Inside a Tennessee Church That Promotes Extreme Fasting as a Path to God

To accuse me of being deceptive is a very strong language because I've been led by God to do this. There is a cult in Tennessee that preaches weight loss as a path to God. We're not going to think about food any more. Its founder Gwen Shamblin suspiciously died in a plane crash, but somehow the Remnant Fellowship Church is still alive and thriving. So what's really going on here behind closed doors? And what will happen if I try to sneak in to convince the cult that I want to join? There's only one way to find out.

This is Michael Black, the founder's son, who's on a mission to expose his mother's crimes from body shaming and financial control to even more severe forms of manipulation. This is where the magic happens. The blackness of this room is scary. It's a type of paint that sucks in light. So why black? What is about black that you like? I see Gwen changing into somebody that's narcissistic, controlling. You know, I'm getting abuse, whatever, from the leadership. And I start, you know, feeling this person, this persona, or whatever, this black.

And it was, to me, it like represented, like, something who's tired of being abused by false religion. I started kind of experimenting with this persona, Michael Black. And it meant to me, like, it's a readiness that stands in the face of false religion. I'm not going to be fooled today by lying women or lying leaders, if that makes sense. This is a.224 Valkyrie. That looks like a badass weapon right there. Yeah. And you obviously have this for protection, but also like a hobby? Protection. I'm just over the years. And then, of course, I had the death threat on my life, right, from Joe.

This is a.338, easily concealed. It feels like a toy. Is that what you would carry with you in a car? I normally would like to have a little more stopping power than that. But, you know, it's better than nothing, right? Oh, yeah. So for the road, we take the CZ -75. This is like my baby right here. Can't put the Glock down, my Glock is my hoe, and my hoe go everywhere I go. You know that song. It even says black on your cologne. Yeah, it's kind of my thing.

So the church started in 1999. I left the fall of 2021. That was after the crash. After the plane crash. You think if the crash never happened, you'd still be in it? I was on kind of a trajectory at that point. I was 19 when the church started. We had been in church all my life. Different churches. Church of Christ. I don't know if you're familiar with Weigh Down Workshop. That was kind of the precursor to Remnant. Got it. And that was when we were young, growing up in Memphis.

It was a book, it was a class, it was a course. Yeah, that's it. I mean, it was faith-based weight loss. It was intuitive eating disguised as a religious Christ's way of living. You know, the idea wasn't necessarily new. It was around in the 70s. So you had stuff like praying away temptation. And it was in basically, I would say, literally every single church denomination and church in the country had weight on. Wow. And when you were like 19, when it started, you were aware. Like, wow, your mom started this. Like, you must have felt pretty special at the time.

I was full on, full support. And I was gullible and I was naive. Up until 2021, did you think about leaving? Like you were. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. But we were still like super isolated. So we weren't allowed to watch, you know, a lot of outside media. Got it. A lot of outside music. We were in our own little bubble. And I kid you not, you're told the entire world is like Satan. And we are the only righteous people on earth.

You believe that this is a cult, right? Oh, yeah. For many, many reasons. There are people who literally would have done anything for Gwen. Gwen's word was like considered law. I'm taking such tiny bites that I'm not gaining weight off of it. And I don't go beyond full. She would be somebody that you would listen to like Moses or even Jesus. You know, there was a story of one of the guys.

He was looking down while Gwen was speaking in the sanctuary. And he was reading his Bible. And David Martin, who's one of the top leaders, he told him literally this verbatim. He said, if Jesus was in the sanctuary right now, he would be paying attention to Gwen. Wow. So that is pretty cultish. That was what was being taught. It's so weird that's your mom. Like, that's your biological mother. I started calling them the blonde haired blue eyed devils.

Her and those women. I started feeling more and more that she was about promoting herself. Narcissistic. Maybe you've seen The Matrix. Yeah, of course. Which came out in 1999. Gwen used that like that was meant for her and the remnant. I remember when Neo's being trained and like everybody can turn into Smith. So this was the mindset she had. You're like looking around like anybody could become the enemy at any time. That is crazy. Lucifer is on the prowl looking for you.

Demons dressed like angels are everywhere trying to get you to go sideways. That kind of mindset though you can see how people were shunning their families. Somebody inviting you to another church was Satan was working through them. And your sister is running the church now? Do you speak with her? No. At all? No. We only communicate through attorneys. So I lost mother, I lost father, I lost stepfather. My brother has left me.

