♪♪♪
[quirky music]
One way that cults control people's thinking,
it's really simple.
They teach you to minimize
parts of the story that don't fit.
They teach you to deny parts of the story that don't fit.
They're operating inside of
a belief system that demands at certain times,
you be brutal for God.
Minimize denial.
Rewrite the narrative.
♪♪♪
[Gwen] Testing, one, two, three, testing.
♪♪♪
[Joe] Don't look at the lens.
[laughing]
Don't look at the--
[laughs]
I see headlights, I see headlights.
[Gwen laughs]
Is this okay for you?
[man] Yeah.
How has it been because you're, you know,
the leader of a church in the south
which is maybe a little bit conservative
and you're a woman. How is that for you?
Like, how has that been?
Again, if you're a public figure or if you're in
a role that maybe has been predominantly male driven,
then you're going to be under scrutiny.
The internet, for all public figures,
created a dynamic that all public figures
had to start trying to digest,
absorb and learn how to handle.
That's why it's important to eventually visit
original websites or get to the-- get to the bottom of it.
So, honestly, what do I say about negativity?
I'm all the better for it.
♪♪♪
[man] Go ahead and introduce yourself for us.
I'm Gwen Shamblin and founder of Weigh Down Workshop
and then leader and founder of Remnant Fellowship Churches.
[audience clapping]
I'm actually very moved by it.
I follow it and I try to imitate
everything that I can out of her
and hopefully pass it down to the next generation.
Because what she's teaching and preaching
and living would change America if they would follow suit.
I help a lot of women and marriages, you know?
Real believer in-- in
the women having their role and just letting the men be men.
And how fun it is to be, you know,
submissive and all that kind of stuff.
To play the role of a woman is beautiful.
One of the things that I couldn't stand
was the sound of his voice.
In the very first class or two, Gwen introduced as
"You fall in love with what you focus on."
I focused on his voice instead of turning from it.
And so then I fell in love with his voice.
[dramatic music]
It wasn't just the weight loss.
But it was like, I started having answered prayers
and I started having joy come back
and I started, like, talking sweet to my children,
instead of being angry with them.
What Weigh Down really is and what's going on in the churches
is a constant inventory of what's inside you.
Look, Candace, we just made it through a Thanksgiving meal
and didn't eat at all.
[Candace] I-- this was my best one ever.
We did it, yay!
[audience clapping]
Gwen with this reality show wanted to soften
the image that she already has had
at being a stringent, striving prophet.
She wanted, of course, to come
across as being someone that you
could like, you could trust.
Someone who's just an ordinary
person like everybody else.
I don't remember the number of homes
but I-- I want to say that 140 homes I have remodeled,
I mean, 140 families, but then they've moved several times.
So we flipped, you know, a lot of houses.
I just want to say, I learned everything from this woman.
I got in there and it just rocked my world.
You flipping everything around and having this there, anyways.
The freedom, I think that-- I think it's--
the freedom of not tearing something apart and--
and putting it back together.
We're going to take the wood
all the way to the end of the hallway.
Yeah, I'm trying to make it all consistent.
And everything's being repainted, so praise God.
Why do they need more footage
of whatever it is that they do on a daily?
Miss Gwen doesn't do anything, first off.
She wakes up, she prays
and she might take care of her grandkids.
But truly, what do you do that you need a reality show for?
That lets you know that it's a fake ass church.
Remnant Fellowship's entire existence
is based upon maintaining an image.
After the premiere of the documentary,
they have labored long and hard
by mobilizing every means at hand to compel people,
to testify how real everything is.
[peaceful music]
Welcome to Remnant Fellowship.
A church family that was established in 1999
and has been active and strong ever since.
This truly is a place of peace and joy and love.
I would say one of the hallmark distinctions
between the children at Remnant Fellowship Church
and other children that I've seen
is that the parents are taught to take care of their children.
And to put their needs above their own.
I've never been body shamed.
I've never been told what to
look like. I've never been told
a weight that I had to be.
I've only been met with love and a genuineness.
Yes, I saw the videos.
That whole response is bullshit.
[dramatic music]
And I've said this before and I'll say it again
and I will say it to my last breath.
If so many people are coming forward
and saying they're traumatized by an organization,
how dare you tell us we're lying.
If you are truly doing what you think God wants you to do,
then you would take that information and reflect on it
and make the change necessary, not go on the defensive.
One other thing that I'd like to touch on
as we talk about people coming in and losing weight
or gaining weight is that everybody's different.
So God made us all different.
