah, that's that's good idea.
Speaker 2 43:59
I mean, that's how God wants it. Even though Gwen is in charge. And she's a woman. It's the men which was another interesting thing that people pointed out because I can't remember exactly which branch of Christianity she was, but it was just like, men are leaders like women don't lead. Um, so yeah, these men would report to Gwen. Leaders are in daily communications with members even as far as monitoring social media accounts and restricting what members could post and even who they could follow. Yikes, that is so bad. Yeah. If that is if they were even permitted to have a social media account so so yeah, they're in like full control.
Speaker 1 44:44
My first thought with having men be the one to do that is I know that's a common way that churches take advantage of young people and kind of do weird stuff like you know a few snuck out with to your boyfriend or something, it would be like Well tell me all the details. Oh, man it Yeah. Nasty
Speaker 2 45:06
like so. Yeah.
Speaker 1 45:09
Hopefully it didn't go that route but yeah, I was that kind
Speaker 2 45:14
of went through that a little bit but I wasn't the churchgoer. It was the person I was dating the
Unknown Speaker 45:21
Jehovah boy.
Speaker 2 45:22
Yeah. And so he, you know, told his elders about that. And he got in like trouble and I can't remember exactly what happened if he was just not allowed to, like, go to service for a while or something. But yeah, he completely just ghosted me and just stop talking to me. And I mean, you Tim dress like so yeah, I mean, that guy's cool. Now, I don't think he's religious. And we talked about it. I was like, That hurt my feelings. It was like, sorry, I was in a cult. Yeah. And families. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I don't I don't I know. There might be people listening to this that knows who he is. I'm not like mad at him. Or anything.
Unknown Speaker 46:13
Like anything you do under the age of like,
Speaker 2 46:16
I don't know, when he five. Definitely, like not 21 I felt like you're Yeah,
Speaker 1 46:26
I mean, 25 is when your brain kind of finished finishes forming or developing, or maybe
Speaker 2 46:32
a few years after that, like, we kind of get your bearings after your brain has developed. It's gonna be 40. Because I'm, like, 30. And I feel like I'm kind of pulling it out. So just, it just never you just never stop. Nice
Unknown Speaker 46:46
to us. That's what we're saying. Yeah, please.
Speaker 2 46:51
Yeah, so the social media thing if they were even allowed to have it. therapy was also heavily discouraged, and people were told to refer to church leaders instead. She also encouraged people to not take their mental health medications. Even encouraged one man to get rid of his wife's medication. Oh, great. One member took herself to the ER for suicidal thoughts. And she was then taken to a center for help. She told the doctor there about the church. And the doctor was like you're saying here, you're not going anywhere near them again, like this is dangerous. The patient then called her husband to get one in her team of lawyers to get her out. Her husband said no. And the church said she deserved to hell on earth. Wow. Um, so yeah, that's all crazy. I didn't get any more information on that as to like, if they actually pulled her out or left her lair. I almost feel like they would have pulled her out. So she wouldn't talk more about it. But that's just my assumption layer.
Speaker 1 48:04
And like, all these people are literally starving. And I mean, you know, I get hangry I can't imagine if you've eaten three bites of food in a fucking week. So this is just really adds to the turmoil. And
Speaker 2 48:22
I know like, starvation is kind of like another cult tactic to keep them hungry. Keep them busy. You that way you have them on that schedule. They can't think Yeah, I know. That was huge and Jonestown. Sadly, Quinn's youngest son passed away from an illness and remnant members were asked to pray. The following Sunday going in the church leaders never talked about it again. Members were told it would no longer be mentioned, and everyone is expected to act normal. And almost makes me want to cry saying that out loud. I'm only like, read about it, but it's really sad. Yeah. One member said, After this, her and her husband were called in for a family checkup. Because, quote, we're bringing the stragglers to assess how they're doing, because God's bringing judgment on this church. And we want to know where it's coming from. So this this is basically Gwen. Essentially blaming people in the church for the death of her son. Another change that came to the church was wives being submissive to their husbands. They weren't allowed to go against their husband's wishes and only allowed to talk to their husbands about one about something one time and never bring it up again. If a wife was not submissive, the husband was encouraged to complain to a leader and the wife would be forced to do counseling.
Speaker 1 49:53
Well, at least it's not beat her I guess that's where I thought this was going. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 2 49:59
yeah. No, that's probably kids. Oh, she's an adult. Alyssa. Okay, this one's This one's really sad. One woman was committed to the ER for her malnutrition. She had a 5k. And she asked her husband if she could get a Starbucks drink. He said, Do you want that or dinner? She was taken to the ER later, and her electrolytes and everything roll off. They think she had a miniature stroke. Her husband, now x, do not visit her. Because her condition was, quote, self induced to queue up another saw, yeah, yeah. She needed help right away or else she was going to die. Can we? Oh, yeah. This would be a good part for the song. Okay. Yep. That was last part of the sentence. Okay, if I'm cool to do another song if you want, because I know it was like, boom, her son died and like nobody really acknowledged it and then boom, people go into the ER, like, it's I know it's kind of a lot. Yeah. I
Speaker 1 51:14
mean, I'm fine, but I'm just saying this is fucking awful. Yeah.