They've also served me with some no trespassing papers. So if I actually drive on right now they'll call the police. When's the last time you went in that building? 2021. Do you get weird feelings? There's somebody pulling over. I prefer them not to see me right now because we just got here. All right so we are here right in front of us is the remnant church. Is that the only main church? That's the one. I still can't believe Gwen Shamblin is Michael's mom.

She lived a fancy life off the church's profits, enabled child abuse and even defended two members who murdered their own son. But I'll get to that later. After her plane crashed you'd think the church would fall apart but it's still growing. To find out how I got on the phone with someone who used to be on the inside, a former remnant security guard. What kind of things did you experience as part of the church? Through my ex-wife, done with the main attraction. She had done a class in her church before I was with her and then it kind of resurfaced again after she had her firstborn and then the weight loss was the main attractor.

At what point did you know something was wrong or didn't feel right or like? Quite early on I was kind of a duck out of water. It just seemed too frilly and fashion show like. During the whole security there were several times where there was members that were in the head stalkers. To me that was kind of a red flag. It was set up almost kind of like a military security cameras that were staged around the building. So everyone was being stalked basically or watched?

During the worship service people were being watched. They got a room down in the basement, a specific way to monitor and it was multi-screen. And they can see people if they're not looking at Gwen or if they're talking amongst each other. And would they call you out if you weren't looking at Gwen? Yes, but they mainly would become persons of interest I guess if you will. And they didn't know they were being watched? No. Until now? Is this happening now? I'm sure it is. There was a list from leadership of people to watch out for. And there was guys posted perimeter wise with full kit and with ARs, suppressed ARs.

They have their own shooting range? Really? How many churches have their own shooting range? Pretty crazy to talk to you about this as I'm staring at the church. You know churches have security teams nowadays. Every church has that. But Remnant was leading the way and they had a freaking army. One of the nights that I knew, no longer it's Christianity in my mind, I kind of just asked her, I said, if somebody was coming down the church drive and you knew they were coming after you, against you, they were ticked off.

And she said, I'd have them shot down on the church drive. And I was like, so you would have somebody gunned down in the Remnant drive if you knew they were coming after you? She says, yes. And so that night I remember leaving and going, you know, you think of Christianity, like turning the other cheek, that teaching about forgiving, you know, if someone strikes you, you turn the other cheek also. It was nowhere to be found with Remnant. Remnant took everything to extremes. They have people that are in government intelligence that go to Remnant that are sympathetic.

Oh wow. And they would put together threat levels of people. Wow. And they were getting information that the average citizen couldn't get. So they work together, the government and. And so the church, Remnant. How is that legal? That can't be legal. It wasn't legal. That's not legal. And if those people were found out, if I said their name, they would lose their job. I would catch them setting up cameras on tripods wherever I went. Everywhere you went, someone was watching you? Yes. They knew where I was everywhere I went.

How did that make you feel? Drove me insane. I hated it. I went over to the Weigh Down building after church service one day to go just work in my studio in my office over there. I decided to sneak into Gwen's office and I found a file she had on me that she had been collecting negative stuff about me since I was in high school. What? Why would any mom do that to her kid? I went through kind of a dark phase in high school. I found this file and it just literally just destroyed me and I was like, what?

Did you confront her about that? I never told her. I think that's the creepiest thing that I've heard so far. She was the genuine definition of narcissism to where she would always know more than anybody else. She had to be the expert on everything. Wow. It was part of her control. Was she smart? She went to college and got a degree. Like, was she smart? David Chamberlain was smarter than her. She was a good speaker though. Tell me about your dad. And he actually had the divinity training.

Were you close with him before he passed? Yes. After I left the church, we would go to lunch every single day. We hung out every single day. So we became best friends the last two years of his life. Only had two years with him, but. How did he pass? Pancreatic cancer. Sorry to hear that. So she divorced him, filed against him in 2017, and the divorce was finalized in 2018. He left the church as well? He left the church like a year into it, like in 2000. He was only there for about eight months.

Really? But they were married and he wasn't in the church? Yes, that's right. That's odd. It's a red flag from the start. Yeah. And ironically, he was really beloved to a lot of people in the city. And he knew a lot of people. She was the Gwen, the charismatic, you know, you couldn't miss her. He never abused her. He didn't drink. He didn't do drugs. He didn't, you know, he never cheated on her. It's obvious that Michael has survived a lot of trauma, but opening up about it seems to be a positive step towards healing.