And so we have big, sturdy, muscular people.
We have thin, wispy people.
We have just all kinds of people.
Otis Rickman put out this little video
that everybody's body is different, right?
And that nobody gets shunned, or shamed, or whatever.
When his wife was sat out of the church
because she had gained weight.
So that's a lie.
It's the goddamn remix.
And God forbid that you were somebody that was, like,
on the national stage or featured in anything.
If you gained weight
after that, baby, they would hide you
better than the KFC secret.
And I swear for God.
That is the absolute truth.
That's what-- that's what happened.
[dark music]
My husband has known about my history with Remnant
and everything before that.
I thought I'd shown him pictures of Gwen Shamblin
before, but sitting down to watch the documentary,
he saw Gwen and he goes, "That's her?"
And I said, "Yeah, that's Gwen."
He goes, "I could never follow someone like that.
Are you kidding?"
And that is the general public's take on it.
I can't fault them for that thinking,
but where it gets dangerous, as a lot of people say,
"Well, I'm not stupid, I wouldn't do that."
And that is so unfair because I'm not stupid either.
Don't look at us and judge us for being
a part of this church, you know?
People come to Christ in different ways.
And especially for my black people.
Okay, so it's a white church.
It's a church that's full of white people.
Get over it.
I didn't go to the church because it was
a church full of white people.
I went to the church because I wanted to have
a group of like-minded people.
I wanted to have a better relationship with God.
And these people just happened to be white.
What people need to understand is that everybody is vulnerable.
At a certain point in your life when you're a little bit low
or you're in a time of transition
and the right leader comes along
with the right message, catching you at the right moment,
you could be vulnerable.
[calm music]
[woman] Frank?
I think I was nervous to speak up for years
because you know, Gwen was quick to seek legal action.
But I think I just can't remain silent.
It's time that we heal.
It's time that our voices matter,
even if it's for one person.
I'm sure the other people's stories are more heart wrenching
than my story, because they were in it.
They were stuck. They got tortured.
I was there and I literally observed,
I saw what they did to people.
Sitting in this chair was probably one of
the most difficult things I have ever done.
I feared it.
I got physically sick over it.
What are people, where I live, that have known me forever,
but don't really know this about me...
What're they gonna say?
You know, because when you think of somebody involved
with a cult, you think of a crazy person.
I don't feel as triggered as I thought as I would be,
because I feel that it has taken everything that I have
to come above the water, you know,
to just to just say, "You know what,
you've got to do this and you have to help others."
My mom joined Weigh Down when I was 14,
when we were first introduced to everything.
Towards maybe, like, my senior year of high school
when I was looking for colleges.
There was a lot of pressure to move to Nashville.
I had track scholarships. I was valedictorian--
Not to tout myself, but I had an offer
from Ivy Leagues full ride scholarships.
And I picked a small school in Nashville
because I wanted to be close to the church.
Perfection was always the goal.
So I'm trying to be a perfect division one athlete,
perfect student.
Experiencing college for the first time
and then all the pressure to do everything
the church wanted me to do while starving myself.
And so I hit a breaking point.
I walked away from my scholarship my sophomore year.
The church wanted everything from me.
All of me.
[dramatic music playing]
I knew that they liked me so much.
Like, everybody liked me so much
that I was going to tell them that I was gay
and maybe I was going to be that person that they went,
"Oh, they're not bad people."
I remember the day I went in,
I said, "Gwen, I need to talk to you."
And I said, "I love you guys a lot, and I respect you, Gwen,
but you need to know something about me."
She said, "What is it?" I said, "I'm gay."
And Gwen's face literally fell to the table.
Like, she was, like...
I think she was just, like,
mortified that she had been fooled.
And she literally pushed her chair back from the table,
she stood up, and she walked out of the room,
didn't say a word to me.
And Ted said,
"It's okay."
He goes, "We have four people here that we've changed."
And I looked at him and said, "Ted, you didn't change anybody.
They're lying to themselves.
You cannot change me.
There's not going to be any changing."
And I said, "I am a gay person, that is it.
No ifs, ands or buts about it.
That's who I am. That's what God made me."
"God did not make you that." He argued with me for an hour.
And then I went on a Saturday and all of a sudden
I knew that they had started to tell people
because more and more people stopped talking to me, like,
the prominent people stopped talking to me.
So I said, "You know what? Who cares?"
I stopped going. And...
Nobody ever said, no one reached out,
and say, "Hey, are you going to come back ever?"
No one ever did.
So it was just kind of like gone.
