remnant fellowship

[flyingeagles]

My brother and his family have recently been involved with this group.
From what I have read on the web this is a dangerous group. Does anyone
have any experience?

[Desertphile]

Firm Beliefs

A religious movement based in Williamson County is now part of a murder
investigation. The question: did the Remnant Fellowship's Firm Beliefs
inadvertently lead to the beating death of a little boy. Now, evidence
uncovered by NewsChannel 5 could help investigators answer that
question.

NewsChannel 5/February 5, 2004

Gwen Shamblin developed a following of thousands with a Christian diet
plan she called the Weigh Down Workshop.

That message led to the formation of her own religious movement, the
Remnant Fellowship. The church claims about 1,000 members spread
throughout some 130 cities.

It's a movement that demands strict obedience -- even from its
children.

"If you want to go back to my teachings, which is what this is founded
on, I would have to snap my finger and they would want to obey,"
Shamblin tells NewsChannel 5's chief investigative reporter Phil
Williams.

But now the apparent child abuse death of a young Atlanta-area boy has
investigators questioning the Remnant Fellowship's teachings.

"I'm not going to hide behind the fact that our good Lord says do not
spare the rod," Shamblin says.

Another Remnant leader, Ted Anger, describes the church's idea of
spankings: "As far as a pat on the bottom, as a last resort, and it's
always in love."

But two of Remnant's members, Joseph and Sonya Smith, now sit in jail,
charged with killing their 8-year-old son, Josef.

Investigators wrote the child had "extensive bruising" over his "entire
body," but the parents "showed no remorse."

They felt it "just a part of discipline" and were "very defensive"
about their religion, the investigators added.

"Does Remnant advocate repeated spankings of children, over and over
and over?" Williams asks.

"Absolutely not," Shamblin replies.

But former Remnant member Terri Phillips says, "Two or three spankings
would not be enough. It could be 10 spankings."

She and her husband David say Shamblin not only encouraged spankings,
but stressed they must be severe.

"You had to make the spanking count," David says.

In fact, in a tape obtained by NewsChannel 5, Shamblin tells her
followers:

"If they're not scared of a spanking, you haven't spanked them. If you
haven't really spanked them, you don't love them. You love yourself."

David Phillips adds, "They had to feel the pain and that they were
being disobedient."

Then, during one service when their 5-year-old daughter misbehaved,
Terri Phillips says another Remnant member pressured her to apply
Shamblin's teachings.

"It kept on for about an hour. It was just spanking, trying to see if
she would stop crying. Then, if she didn't stop crying, this person was
telling me to spank her harder."

Williams asks Shamblin, "Would it ever be appropriate to spank a 2 year
old over and over and over and over and over and over in one night?"

"That's not what we teach here, Phil."

But in a conference call with Remnant women, another Remnant leader
David Martin holds out his own "showdown spanking" with his daughter as
an example.

"A year ago, our two and half year old Avery - we had a real showdown
with her.... And we had a leg spanking, over and over and over and over
and over and over again time one evening."

Shamblin tells Phil Williams:

"OK, well then, you know, you need to talk to David Martin about that
then, because that's not&"

"And you agreed," Williams says, "that's the perfect way to handle a
child."

On the tape, she says:

"David Martin had a real showdown. It was a one-night showdown, and
that child never forgot it."

"Are you asking does that go on very often?" Shamblin says. "Are you
kidding, no, it does not.... It is so rare, and it is only
strong-willed children."

In fact, Joseph Smith told investigators that he dealt with his own
strong-willed child by spanking him with glue sticks.

"Glue sticks are actually sort of common within the Remnant Fellowship
culture to be used to physically discipline children," says Adam
Brooks, who was once recruited to join Remnant and now counsels former
members.

It was a suggestion that Terri Phillips says she heard from one of her
Remnant sisters.

"I said, why. She said, well, because they hurt like switches, that it
really hurts, but it doesn't make marks on your children."

Phil Williams asks Shamblin, "Tell me about the use of gluesticks to
spank children."

"It was not from here," she replies. "It came from a member somewhere,
someplace else and then it went around."

Shamblin tells her followers not to worry about their children's
self-esteem, worry more about what she calls their God-esteem.

In the case of young Josef, investigators say his parents locked him up
in a small room with just his Bible.

"Does Remnant advocate locking children up for lengthy periods of
time?" Williams asks the Remnant leaders.