Now we are heading to the building where it all started. Back in the 90s, before the church and before the cult, there was a diet class called Weigh Down that Gwen started. And we just arrived at the exact location. Remnant actually worshiped here for the first two or three years of its existence. They've sold the building now. So does Weigh Down exist anymore? It exists as like still the weight loss classes that the remnant. Did you do Weigh Down? I've been in, I've heard probably 10,000 hours worth of it. But yeah, and I worked here for three years in the shipping department.

My entire life has been based around Weigh Down remnant. So you were really skinny at one point? Yeah. Hard to believe, huh? Yeah. That's not what I was getting at. Because I've seen pictures of Gwen, like, and she was like a toothpick. I've had hundreds to thousands of people write me on like social media saying things like Weigh Down program caused them to have eating disorders. So they're still to this day trying to unlearn the practices and things, the teachings that they had when they were in it.

They would start pushing fasting, not eating for long periods of time. So stop eating. And then where it really got extreme was if you were in remnant. You have people that are weight monitors. Then you have leaders. So you're checking in constantly and it caused people to go to extremes. I'm trying to understand why do they want people to lose weight? Like what's the significance of that? Because that was the number one sin of remnant was weight. And so thinness would be equated with godliness.

Other religions don't believe this. Gluttony is a sin like in the Catholic Church or something like that. But Weigh Down has taken it to the extreme. It is all appearance. It's how someone looks. It's how you're doing in your weight this week dictates how close you are to God. Okay, got it. So I think this is an important point though. It's women. Weigh Down was 99% women. I've actually started calling it the women's movement.

It was women who run it. It was women who steer it. And so you have the ones who joined were like the families. It was headstrong women. They join Weigh Down. They get roped into joining the remnant. They pull their husbands in. They pull their families in. It's strong women. It's women is what it's all been about. Interesting. So, you know, just basic facts. Diet programs in the 80s, 90s, whatever, 2000s.

It's a lot more female than male. The teachings of Weigh Down, that's one of the dangerous parts of it. It's causing people to go to extremes. And you're doing it for God. So they would tell people that were struggling in remnant. You need to fast for 40 days. 40 days? How do you even live? So how did people die? If you have a lot of exercise, excess weight, it's possible, but it's not healthy. But people, I mean, there's been all sorts of issues where people have had damage, internal damage to your organs and stuff like that. Mess up your pregnancies. Do you think Gwen had an anorexia? She's one time confessed to me almost like that.

She had taken it so far that her body, she goes, I would eat just a few bites of salad. And that's all I could eat for the day or I'd gain weight. Wow. What is it? You're resting metabolic, right? It keeps going down and down as you're starving more and more. So she was eating so little, but she was also wanting to drink alcohol. Oh, she drank as well. So she would drink wine, but eat a few bites of salad. I remember her complaining about that to me.

Her body had just, it was shutting down. She was a little fuller figured like when Weigh Down was popular. And then as remnant went on, you just start seeing stick figure. Anorexic by the end. And that's the problem. Here's my sister who's taking it over. That's their ideal spiritual icon would have been Gwen or Elizabeth to these women. To this day. Does that bother you? I'm very uncomfortable with it. I'm glad you're out. I'm glad you're like, you seem to be in a much better state.

I'll be honest. I mean, my whole entire purpose at this point is to go against this women's movement. Sure. That's kind of what I'm doing. Not to be overly threatening. Lift up Jerusalem and make this place a light to the world. You are the God of all. I noticed that you never say the word mom and dad. You just prefer not to. I say dad more, but Gwen, I started calling her Gwen. It's a habit. Yeah, that's all right. Probably around the time when I found that file. Before she passed, there was like a tension between you and her for a while.

But you never confronted her about this stuff. You couldn't. I did. I confronted her one time when she was storing ARs down in the church basement. And I said, you're going to get some Waco, some sort of crap going on here. And I've got kids. I'm saying they're going to come in with smoke grenades. Yeah. And so she called a meeting that night and had to move it out of the church. Do you think there will be a realistic case where it could be shut down in the next 10 years? Like if all the allegations come out?

I've thought before trying to rally the city of Brentwood. Try to get politicians involved. You get enough people crying out they might do something. But I would love to see the day where the doors are closed for the last time. Since he left the church, Michael's been gathering evidence, not just about what happened inside Remnant, but what's still happening outside today. Now he is taking me back inside his house to show me everything he's uncovered. They were keeping files on every single member in the church.