Everybody in the church, the congregation
and all the members were workers.
Everybody, there was cooks, there was daycare.
There was everything.
You know, while they're making their money.
She would say, "You're doing it for God."
Like, when I did her hair, I never got paid for it.
I did the highlights and her color
and trim it and just straightened it.
And then just tease and tease and tease.
There was no hairpieces.
You know, when I was doing it.
Over the years, it's just gone bigger, and bigger, and bigger
So who knows how it works.
But I know that just a lot of teasing.
She would straighten it, but she takes very--
she used to take very good care of her hair.
She loved her hair, that was Gwen.
Didn't get paid for any of it.
But why would I want to? Like, it's Gwen Shamblin.
You know, I got to be in the presence of,
you know, those who are being used by God you know?
When my mom got the spotlight and she started
the Spanish side of Weigh Down
I was right by her side.
I was her right hand.
Gwen started the Colorado Weigh Down Workshop, you know,
but because my mom was Hispanic and she spoke Spanish,
she clung to her.
Before I moved to Nashville they offered me a job.
She offered to meet my pay.
Which at that time was probably 21, $22 an hour.
I get my first paycheck it was eight bucks an hour.
And at one of the meetings, I was like, "Hey, Gwen," I said,
"I thought you were going to match my pay."
And she was like, in front of public.
Like, she was like in front of all the people
and the Weigh Down staff.
And she looked at me and she said,
And I'll never forget that, she goes--
She goes, "Mindy, you need to humble yourself."
She goes, "You-- this is your pay.
And never, ever expect a raise."
I was sorry because I thought that I wasn't humble
and I shouldn't ask for more.
And that's okay.
And I should be content, you know.
And of course, she's driving a Lexus
or she's driving a Porsche.
Working at Weigh Down sucked
because I did my eight hour shift...
So Wednesdays, because it was church,
I did all the phone calls on Wednesday night
and then Ted [indistinct] would call me in Saturday
and Sunday to work.
But because it was church time, I never got paid.
So I was never with my kids.
I never saw my kids.
Gwen Shamblin hurt me when she hurt my mom.
They used her just like everybody else.
They made her feel exactly the same,
but worse because she gave everything
to the Spanish Weigh Down.
Gwen broke my family, you know,
and the only thing I can do is pick up the pieces.
Because that's what she left.
[crowd chattering]
Hey! How're you?
When you're threatened with losing your family,
your threatened with losing your kids,
You're threatened with being shunned from everything
that is your life.
You get into this state where you just
you don't know how to process.
You don't know how to think.
With Ryan when I left, I mean, instantly he was paired up.
He was engaged about six weeks after our divorce was final
and married seven months later to, of course,
a member of Remnant Fellowship, who, funnily enough,
was our babysitter for our children
when we were still together.
When I left,
my husband was still going to the church and I got
a picture on my telephone from someone while my husband
was attending service with my children.
And so when I saw that picture, it put me into a rage.
All of the times that a woman has left the church
and left her husband there.
The next thing that you know is somebody else
sitting on that pew.
It's another single woman that they'll sit
on that pew and they'll have them to help with the children.
When I talked to my husband,
I showed him the picture and I spoke my piece about it
and I left him with,
"Now, you can continue to go to that church if you want to,
but if I get a picture and another woman is sitting
on the pew helping with my children,
I'm going to slap the piss out of you and I'm going to slap
the piss out of whoever is on that pew and that's on God."
After that, you know, after that,
we didn't have any more problems.
He, you know, left the church.
Remnant Fellowship actually has
an incredible amount of control over the minds
and hearts and thinking of its members.
Children and men and women can be
so fearfully indoctrinated to stay within those boundaries
as the only way to live.
[preacher] All the children
who have lost parents during this time.
We want everyone to know that their needs
are being completely met.
They are being provided with food, love,
comfort, as much as anyone could get.
The Walters had three children
and they ended up with the Stites.
The Stites weren't just in a leadership circle.
They were deep, deep in the inner circle.
After the crash, Jonathan and Jessica's will said that
the church leadership should decide
where their children should go.
As a parent myself, I would never
leave something like that so vague.
Three days after the plane crash happened,
the Stites had Jessica's mother on their couch,
forcing paperwork in her face to sign
to relinquish Jessica's guardianship.
They asked Jonathan's mom,
"Can we go look for the will the day after?"
I just recently got
a message from Jessica's mother saying
that the Stites were going to maintain guardianship
and she was going to continue to see them
the way that she was when Jessica was alive.