"We don't advocate locking them up for any period of time," Anger
replies.

"Absolutely not," Shamblin adds.

But in the women's conference call, the mother Sonya Smith relates to
Shamblin:

"I did exactly what Ted told me to do... Take everything out of his
room.... We got everything out of there and locked him in there from
that Friday until Monday and only left him in the room with his Bible."


As a result, Smith tells Shamblin that Josef was behaving much more
appropriately. Then, Shamblin replies:

"That's a miracle. You've got a child that's going from bizarre down to
in-control. So praise God. We are spoiling these kids. We are ruining
their lives by even letting them think about themselves at all. So,
thank you, Sonya, for sharing that."

Shamblin tells Phil Williams, "That tape has been made or tampered or
whatever - I totally deny that that has ever been said by anyone."

"You had a chance to tell her that was not correct," Williams replies.

"That was not on there."

"Instead, you said praise the Lord."

"No, that was not on there."

Shamblin now admits the tape is authentic, but says she was only
praising the results achieved by the family.

In addition, the Smiths are accused of depriving their children by
refusing to feed them "until their stomachs growled" and then only
giving them enough food to "satisfy the growl."

That's patterned after Shamblin's diet teachings.

"Eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full is suggested
by the surgeon general," she says. " It is not child abuse."

"I definitely believe that Remnant has created a culture in which
people on the fringe might be more likely to do this sort of thing,"
Adams Brooks says.

Williams asks the Remnant leaders, "Do you think it's possible that you
have inadvertently encouraged child abuse?"

"No, no, no," Shamblin replies.

The Remnant Fellowship founder says everywhere she looks she sees lives
that have been changed by her teachings.

But critics say she ought to take another look into the face of the
child of God named Josef.

"Do you fear for other Remnant children?" Williams asks Brooks.

"Yes, I do."

Even the Remnant's most vocal critics insist they don't believe Ms.
Shamblin or anyone ever intended for child abuse to occur.

Shamblin says, if she has anything to apologize for, it's that the tape
got out of Remnant's inner circles.

Police in Cobb County, Ga., are obtaining the tape for their
investigation.

"We plan to talk to individuals affiliated with the church," says Lt.
Paula Sparks, head of the department's crimes against children section.


"If that leads us to the church leaders, then certainly those are the
individuals who we'll be contacting."

Reading his Bible for a TV crew, 8-year-old Josef Smith was the very
model of obedience.

But the Smiths were a family in crisis, as the mother confided in a
conference call with the women of her church.

He was very destructive," Sonya Smith related last February. "Anything
of mine he was trying to destroy. He strangled one of my babies, well,
attempted to. He attempted to set the house on fire."

In fact, investigators say the innocent-looking child called himself
Legion, a term that means "many devils." It's a term that was familiar
within their church, the Remnant Fellowship.

This family came to us for counsel," Remnant Fellowship founder tells
NewsChannel 5 chief investigative reporter Phil Williams.

The child was wild. You know, Phil, we help a lot of people every day,
and we are going to get in trouble for it."

But now his parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, are charged with beating
him to death.

Investigators say they had turned to the Remnant Fellowship with its
message of strict discipline -- instead of seeking professional help.

It seems to be thought by Remnant Fellowship leadership that these
mental illnesses are more sort of fabrications of a poor spiritual life
where you are not in obedience to God," says former Remnant recruit
Adam Brooks.

Brooks notes that, in Remnant's own videos, depression and
anti-depressants are equated with sin.

One of those testimonies came from Terri Phillips, who had been told by
doctors that she had a chemical imbalance and needed medication.

When I dealt with the leaders, they were all saying, listen, she
doesn't need to be on these," her husband David Phillips recalls.

Shamblin insists that she doesn't tell her followers to give up their
medication.

We don't sit there and tell someone this is what you have to do," she
tells Phil Williams. "It's not the drug that's the problem. It's the
heart of man. It's when we overmedicate ourselves."

But in an Internet webcast from Remnant Fellowship, Shamblin tells her
followers:

How would you like to find out all of us were on Prozac? ... Then why
in the world are you even beginning to think that's OK for you?"

Later, she says:

Anyone that wants to stand up and say Get off Prozac -- Ted Anger --
get on up here."

Terri Phillips says she was fine at first, because of the lingering
effects of the medication and her spiritual high. Then, she began
spinning out of control and realized she needed her medicine.