They still do. These are issues. This is what's called the guidance system. If somebody had a doubt about Gwen, it would be written. Every member has a webcast history, how much they were watching the services. And if they did not watch it, it was noted, it would be logged. Every single person. Like here's the screenshots I took one time of a text thread. Gwen's asking people once they make a home visit.

Like she had people going through their pantries, their fridge. They report back what they find in people's houses. If they find Gwen's books and stuff like that. People in the church. Here's an example of so-and-so chose not to come to Day of Trumpets and did not webcast either. Friendly reminder, Gwen is asking for those people in the Monday night class to have their weights reported once a month in the guidance. What do you call it? Invasive, intrusive, all of the above. They had maps of everybody's house everywhere they were in Brentwood.

This was a time period when Gwen, she started changing the scriptures to allow divorce when she wanted to get a divorce. So she basically changed laws depending on what she wants to do with her own private life. Yes. And immediately once she did this, all of a sudden you had all these women divorced. Like lining up to divorce. You have so many families that have been split apart by this church. But that was a big deal when she did that. This is something interesting. Looks like something I saved whenever they make kind of threatening wording. I'd keep these screenshots. And this was just a sampling of what they really were deep down feeling about me.

All right, so what's going on here? You got a briefcase of things. I didn't know if you knew this or not, but I've got a stalker. She was a part of Remnant Memphis. She's currently stalking you? Yeah. She's tried to kill me. She's been arrested 14 times for especially aggravated stalking. So she's never gotten physically close enough to me. They would arrest her like when she pulled into the church or stuff like that. Like she writes these gigantic, huge letters, like 50, 60 page letters to me.

She writes them from prison too. She wasn't even supposed to. Why did I want to kill you, Michael? The Lord says they no longer ask for the Lord's guidance or seek my blessing. Then she says, I'm writing you all today to admit that I brought the knives from home in order to kill you, Michael, because you did not comply with my demand to engage in sexual immorality. Were you actually scared that she might kill you at one point? Oh, yeah. So where is she now? She's in prison. Remnant had all these satellite churches. And so she's in Memphis and she starts hearing like this code and Gwen's sermon and all my song lyrics that God is telling her that we're supposed to be united.

So she starts coming to Remnant Nashville and she starts trying to get into all the events and they start slapping her with orders of protection and trespassing. She didn't care. She didn't care if she gets arrested. But if she was part of Remnant Church, why would she want to? By that point, she was kicked out. Well, the first thing a lot of people see when they come in is this painting. And a lot of people kind of get weirded out by it.

Were there as many devils and worms as there are roof tiles? I would on. I don't get it. This is Luther. He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. So he's saying if there's as many devils and worms as there are roof tiles, I would on. So what does this mean to you? It's symbolic. Because at that, it was called the Imperial Diet of Worms. He refused to recant. And then they issued from that day forward, all his writings were banned. It makes sense that Michael admires Luther, a man who challenged the church from the inside, exposed corruption and sparked a reformation. In a way, Michael's trying to do the same.

Now he is taking me to one of the only restaurants that Remnant members were allowed to dine at, a place that shows just how deep the control really went. We're here with Steve, who's the owner of Sepa Pia's, which looks amazing. And what do you know about Michael and the Remnant Church? We've had, we've hired members, children that, you know, of members that worked. And I've never had any issues with anyone from Remnant.

How about when the news broke in 2021? It was a lot, you know, because Gwen would come in quite often. And we'd have conversations and it was definitely shocking. What was your thoughts on Gwen? I always enjoyed talking with her. You know, I went through a divorce when I first opened the restaurant. So we talked about divorce after she had gone through. And so we just took it as face value for the people that we saw that came. Personally, I think it's strange that like people, they're pressing you to like lose weight and to not eat.

I had heard about that and heard different things. Like there were certain restaurants that were approved for people to go to. I didn't even know that. Was yours approved? Evidently, because we had a lot of people. Your friend was in here. If she was in. J Alexander's and some others. A little second to unwind here after hanging out with Michael. I've done a lot of stories on cults and communities around the U.S. This one is one of the darkest and most interesting, especially because it's still happening.