Her mother said that three or four months prior
to the crash, there was more consistent conversations
happening and visits happening and things like that.
So it's almost like, was Jessica trying to leave?
We'll never know. And that's the sad thing.
We've got these three children that have been born
into this and have no idea that there's a world outside
of the Remnant where they can make their own choices.
In Remnant, they have lawyers
that are doing God's work for free. [chuckles]
And they recommend that you, in a will,
leave your children to the church.
It's not just something that Jessica did.
It's something that they are advised to do.
[somber music playing]
[woman] They're ready.
[Gwen] They're ready for us.
Okay, you go first, hon. Okay, here we go.
-Hey guys. -[office] Hey. Morning.
Y'all ready for a morning meeting?
You've already sold 250 of the pre-loaded hardbacks.
And about 267 downloads have happened in the last about
week and a half since you put it out.
So, it's-- Preloading and pre-ordering
-is going really well. -Okay.
And so, they're working on--
Have y'all had any feedback?
-Does anybody like the book? -[Amy] They love it.
That's what I heard.
We need to check with the Facebook team, but--
[Gwen] Okay.
[Amy] The reports coming in is all super positive.
Is this a business or is this a ministry?
The only real insight that we have had
into Gwen Shamblin's wealth was ironically
when she decided to divorce
her first husband, David,
in 2018.
In her divorce settlements, signed less than two
months before she married Joe Lara,
they split up a number of properties that are now worth
about $20 million total. Twenty million dollars,
plus Gwen had to pay David another $3 million out
of her pocket to settle the divorce.
But then in August of 2018, she marries Joe Lara.
Within a few months, she starts moving
her properties into the names of various trusts.
And trusts are primarily set up so you really cannot
trace the ownership.
If you look up a piece of property,
it's in the name of a trust.
You have no idea who the real owner is.
So, she took Ashlawn, worth about $7 million.
She puts that into the name of the 902 Franklin Trust.
She has a beach house in Destin, Florida,
right on the Gulf, worth about $4 million.
She puts that into the name of the 4817 Ocean Trust.
So, as a result of putting all of this property
into various trusts, we sort of lose sight
of, okay, who owns this property now?
[Holly] Williamson County is a very wealthy area.
And so, I would say that these leaders of churches probably
aren't that different from a lot of people.
There's a keeping up with the Joneses.
And I would also say that particularly in the South,
you know, the pastor is almost like a celebrity.
And even going back years ago, to have the pastor come
to your house to eat dinner, if you didn't have a lot
of money, you saved your best food for the pastor.
It's really not much different.
It's just a 2021 version of, he's driving a Mercedes
instead of getting the best chicken in the yard.
[laughs]
[Phil] There are two odd things about
Gwen Shamblin's will.
First of all, she had not updated her will
since she had divorced David Shamblin.
So, he is still listed as the beneficiary of the will.
Now, under Tennessee law, once there is a divorce
then the ex-spouse is no longer eligible
to receive the benefits of the will.
Under her current will, her two children, Michael
and Elizabeth, are the sole
beneficiaries of that will.
What was surprising to me was to look and see, okay,
how much did she leave to Remnant Fellowship?
None.
[reporter] In a written statement, the church claimed
the Shamblins' donation of the church property
and building two decades ago was worth about
10 million, and that she had handed
her publishing rights over to the church.
It concludes...
Father, we just pray in the name
of Jesus Christ God that we reach those that are
hurting, those that are going for it.
God, please help us all.
Help us all.
[Holly] I am not sure there's any way
to hold some of these churches accountable. To try to hold
them accountable through finances, taxes--
that's difficult.
I do have people ask me similar things.
How do we push back on this?
And I usually just say it's a long game.
If you can engage with an individual,
that's the best way to do it.
To ask them questions like, "How did you arrive
"at this belief?" But for larger accountability,
I have got no solution.
I've got no solution.
[man] The money clearly has gone
to enrich Gwen,
while the same time, hundreds of people languish as victims
having giving up careers, having given up their lives
to come to Tennessee, only to find that the kingdom
of love has turned them away and left them to drift.
[rain falling]
[somber music playing]
[Gwen] Sometimes suffering is sent
from God for our training.
However, there is another source of suffering
It's curses from the separation of being
right with God through Jesus Christ.
When you do not obey, you are separated from God.
I don't remember having a specific
conversation with anyone about wanting to leave.
I think my ex-husband might have told on me, you know.
We did have one last meeting with Gwen and Ted.
They were like, "The least you could
"do is have a meeting with us.
