Gwen Shamblin Lara | Pseudo-Christian Cult Leader or Weight Loss Pioneer?

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of gwen chamblin lara just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll go through the background for lara then i'll move to the timeline of her activities with her weight loss program in her church then i'll move to my analysis gwen chamberlain lara was born on february 18 1955 in memphis tennessee she attended the university of tennessee in knoxville and earned a bachelor's degree in dietetics she would go on to earn a master's degree in food and nutrition from memphis state university she worked as a faculty member at that university for five years lair had other jobs as well including working in the health department for the city of memphis and working as a registered dietitian larry married a man named david chamblin in january of 1978 they would have two children together in 1986 she developed and promoted a bible study series which she referred to as the way down workshop the word way is spelled w-e-i-g-h it was like a faith-based weight loss system she taught her belief system in a small retail setting and started receiving a positive response according to lara by 1995 her program was being used in a thousand churches the united states canada and the united kingdom about a year and a half later it was in 5 000 churches in 1997 she featured her system in a book titled the way down diet it sold more than a million copies larry became quite popular she made appearances on bbc a current affair larry king live the view the today show and 2020. she was in magazines like woman's day family circle and good housekeeping in 1999 she founded the remnant fellowship church which continued her mission including teaching her weight loss message in 2002 she bought 40 acres in brentwood tennessee and donated them to the church on that site she built a church that was modeled after a well-known church in bennington vermont which is the burial site of robert frost in 2002 she donated her way down system to the church in 2018 lara divorced her husband david shamblin and married a man named joe lara he was best known as an actor who played the lead role in the tv show tarzan the epic adventures a series that ran from 1996 to 1997. so put another way he was not really that well known this takes us to may 29 2021 on this day lara and six other church leaders were on board a 1982 cessna citation 501 this is a small business jet about 43 feet long with a 47 foot wingspan it weighs only 600 pounds empty just as a comparison if you look at the gulfstream 5 owned by kenneth copeland another well-known religious figure his aircraft is 96 feet long with a 93-foot wingspan and weighs 46 000 pounds empty the citation 501 was at maximum capacity as far as passengers five along with two pilots lara's husband and her son-in-law were both pilots but her husband's medical certification had expired and her son-in-law was not certified on the cessna 500 series the destination for the aircraft was florida's palm beach international airport the plane would take off at 10 53 am shortly after takeoff the plane crashed into the percy priest lake near smyrna tennessee no one survived the crash lara was 66 years old now moving to my analysis some have suggested that the church lara founded is pseudo-christian and occult pseudo-christian is fairly easy to define it is a belief system that is not truly christian but represents itself to be defining a cult is more complex unfortunately there is no single agreed upon definition for a cult but here are a few characteristics that are often observed in cults leaders are authoritarian and manipulative these leaders fulfill an agenda by using fear and deception to control followers they believe system promoted by the cult is relatively new in the culture of origin cult members are isolated from outside influence they tend to only have contact with each other by design like the cult is designed that way they become distant from their past beliefs they are supposed to adopt the values of the cult indoctrination is one of the main goals of a cult the group accomplishes this in a variety of ways aggressive conversion methods like going after potential recruits with vigor there's a demand for purity members are encouraged to rid themselves of anything impure and the definition of impure comes from the cult the group reinforces a submission to authority promoting feelings of guilt and shame is a popular tactic and the group claims a wisdom that has never been achieved and is only available to members as members become indoctrinated they attack other groups in order to defend themselves declaring that those groups are the real cults those other groups are the ones who act in bizarre ways and have secretive rituals so they're deflecting the blame the group doesn't necessarily view itself as against society they may see themselves as helping society they look at themselves as against the real cults and false prophecies so with this in mind the definition of pseudo-christian and the definition of a cult let's look at the beliefs promoted by lera many of which became incorporated into her church and see if they are pseudo-christian and if they align with a cult starting with the pseudo-christian argument lara was not so subtle in suggesting she was a prophet sent by god she had come to save people who had been ignoring warning signs from god only believing in lara could spare them from destruction layer suggested that god told her to become a dietitian being overweight is a sign of greed and gluttony and certain items which she referred to as idols need to be laid down in order to lose weight specifically depression anger selfishness money drugs jealousy and envy lara claimed that the gospel had never been taught in full she brought the correct teachings to the people everyone up until this point has been wrong but she was right to lara all christian churches are counterfeit except hers false fellowships have pushed incorrect teachings but her teaching is accurate somehow she has special knowledge that has escaped theologians on judgment day many people will find themselves in trouble because they missed foundational teachings to avoid the fires of hell members must accept the exclusive restoration of the true church which is accomplished by remnant fellowship it appears as though the teachings of lara come from her own distorted view of the bible essentially just using biblical passages out of context in order to justify her belief system so it does seem to qualify as pseudo-christian it sounds like the fine print theory of eternal damnation people don't go to heaven on judgment day because they didn't read