Excited to learn more. This is just getting crazier and crazier. Now we are heading into the heart of the Remnant community, the mansions, huge gated homes owned by the top members of the church. Did you ever live in a mansion? I lived in Ashlawn in high school. So you grew up like pretty wealthy, like you had money. No, we grew up dirt poor in Memphis. Our family was like $20,000 in debt by the time I was like eight or nine. They were working multiple jobs. So then when Weigh Down started, it blew up.

I will say one thing about our family. I felt like we were able to appreciate things because we were like, you know, we were thrilled to get to go to McDonald's or something growing up. Like that was a big treat where other people would just think that's normal. Do you know how much money the church is pulling in at its height? At its peak? Like millions of dollars a month. Millions. So where did that money go? Salaries for the people that worked at Remnant. A lot of it went towards legal.

Remnant is like a well-oiled machine with their legal team because they're always, at any given moment, they're in helping members fight custody battles against spouses that are outside the church. They're not dumb. Like they know what they're doing. I feel like people across the board, they underestimate Remnant because it was a little woman, you know, sweet looking woman with blonde hair. My sister's this little girl. They can talk sweet. Then it seems like a pretty little church sitting out there in the field and people just don't understand how harmful, you know, brutal these people can be.

And she started getting obsessive about painting stuff white. One of the things that bothered my dad and me more than anything, one day she had all of her books painted white in her library, painted over the covers and everything. That's weird. These are like nice books. She started painting everything white. She wanted everybody to start wearing white. People started painting their houses white. All interior, all exterior was white. All the other houses are like brick, dark color. And then you have these white ones.

I wonder what the neighbors think about the Remnants. Neighborhoods in Nashville dread it if Remnant starts moving into their neighborhood. Why? Because they take over. They try to get on all the committees. Do you ever feel like you want to leave Brentwood and distance yourself from all this mess? I think I still want to be close to where my kids are. Are they involved in what you're doing and what you believe in or?

Well, they're in Remnant. They are in Remnant. And they still. With my ex, yeah. And they still appreciate you even though you're so outspoken. I'm saying they're sweet. Their leadership made them say that they were going to pull back and not have anything to do with me if I kept going. Got it. But I kept going. I'll tell you one of the poems I wrote one time. It was, uh, In the Brentwoods there dwell many white witches who make men do their bidding with a church of sales pitches.

There's Ashlawn, by the way. The mansion. Oh. That's her house? Damn, that is a nice house. Right as we drive by his sister's giant mansion, a guy mowing the lawn starts circling us like we just set off an alarm. Just drive a little slower. Okay, he's. Jesus Christ, the guy's like right here. Wow, what are the odds? She just pulled up. Pulled by? That was Donna Fisher. Wait, wait. Pulled up in there. The van that just drove by us, yeah. Oh, dude, he's definitely watching you.

Did you see that? Okay, so he's on. They're on the lookout for us. Just keep driving. Uh, it looked like a Martin boy. David and Jennifer Martin's son. They're the ones that passed away in the plane crash. Oh, but is he close with your sister? Yes, she's super loyal to her. Let's say worst case scenario for me. I go there right now by myself and I'm filming on my phone and someone comes up to me and says, Hey.

I said, get off. Get off the property. Because you've been outspoken against the church, have you developed a new following or a new community of people that support you now? Yes. After Channel 5, like that was a really big step for me. Up until that point, I had not really spoken out publicly. It's hard to call it a church in my mind. It's a cult. It was like a whirlwind of pieces of trash talking remnant leaders and members.

Like Elizabeth stayed in her house for three years. You can't get any information on anything. What do you mean she stayed? She didn't leave? She didn't want to be seen by anybody. She didn't even step foot in the church for three years. But just recently she started. Just now. And why do you think she feels comfortable now doing it? She just got remarried to a guy who's completely kind of a mystery himself.

He's a contractor for NASA and SpaceX. So nobody knows any background on him. His profile picture is like all black. He's from Florida. Like their wedding, there was no family. He's got no kids. You can't find his schooling. There's nothing. It's weird to think that people idolized your mother for so many years and when she passed away, now they're idolizing your sister. I would call it worship. They worshiped Gwen and now that has been passed down to Elizabeth. They are worshiping her as the female leader of Remnant.

I never thought about this whole thing, this cult being so female driven, but it makes sense now. In the Old Testament, there was a queen, Jezebel. It was actually a real woman. The Bible talks about her. She's like the most, maybe the most wicked woman who's ever lived. Her agenda was replacing the worship of God with the worship of Baal and the worship of Asherah. She also murdered the prophets of God.