"You've been here ten years. "We've done a lot for you.
"At least say goodbye." And at that time,
I was pregnant. We were--
That was like my redemption. "Okay, we're leaving.
"We're saying bye. I'm starting my new life.
"I'm pregnant. We're getting out of here."
I saw the darkness in her eyes, finally,
when she realized that she wasn't able to get me to stay.
I'd never seen her like that.
I was told I would be cursed.
She keeps a list of curses that happen
to people who leave the church.
And I miscarried not long after leaving.
And I was fully convinced that I was cursed because...
of my disobedience.
[indistinct chattering]
Where's my table?
Y'all want some wine?
[woman] Yes, we do.
[laughter]
If y'all remind me at this table how much
weight you all have lost?
Okay, so starting with Tim. [Tim] Twenty-five.
[Gwen] Twenty-five. Fifty?
Okay.
[woman] Eighty
[man] When you're in the group,
they indoctrinate a giant sense of fear in you that
if you leave, if you leave God's way of doing things,
you're going to gain all your weight back.
When people lose large amounts of weight,
95% of the time, people regain it all within five years.
That's just science. So, yes, people leave the group.
They wind up gaining their weight back,
but they attribute it to a curse that was laid on them,
a fear that was laid on them by the group.
It's like you're carrying around this reminder of something
that the prophet said, you know, like,
this is going to happen to you if you leave God's way.
[Gwen] I'm the only one that kept the old
recipes from way back from your great grandmother
and grandmother when they used the butter and the lard
and all that kind of stuff.
So, I'm the only one that has the archive.
You know, all that went away with
the health promotion movement of which I rejected.
[Gina] I have a very hard time with food.
Ted Anger was probably the meanest
man in that church.
He told me I would never get to heaven because I was too fat.
I just have a deep anger and a deep
resentment toward him and the way he did things.
[Mindy] Until this day, I could probably have a meal
and probably take four or five bites and I can't eat no more.
Something happened to my body.
Like where I can't-- I'm not a big eater,
but then I can't lose weight.
And then my metabolism is just like--
and I just can't eat.
[Laura] I got counseled that,
"You need to lose about four pounds a week.
"In order for you to be in God's will."
So, then they put me at 10 bites a day.
And after the 10 bites a day,
I was fasting every other month.
Fasting, no food. I could drink broth, a little bit of broth.
It created so much damage that my kidneys
have holes in it.
You know, because after I left,
I got pregnant with my daughter.
I got very sick.
They did a biopsy, and they're like,
"Were you bulimic or anorexic?"
And I go, "I starved myself."
And they said, "Your body ate away at your kidneys."
That's what it does when you go through starvation.
They're like, "So, the reason why you gained so much weight
"so fast after you were starved is that the food that you intake
"completely turns into fat. So, it stores it. It takes about
"two to five years for your body to go back to normal."
[Autumb] You are equating your worth to how much weight you've
lost and how good you look
and what these people think about you.
I had to address a lot of not feeling good enough
before I could become the person that I am today.
I had to address that, "You're not 400 pounds like
"they're making it seem like you are.
"You are a regular sized Black woman.
"And, you know, that's-- that's what it is.
"And you are beautiful and you are good enough."
[Ge'Cobi] I have dreams about the church.
I have dreams about the weddings.
I was involved with, like, wedding planning.
Some of it was really beautiful.
Like, Gwen knew how to throw a party.
[chuckles] We were able to, like, drink.
We couldn't eat, but we could drink.
[laughs]
A lot of, like, little gatherings at people's houses.
I miss that so much.
I mean, every day of the week I had somewhere to go.
Sometimes I felt guilty that I miss it because--
And that in itself is a whole...
[laughs] ... thing to deal with because it's like,
why would you miss something that was so terrible?
But it wasn't all terrible for me.
And now I've, you know--
I feel like I'm the healthiest I've ever been
because I'm working on myself internally.
I've sought help. I should have did that right away.
Yeah, let's just say I'm happy to be here today because...
I almost-- I took action a couple of times to...
end the pain.
Thank God for my family.
Thank God for my mom, my dad,
my brother, my aunts, my uncles,
my grandparents. I would not be here without them.
But yeah, it-- You have to wonder if there's
young people trying to take their lives
after leaving your church, don't you think you're
doing something wrong?
[applause]
[man] Please be seated.
And Elizabeth, you are live.
I know that a lot of you have wondered how I'm doing
and if I'm giving up, am I throwing in the towel
after so much has happened.
