Gwen Shamblin Lara, the HBO’s The Way Down documentary, was a weight-loss champion turned controversial religious leader. She gained prominence across several decades as a weight-loss supporter and founded the Remnant Fellowship Church. Before that, Shamblin Lara also started a faith-based weight loss program, the Weigh Down Workshop. She then wrote about it in her 1997 best-selling book, The Weigh Down Diet.
Reportedly, Gwen Shamblin Lara married her second husband, Joe Lara, in 2018, and the couple died in a tragic plane crash, which happened while the latter was piloting the aircraft. Five other people died in the incident that occurred in March 2021 in Tennessee. A subsequent examination revealed the plane crashed after it entered the clouds, and the pilot became disoriented.
Following her death, Gwen Shamblin Lara’s two children from her previous marriage continued to run the church. Besides HBO’s The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin, Lifetime’s Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation also revisits the controversial religious leader’s story. The film stars Jennifer Grey in the lead role.
Who was Gwen Shamblin Lara & what was her cult?
According to People Magazine, Gwen Shamblin Lara gained notoriety as a controversial religious leader. She was a weight-loss champion for decades and became a controversial health advocate. People began following her Weigh Down Workshop, a weight loss program on the grounds of faith. In a clip featured in HBO’s The Way Down documentary, she revealed that her program teaches “people how to stop bowing down to the refrigerator and how to bow back down to [God].”
Gina Graves, a former member of the program, claimed the “basic principles were you can eat whatever you want.” During her appearance in one of the episodes, Graves said, “No foods are bad,” as “Jesus declared all food clean.” Another former member stated the program focused on “portion control.” In 1997, the religious diet guru released a best-selling book titled The Weigh Down Diet, which discussed the same topic.
Later, in 1999, Gwen Shamblin Lara founded her infamous Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood, Tennessee. Through the church, Shamblin Lara asserted that it is “her big savior to help people keep their weight down and stay saved,” said Graves. Terassee Morris, a former member of the church, added, “And the faster you do it, the holier you are.”
The Guardian stated that several other people who were once Remnant Fellowship members have alleged harassment and emotional abuse. Some even claimed that Shamblin Lara’s workshop Weigh Down Workshop taught that being fat is a manifestation of sin. However, the church has denied all allegations, calling claims in the documentary “defamatory” and “absurd.”
How did Gwen Shamblin Lara die?
Gwen Shamblin Lara was with her second husband, actor Joe Lara, during the plane crash that killed them and five others. The couple tied the knot in 2018 after Shamblin Lara went through a highly-debatable divorce from her first husband, David Shamblin. She had remained married to Shamblin throughout her career and had opposed the idea of a divorce. However, to marry Lara, she had to go through with it, a move several church members began questioning.
Former Remnant Fellowship Church member Helen Byrd stated, “All of those years you have told people to suffer through their marriage.” Byrd expressed frustration, adding, “Then whenever the spirit hits you, you done had a whole change of heart, now it’s okay to get divorced.”
NBC News reported that Gwen Shamblin Lara’s husband, Joe Lara, was piloting the plane that crashed on March 29, 2021. The aircraft took off from Smyrna Airport just outside Nashville and crashed into Percy Priest Lake within minutes. The other five crash victims were Brandon Hannah, Jennifer J. Martin, David L. Martin, Jessica Walters, and Jonathan Walters. All victims were members of Remnant Fellowship Church. The aircraft was en route to Palm Beach, Florida, at the time.
An investigation later revealed that the plane crash that killed Shamblin Lara and her husband happened after the latter became disoriented in the clouds.
HBO’s The Way Down: God, Greed and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin documentary is now streaming on Max.