Speaker 9 51:18
Pretty crosswalk. In Proverbs 31 She got Jesus on the mind she lived in for the sign. I don't care if the world's online me. I'm a daughter of God, not a Pisces.
Unknown Speaker 51:33
I don't know what that means. Daughter of God not a Pisces. Do a lot of religious people like not? Do they like hiss at astrology?
Speaker 1 51:45
Yeah, that's one of what the fuck is his name? Greg Locke, that like when he went to that bookstore and was burning stuff. He was burning like astrology and tarot. I think that's more the hardcore people, though. I think an average Christian like doesn't give a shit. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 2 52:02
Okay, so um, obviously with these women rule changes. A new divorce type atmosphere came with all this as well. Yeah. Okay. As I talked about before, there was a stuff with like Gwen, and male leadership and stuff. Her husband, David has not really been talked about or around. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1 52:25
I forgot to marry. Yeah, there's another kid, right? Yeah, she has three children. So two are still
Speaker 2 52:33
Yes, two are still alive. So her husband David's kind of in the backseat the whole time. But when he he originally started as the head of the church. Oh, okay. I don't really know what that looked like. Or if that was just for some type of legal paperwork. Like I know, sometimes. Men will put a woman's name on a business because it gets more funding or some shit like that. So of course Gwen divorces David after meeting Joe Lera and changing her mind about her views on divorce. Maybe Joe was an actor, well known for his role as Tarzan and Tarzan in Manhattan. I never saw it but I, it seemed like it was kind of a well known movie during the title. Okay. Um, and being basically like a sugar baby man, boy to other celebrities coincide quote, God Himself divorced Israel, his bride for her own faithfulness. So there should be no judgment towards saints as they strive to build a pure church. And she also said, there are obviously cases of divorce that God allows as much as he hates it. So she married Joe and they had a really weird, strange, beautiful relationship. Joe's formers friends said he was never religious. And it was so weird how he acted around her.
Speaker 1 54:17
Oh my god. This is like BJ and righteous gemstones. Yeah, kind of Chile's husband, but I
Speaker 2 54:23
would say they were a little more and see. Like, there are clips of him playing like playfully chasing her around the house. And it's just so weird. It's hard to explain. But it gives the vibe of like, children playing husband and wife. Okay, like it's Yeah, because he like, chases her around and like, picks her up and they're all like easy. And like when he chases are around, you know, they're kind of like crouching around stuff. It's really like that. So yeah, I recommend just try Picking that out just google google clips of them. They also had an extravagant wedding with 1500 guests. Oh shit, which included 34 flower girls and 15 bridesmaids.
Speaker 1 55:12
Yeah. And at different kinds of sugar free mints.
Speaker 2 55:22
I assume all of this was free from the various services of the church. Obviously, it's
Unknown Speaker 55:28
Tennessee taxpayers paid for that.
Speaker 2 55:32
That's why there were so many people, taxpayers there. And yeah, they had a video. I didn't, I don't have it written down. But it was like their epic evening. And it's I watched it in this YouTube video that I'll mention later, but it's like, the person was like, I swear, I did not like edit or clip this or anything. This is how it is. And it's just like cringy slow motion, bad music. It's great. So they were also working on a reality show called Life with Quinn and Joe. It's rumored that they pitched it to networks before hiring their own crew and making it a YouTube channel. Making videos like seeking God on vacations. How to have parties all about God, and how to be humble and expect nothing, which we know what's televangelists former like? Yeah. Oh, and it also included Joe's music videos. Yes, he's a musician that makes his own country music and courses. They also made a studio for for this so he has his own music. Church studio.
Unknown Speaker 56:50
Joe is saying me. Me the guitar got such a pretty voice.
Speaker 2 56:59
Joe was also in a custody battle with his ex during this time,
Unknown Speaker 57:04
who lit a fucking God.
Speaker 2 57:06
And of course Gwen helped financially back this battle. Joe and Gwen had some strict rules for Joe's daughter, like she couldn't have friends outside of the church. During the court battle, it was brought up that Joe was not allowed to fly their daughter in his private jet because, yes, Joe had his pilot's license and his sugar mama bought him a private plane.
Speaker 1 57:30
Of course she did. They all have private planes, everyone.
Speaker 2 57:37
And of course, Joe is very responsible and did not keep up his medical certificate every two years like a pilot is supposed to do. But the pilot examiner that was working that day, cleared him to fly on May 2021. So he was fine this point when he should not be Joe Gwynn and a few other church leaders we're flying to a Trump rally in Florida.
Speaker 1 58:08
Played a fucking crash ever, ever playing
Speaker 2 58:14
well, Alyssa you're fucking wishes are granted. This charlatan crew crashed into a lake and died. Wait really? Yes. Oh yes. Into this May 2021 They crashed their plane on the way into a Trump rally
Speaker 1 58:44
because now I don't have to beat her up. Yeah, I didn't want to look like on cool since I've said that,
Unknown Speaker 58:50
but it's hard for me to mention
Speaker 1 58:53
earlier but but yes. reveals fucking assholes. pieces
Speaker 2 59:01
of crap. Ironically, it's reported the crash was due to overweight capacity. Yeah.