You know, after this much tragedy,
it's a good question.
After so much negative media. After so much loss.
And then so much persecution at the same time,
all on top of it. You know, what more can someone take?
And so, I do know that the question
is out there, you know,
"Did Elizabeth give up?"
But you know what, Remnant Nation?
I know a little something
that the enemies of God don't know.
And that is [indistinct].
That I never stuck with my mother in starting this
church for the praise of man, or what man thinks
in the first place.
So, I'm not about to start
caring what man thinks now.
Amen.
[crowd cheering]
♪♪♪
[Rafael] Elizabeth bravely stepped forward
and made it clear that Remnant Fellowship
would continue on.
But as time has gone by, the actual ascent
of her leadership appears to be flattening out considerably.
Elizabeth is calling into Remnant from her seclusion
and allowing her Remnant Fellowship
leaders to continue to conduct business as usual within
the Remnant Fellowship services.
There was nobody else in the Remnant Church that preached,
that did anything.
So, now they're relying on Elizabeth.
I would not want to bear responsibility
for the people that look to her for guidance.
There's no knowledge as to when she'll come back in person.
So, I think the question can be fairly asked.
If Remnant Fellowship is going to go on,
who's really going to lead it?
Disaster tends to shift a lot of things
and change a lot of things,
and enable people to consider
a course of action they wouldn't have done any other way.
And part of the aftermath of that fateful day was
not only the loss of Gwen Shamblin,
but was the fact that Michael Shamblin
decided to serve divorce papers on his wife, Erin.
All during those years.
I believe that it was something that he'd been compelled to do.
It's something that he really wanted to walk away
from and he couldn't.
Michael leaving will be more of a shake up to them
than Gwen dying.
Because when Gwen died, you know,
it was a martyr-type attitude out of it.
But if her own child, who was supposed to take
it over and continue on, is walking away,
what is this message, really?
♪♪♪
[Adam] There's great value in people opening up and talking
about the experiences they've had with a cult.
One is it warns other people.
The more people out there warning people to stay away,
those warnings work.
But I will also say being
willing to publicly share what happened
contributes to your healing.
As difficult as it is to kind of relay why we were there,
and-- it's just as difficult to commune with people
who weren't there, you know, because I can't tell you,
like, "Yeah, for ten years,
I really didn't listen to anything but Michael Shamblin.
"I ate once a day."
I-- You know, people don't understand that struggle.
When I sat down for my initial interview, it was scary.
I was scared because I had been silent for so long.
But now that it's out and I've processed it
and I'm working on myself, I'm not afraid of them.
They're just people.
I started the Beyond Zion Foundation
on my way home in March from my interview here.
Coming together as a group that is not controlling,
that lets you grow at your own pace,
that lets you heal at your own pace, that offers support,
it's sort of in a lot of ways the opposite of what the cult is
like, because the cult demands conformity and instant results.
Change or get out.
To me, we can slay this dragon if the survivors band together
and speak in one voice.
[Rafael] When Gwen Shamblin died
and when her influence clearly was at an end,
it set forth a catharsis in the hearts
and minds of so many people.
As one person said, "Ding dong, the witch is dead."
Now that that has taken place,
they found their voices, they found their tongues.
Their consciences began to spill out.
They began to declare what had happened to them.
It's a powerful thing to be believed.
[Helen] Remnant would like to tell you if you leave the church
that your life is going to be cursed and that,
you know, God is going to turn away from you.
And I want you to know that that's
a lie from the pit of hell.
I've actually done better professionally.
I've done better physically and mentally.
I've done better spiritually.
For all of you who are, you know, still deciding,
you know, to be in the church, you know,
hey, if it gives you something to believe in, great.
But if you have any questions or if any of this is,
you know, not sitting right with you,
my advice to you would be to check your sources.
Reach out to people.
You know who I am.
You know where I am.
I'm not looking to change
your mind or your belief system.
You know, I want you to think
for yourself and think freely.
[Adam] As long as people are profiting
from the organization of groups like this,
they will stay organized.
Because people organize themselves into groups.
And as long as some people are getting some of their needs
met by this group being organized
the way that it is, it will stay the way that it is
because that's how people work.
And there will always be those
who are hurt on the outside,
looking in, wanting it to be proven wrong.
Wanting everybody to be held accountable all at once,
wanting all descendants to be wiped out.
That's not how it works. Be the good that you can be.
Give the help that you can give.
Tell the part that you can tell.
And then leave the rest up to the Almighty.
[eerie music playing]
♪♪♪