What I believe is anybody who's open to this is women. We're talking about women here who are open to this spirit. They want to be worshipped themselves. I believe a form of this Jezebel spirit has been birthed called the Gwen spirit. I've seen people change. It's women. It's always women. Gwen, finally, she had enough of being under men authority. By then, she was ready to start a place where it's 24 hours a day playing Gwen on the radio.

Everybody has to have the apps. She gets to be worshipped. She was giving them permission to break authority. That's what it was. It was sneaky. But she was living it out. She embodied it. And honestly, Remnant has taken notes from Scientology. Really? They studied Scientology. Yeah. That sounds crazy. They literally, they would visit it. They would study it. In fact, the Church of Scientology in Nashville loved Gwen.

They loved Remnant. Every church we went to before Remnant, she caused problems. She would speak out of turn. Every church we went to left a wake of people that hated her. I know that doesn't sound as maybe as crazy to people from other states and stuff. But in the South, that was a big deal for women to be speaking out like that. So Gwen, she has this spirit. So what she's doing, it's manipulation once again. Her agenda is, it's replacing the worship of God with the worship of a woman. And that's also why I talk about witchcraft, witches.

It is mainly manipulation. It's manipulation of somebody's will. And that's why I'm calling this, it's closer to a form of witchcraft than it is Christianity. My mission in life now, it's to expose them and to take, to snuff out this Gwen spirit. Have you lost trust with all women because of this? Like subconsciously? For the most part. I believe women have an innate sense of lying. After almost getting caught outside Elizabeth's home, I'm even more nervous about showing up to the church later and trying to convince them that I want to join.

We are rolling up to the church here. I'm gonna have to keep my camera. I don't want them to know we're filming. But before that, Michael and I want to grab lunch in town so I can unpack more about the cult's current activities. Made it to downtown Franklin. We're gonna get some food and walk around, learn more about this place. So what is this building right next to you? So this is the Williamson County Courthouse in Franklin. Have you been there? Multiple times. For stalker situation mainly. So you've had to like talk to court, not about. I've had to testify in court, take the stand and that kind of stuff. If there's a remnant member that walks by,

can you figure out who they are just by how they dress? They went really hardcore into the white and the khaki. Gwen loved the stuff like shabby chic. Now, you know, Elizabeth has been trying to normalize everyone. That's been kind of their slogan is to normalize. Super nice. The devil has arrived. The black table. Can you tell me about this like Smith's murder case? I don't really understand it, but I read about it online.

A boy died, little Joseph Smith died. He was murdered by his parents, Joseph and Sonia Smith. They were members of Remnant in Georgia. They were getting some bad counsel from Remnant, telling them to do stuff like put him in his room for the weekend because he's just, he was out of control. And a lot of the police and detectives and everybody that saw the case in Atlanta, they said it was like some of the worst case of child abuse they've ever seen. So the kid died? Yeah, he dies, murdered. And what was, what happened?

How did it come back to the church? Because they were members of Remnant, and they were getting counsel by the Remnant how to discipline their child. And they were suggested to start using glue sticks to beat him, like long glue sticks, like, you know, like a whip. Do you think in today's day and age, if that stuff's still happening, or is it more like secretive? I think they're doing a lot, all they can do to try to steer away from that kind of stuff right now. I don't think they're doing that right now.

They're trying to avoid persecution. They know the stuff being talked about at the church. People are, you know, eating disorders and starving themselves. So now she's put out the directive to everybody to normalize. I think that could cause issues for people that are trying to claim Christianity, because Christians in general, we're trying to like stand out from the world. And Remnant's like trying to look as much as they possibly can like the world. Interesting. Yet, I don't think they're doing a good job because they're still weird. When the plane crash happened, did you get a call, a text?

Like what happened? So I was driving down the interstate and I got a call from Elizabeth. She got notified before me because they had already enacted a plan that she's going to be leader. So she's getting full-time recon and calls from security and people. They already had people driving up there to get on the ground at Percy Priest Lake. So she called me to let me know. I just couldn't believe that it happened. I wasn't sad about it. I saw that. You said you never cried? To this day. It doesn't make you sad? No. It's like my enemies had just died. But I'm not, I don't gloat over my enemies.

You know, I take that passage to heart. I don't do that. So you found out your mother died and who else was on that plane? My stepdad, Joe Lahr. Brandon Hanna was co-pilot. That was my best friend since 10th grade. Were you sad about him passing? That was a tough one. He started getting into more and more stuff. Helping them do stuff, the illegal activities. I found that he broke into my house when I was singing worship music.