Speaker 2 59:17
Was just a little cherry on top. It's beautiful. There were also a third about about a third of the way through filming a series about greed and encouraging them that are members to give up all their money. So let's do another cherry on top. And speaking of money, Gwen did not leave any to the church, even though she said half of her will was going to God and the church on when she was on television. So she said that at least once live. She left it only to her two kids, which I feel fair whatever you want with your money, but of course there's the issue. because she lied about it and promised everything to the church. Her daughter was basically groomed to take over the church. So it still continues today.
Speaker 1 1:00:07
Really? I thought it was gonna be a happy ending. Yeah, and I can't.
Speaker 2 1:00:12
I think your daughter's name was Elizabeth. But she goes by a different name now because she wanted a sin free name. So, yeah, her son chose to leave the church. He actually started speaking out a few months ago. I only saw like one short interview how we had there might be more coming out over time. But yeah, if you're interested in more details, I recommend checking out a video called The Millionaire preacher with a weight loss colts by not the good girl on YouTube. It feels like a really good kind of just the details you need. Based off of the HBO Doc's Docu series. Um, so yeah, if you kind of just want Oh, in that Docu series is called the way down. So if you just kind of want a good overview, let's about an hour long. Watch that YouTube video if you want, just like all the details that you can get out. Yeah, recommend the documentary. Well, yeah, that's all I have for excellent.
Speaker 1 1:01:19
So many fucking twists and turns and I just can't believe their plane crash. overweight.
Speaker 2 1:01:30
I know. That's just so. I mean, I hate saying it's funny because plane crashes are awful. And it's sad when people died. But I feel like we get a little grace to laugh here since she was such a shitty person.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:45
Many people's fucking lives in that little boy died
Speaker 2 1:01:48
and encouraging people to these kids. So yeah, actually fuck her. Yeah, I mean, I feel okay saying that.
Speaker 1 1:01:57
I hope no innocent people were hurt. You know, like if they had
Unknown Speaker 1:02:02
I don't know, some kind of
Speaker 1 1:02:05
mouth servant. Attendant. Yeah, that wasn't hard on the church, but I'm sure they would all be church people. Yeah, no,
Speaker 2 1:02:12
it was it was just them. Just the two of them. It was the two of them and then like a four to six other people, but they were Turchi leaders of the church. So it's like the Church lost a handful of their leadership with that plane crash
Speaker 1 1:02:30
oh my god, that just makes me think of them having like, a massive funeral for everybody. And they have like, Diamond Coated casket, just like so many flowers and so many ments and so many diet sodas, and
Speaker 2 1:02:48
I mean, they I should have looked up what like the service was like, or, I mean, maybe they even just did a thing where they just blew it off, like the death of her son did but I don't know, I feel like they're gonna be like, Oh, it was going. You know, this is the most important person in the world. You
Speaker 1 1:03:08
have to step on a scale before you go in. Make sure that you're a proper weight observes a service,
Speaker 2 1:03:18
you have to weigh in on the way down to the way down. Oh, yeah. And then you have to um, they don't do when they do communion. They just do like half of bread thing or something. And it's just like diet wine. Um, but yeah, we will be coming at coming at you guys with more of this lovely stuff. So keep listening fat heads. Yeah, I
Speaker 1 1:03:47
have another fun swindler. So we could do next to kind of keep going with the swindler theme. It's really funny. Got a lot of good quotes. Cool. Yeah, I
Speaker 2 1:04:01
have another swindler as well. He is a more well known person. So
Unknown Speaker 1:04:06
are we kidding? They're all swindlers. Yeah, they
Speaker 2 1:04:09
are. Oh, when I do want to say because I was talking about my boyfriend, Randy so much last time. I started watching the movie. Late Night with the devil. It's
Unknown Speaker 1:04:26
yeah, I've heard great things about it.
Speaker 2 1:04:27
I haven't finished it yet. I only got halfway but they have a person on there. That's basically supposed to just be cheating. They do kind of shit. I think they kind of tried to shit on him a little bit though. Because, you know, it's a movie about like possession. Like, oh, you're trying to like, give us money to prove stuff to you. I don't care about your money, all that kind of stuff. So I love that they had a character like that in it. School. I have a feeling that they're going to kill him. Yes. Yeah, let's see what happens but what should happen next is you guys liking and subscribing on you know where you're listening and various platforms
Speaker 1 1:05:14
yeah and send us in your stories really any kind of story but if you want anything read on the television to love love love series then we would love to read it
Speaker 2 1:05:28
yeah if you have any good suggestions for pastors that we might not know please let us know. Yes please. We might keep appending on to this
Speaker 1 1:05:40
keep adding throughout time and yes somehow these people aren't going away and idiots just keep I want to give people money Yeah, so
Speaker 2 1:05:52
hold on now given hope to the wrong people. But all right we love you guys and party on the
Unknown Speaker 1:05:59
new party on