all the instructions like they forgot to turn a document over like more people would be in heaven if they only realized that these documents were two-sided or something it's something of a gotcha mentality according to lara's theory i suppose a lot of lawyers would make it to heaven right they would be aware of the fine print now moving to the question did lara operate a cult if we look at some of the behaviors and teachings of the group there are pronounced similarities to what we see in cults here are a few examples the first item is the whole thing with lara being a prophet this is highly consistent with cults lara would suggest that unless the teaching came from her it was not from god she demanded total obedience her authority was absolute there was also some hint of grandiosity and maybe magical thinking for example on 9 11 lara was in front of the tv watching the news coverage of the attack in new york city other church members were around her she said i told them something like this could happen they wouldn't listen to my warnings now look god has brought his judgment down now a few months prior she had said that america could be attacked by a foreign country after 9 11 she declared her prior statement to be a prophecy therefore lara and millions of other people who thought an attack was possible are all prophets i guess the next item the belief system promoted by lara was new in the culture of origin so consistent with a cult she said her church was the only way to salvation and every other church was counterfeit so in a way she's kind of implying that only people who are thin can get into heaven because her system is based on weight loss so everybody has to lose weight in order to i guess fit through the gates of heaven i don't know what her theory was but it was something like that so a lot of thin people going to heaven the next item her church had a vigorous recruitment effort that involved intensive contact with potential recruits many people who attended the bible studies were in a vulnerable place they wanted to lose weight they were frustrated and they were looking for answers recruiters would often zealously and repeatedly contact individuals pressuring them to join the church once people were recruited the church worked to cut them off from external influences like family members and friends they were thought of as sinful influences they were also cut off from media like music television or movies which were inconsistent with the church's message lara claimed the isolation was good for the members it would help them achieve purity the vulnerability of the recruits i talked about was potentially prolonged when they joined as members lera had an attitude toward mental health that would only serve to make sure that people would not be effectively treated for mental health symptoms for example she condemned the use of antidepressants to her using antidepressants was an act of idolatry and a stronghold of evil the next item when members were separated from the church the church wasn't too happy about it the members who left would be declared enemies of the church they were demonized as destructive spiritual rebels who would bear the mark of the beast they were leaving the ark of salvation there was actually no way to leave the church without this result there was no friendly polite departure system either somebody was a spiritual warrior fighting for salvation and for weight loss i guess or a spawn of satan i take it this would create awkward situations at bible studies when someone who was expected to be there had been kicked out or left the church like two people would be seated waiting for the bible study to start and one would say to the other hey have you seen jim only to hear the response oh he's not here anymore as it turns out he had the mark of the beast who knew you sit next to a guy for years studying the bible and then boom spawn of satan i'm guessing the ideas of middle ground or continuous measurement were not too popular with lara she seemed to have dichotomous thinking it was all or nothing with these items in mind i moved back to that question was lara's church a cult it would appear that it was a cult based on the evidence that is available i think a few things came together to make this weight loss movement and religious belief system popular cult membership is often initiated because of pain people want something they don't have or in this case they want to get rid of something they do have lara was able to combine her system of losing weight with religion interestingly her system essentially only involved eating less it did not include avoiding specific foods or exercise it was exceedingly simple and really just common sense the key to her system wasn't really just that again that was simple the key was how the motivation could be brought about what could motivate somebody to eat less it was based on dieting to ensure salvation on the positive side and on the negative side dieting to avoid the fires of hell essentially lara said let's make weight evil and that'll make it go away in order to lose weight somebody needed to buy into this idea that they were bad for gaining it in the first place lara was able to combine the idea of weight loss with purity she connected those two which made it easy to explain how weight loss fit into salvation to make her beliefs more appealing lera also extended the influence of her weight loss system to other areas claiming that people who lost weight also found their finances restored and their marriages healed here's what i think happened in the case of gwen shamble and lara when people are in pain they will believe just about anything at some point lara realized this she put together the simplistic dieting plan and married it to a belief system to form something that seems like a cult there was no reason to believe that she was selected to be a prophet had special knowledge about the bible or was superior in terms of her reasoning to theologians rather she was simply adamant that she was correct the message of weight loss combined with her charisma and overconfidence led people to the religious side of her program weight loss can be difficult for some people to accomplish they have difficulty finding the motivation to adjust their intake of food food becomes like any other substance to which people can become addicted sometimes when people have an addiction they seek out spiritual answers a good example of this is alcoholics anonymous the story of lara is a cautionary tale even something as innocuous as trying to lose weight can expose people to cult-like thinking those are my thoughts on gwen shamble and lara please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021