He broke into my office, which was locked. And he pried open the back of my 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop. And he cut his finger on it. He never could install whatever he was trying to install. So he pried, it was like iron. Yeah, it's like galvanized steel. So he was prying it open. I come back to my computer. It won't sit flat on the desk. Wow. I turned over, the steel has been pried open. He was good at picking locks.

They all were. They were trained to do stuff. They have safecrackers on the security team. So he got more and more into just loyalty to go in. And he was working against me. And he became my enemy. He was an enemy. Yeah, and that's why people think I'm like some partless, you know, asshole. But I'm not. No, I get it. You know, so all of a sudden to have those people die, it was like, it was some relief to me. Unbeknownst to me, she started giving money to Trump organizations. And she was going to a, guess what?

Women for Trump rally. They were going to have a weight-loss function down there in Florida in Palm Springs. Wow. And they were on their way to that when the plane crashed. Really? Yeah, pretty well. Are you sure you're not on a weight loss program? Does it look like I am? I'll be honest, I started gaining weight when they got a divorce. She told me the same day she told my dad she was filing for divorce. And I took that pretty hard. And that was a big change for Remnant.

I kind of started letting myself go, I guess you could say. This is Main Street, Franklin. After all, I do run a travel channel. So it's kind of cool that people can see what it looks like here. It seems like this place has been around since like the 1800s. Yes, we tried to do a concert here at Franklin Theater when I was worship leader.

But we're never allowed to do anything outside of the church. So that was a huge deal to me. We toured here and we, you know, we're setting it all up. And like we were going to fill it with all Remnant people. It's like 328 capacity. So when we get back to the weight -on office, you know, I was pumped. That was like a big deal for me. And they called up and they were like, we looked up Gwen on the internet and it's a cult. Sorry, we can't do it. They canceled it. Oh, they called it a cult? Never got to do it. Your mother was very wealthy. She passed.

The money is somewhere. How has the financial thing worked with you? Yes, me and my sister got inheritance. That's great. And that must have been very helpful for you to live your life. I'm grateful for that. I'm glad that happened. I didn't know if you got that or if in the will or something that your mom blocked you or something like that. And one of the things I think the misconceptions a lot of people have said is that, you know, they make such a big deal about how Gwen didn't leave any money for the church. Right. Here's the thing, though.

Our family owned that 40 acres of sitting in the middle of Brentwood. That's 40 acres of land for the church. That's so valuable. You think about that. And then also the church building itself was worth like $4 million. That would have been ours. Yeah. Upon her death. So she donated that to the church. Oh, wow. So every acre is like over a million. Yeah. How many millions of dollars?

Tens and tens of millions. Yeah. No ticket. Good. There was a time, you know, when at the Day Mansion, they had a bunch of remnant kids over and they were out of town and they let them all just come over for a big sex party kind of thing going on at their mansion. Like younger than 18? Some of them, yeah. There were like mattresses on the floor and everything. No, they were like just all sleeping with each other and stuff like that.

The kids? Yeah, like young adults and stuff. That's disturbing. I think one another big problem has been these remnant adults have been buying alcohol for the youth when they come over for parties. Remnants had a lot of stuff they covered over. They've had kids die from drunk driving and killing other people in drunk driving accidents.

We're really hyping it up like my visit to the church because after knowing all these things, I'm going to have to put on this fake smile. Like, hello, how are you? What remnant does, they're experts at rewriting history. People don't understand how quickly they rewrite history. They erase websites. If somebody leaves, you disappear. You're off the directory. You disappear from videos. They change laws.

People in remnant right now, they would love to say that they're the next generation of remnant leaders who had nothing to do with all the past abuses that happened under Gwen. But what the actuality is, is that they are all complicit with it and they're completely lying their faces off. The master plan of what Elizabeth's doing, the top leaders, they're letting the current generation die off. They don't care about them. She's taken a page from Gwen and her regime basically now is it's going to be the youth because they're ultra loyal.

They're like, you know, like the Hitler youth, that kind of stuff. The brown shirts, they don't know any better. They don't know the outside world. They've been raised in the remnant. There's tons of kids in the remnant, it's the youth. That's their plan. And she has been working them for the last decade. That's been her speciality, the youth. How do you think it all evolves in the next five to 10 years? I've had a lot of people, you know, posture that they think, you know, we've got the remnant on the ropes.

It's going to close the doors. What I'm seeing is that they're still strong. It's surreal to hear Michael's vision of Remnant's future. But now it's time to attempt to visit inside the church to see how I'll be received. Due to safety and legal reasons, Michael is unable to join and I'm too scared to go alone. So I connected with a local guy named Anthony who's up for the adventure. We are meeting up at a local Target to find some clothes so I can blend in. That's all I need. I just bought this in Target, which ironically matches him. And we are going to roll up together.

I don't know if I can film on this camera. I probably got to use my phone. Actually, I might be able to put my phone in a pocket. And we're just going to question them and just say, hey, we're interested in joining. We want to learn about the community. We're not going to say anything else. No, that's it. Are you ready? I'm ready. It sounds like you've been wanting to do this for a while. Yeah, a very long time. Thank you for coming, Drew. This guy's a legend. No one knew anything about it until the plane crashed in Smyrna, where I live in Smyrna.

It was in Smyrna? Yeah, it was in Smyrna. Oh, so. Percy Freaks Lake. Well, first it was like the actor who played Tarzan was in the plane. Really? Yeah, yeah. That's her husband. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the original Tarzan from the movies. Then it came back, you know, like it was, you know, preacher this church and then it all just broke loose. Did you hear about her like weight loss program? Yeah, the weight loss program. She would say, you know, when you're hungry, pray.

Barely eat. Like her hair weighed more than her body did. She denounced the trinity. She denounced the father, son and the Holy Ghost. So therefore, the actual, you know, church wanted to cut ties with her. So that's when she went to do her own thing. And like, she went to do her own thing. What are your thoughts on like the not eating? Like it's not healthy to do that. It's not healthy. Like, why would you want to do that? That's like, you know, putting your body through hell. Why would you put your body through so much hurt when the Bible says, you know, keep your body as a temple?

Right. Why would you starve it? We're almost at the church and part of me feels like I should have packed a bulletproof vest or something. Will they really believe we're just regular locals wanting to join the cult? I'm feeling pretty anxious. We are rolling up to the church here. I'm gonna have to keep my camera. I don't want them to know we're filming. So let's just roll in and then. The remnant fellowship.

All we're here for is just to kind of learn and go to the left side where those two white bands are. All right. Park over there. That's what Michael said. I'm gonna turn off the camera now. They got security. He's gonna stop us. Here, move the mic. All right. Hey, sir. What can I do for you? I'm Brian Mullis. I had emailed the church this morning and I was just curious, you know, what it was about and everything.

We're looking to get into church. So what's the microphone for? What, the microphone? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, just for a detailed perspective. No. So you can visit the church website, the redditfellowship.org. Yeah. You can find everything I want to out there. And if you have any questions, you can leave it. Which one to roll and see what's going on. The thing is a friend, one guy to another, that's all. Right. You sent an email this morning. You didn't refer to my Instagram.

Well, yeah, but because it's used to the churches. I'm used to, you know, are like, well. Being here, being cautious and caring about my family and friends doesn't make us uncomfortable. Because there's a difference. There's the questioning. Well, that's not right. I don't see why you believe it. Okay. But it is what we believe and we're allowed to. Yeah, it's just like, you know, Presbyterian tongues and everything. As opposed to, hey, I want to understand because what you're saying is intriguing to me. So it's two different dynamics.

Right. Absolutely. Yeah. So we're on two different pages. I just want to ask you this. I believe I've been baptized. Am I going to see you in heaven? Heaven is not mine to determine who does or does not get in. What we're kind of running after is we've got a pretty good outline of how to get in. And so we're just looking at pursuing that. I'm Anthony Moses. Hey, Anthony. I'm Lonzo. It's nice to meet you. Hey, I'm Drew. Sorry to interrupt. We're going to turn around right now.

We're going to turn around. That shit was fucking crazy, bro. We managed to escape before things escalated. But it's clear that this place has eyes everywhere. The Remnant Fellowship Church is alive and well, and it's protecting itself tightly. I came here to try to understand how a Christian diet class turned into a full -blown cult. And after everything I've seen, it's worse than I imagined. The control, the fear, the loyalty, it's all still present, even without Gwen. I respect Michael and his bravery for speaking out, especially when his own family is still inside. If anything, this trip showed me how hard it is to escape a system that is

designed to keep you quiet. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.