I was sneaking behind their backs taking it because I was desperate for
my life," she says. "I wanted to feel better again. I was thinking
about suicide."

Soon Remnant leaders found out.

Two of the men leaders actually said you get that medicine from her and
you flush it, flush it down the toilet," David Phillips says.

Did Remnant leadership ever encourage her husband to take her medicine
away from her?" Phil Williams asks Shamblin.

Yes."

But she and Remnant leader Ted Anger says they were only responding to
the Phillips' cries for help.

That was the advice given sure," Anger says.

The advice given, knowing what they wanted, Phil," Shamblin adds.

Phillips says her journal shows her turmoil, but Remnant leaders
weren't sympathetic about her depression.

In the Internet webcast, Anger chastises those members who were
suffering from depression:

There is nothing to be concerned about. What's the worst thing that
happens? You die! So what? You go to heaven."

Terri Phillips recalls, "I was also feeling very guilty because I
thought God hated me because I couldn't be strong enough. I couldn't
pray enough. I couldn't knock the demons out of my mind enough."

She was just going overboard," David adds. "Down on her face praying
Oh, God, just relieve me of this pain that I'm in."

Finally, Terri says she was near suicide.

I left church one Sunday and nobody had compassion for me, not one bit.
They told me to stop crying, to just not feel sorry for myself and I
ran to an ER and they admitted me."

Brooks says he knows of some cases in which the admonition to give up
medications "resulted in hospitalizations, which is not in the Remnant
brochure, I can assure you."

"Look at the results, Phil," Shamblin replies. "Person after person
coming off, person after person being set free."

He kind of informed me there are true chemical imbalances and it's not
a sin like Remnant says it is," David says.

Remnant's critics say they fear most for children who may need
professional help. "In a situation where physical discipline is the
primary tool for getting kids in line, I worry a lot about that,"
Brooks says.

Shamblin and other Remnant leaders insist they are not insensitive to
mental health issues -- that they have a psychologist on staff.

But there's no evidence that their staff did anything -- other than
encourage the Smiths to get tougher on their troubled child.

An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation focused on a Williamson County
church, and how its Firm Beliefs may have led to the child abuse death
of a little boy. One of the questions: why are members so willing to
let the group's founder tell them how to run their lives?

In the Bible, there are the prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Malachi.

In Remnant Fellowship, there's Gwen Shamblin.

"She seems to be considered a prophet by all members of Remnant
Fellowship," says former Remnant recruit Adam Brooks.

Which is why Brooks and others believe members -- like the Atlanta-area
couple now charged with beating their son to death -- are willing to
yield to Shamblin on the use of severe discipline for children.

"If Gwen speaks about parenting, you can bet people are going to
listen, they are going to take her advice and follow it," Brooks says.

NewsChannel 5's chief investigative reporter Phil Williams asks
Shamblin, "Are you a prophet?"

"I don't believe I know what my gift name is," she replies. "I will
tell you that I am still wrestling with that.

"I've been told that for years."

In fact, videos from Shamblin's Weigh Down Christian diet plan strike
an exodus theme, and she finds reassurance in her own public relations.


"Even in the Atlanta Constitution years ago, they likened me unto a
present-day Moses because it was breaking people out of the slavery of
overeating," she tells Williams.

Then, when terrorists struck on September 11th, 2001, Shamblin quickly
sent out an e-mail to her followers, comparing herself to the Old
Testament prophets and saying she had been trying to warn America.

Brooks lived in New York and was being recruited to join Shamblin's
church.

"She was kind of saying you don't have a lot of time to make a decision
and a smart person would decide in my favor and get underneath the
authority of Remnant Fellowship because that's the only thing that's
going to protect you."

Former members say there was something exhiliarating about Remnant's
claims to be a group of believers who are completely becoming obedient
to God.

"They always said this is the true church," says former member David
Phillips. "There is no other church. Every other church out there is
counterfeit. This is drilled in your head week after week after week."

Members are encouraged to listen to Christian music by Shamblin's son
Michael, but avoid other Christian artists who might present
counterfeit messages.

And Shamblin tells her followers that she has the authority to tell
them what's right and what's wrong. In a conference call obtained by
NewsChannel 5, she says:

"I have not been put in this position because I'm going to put up with
you all's disobedience. If I hear of it, then I will correct it. If I
have to come to you, then you're really in trouble."

David Phillips' wife Terri says that was a recurrent theme.

"If it was storming -- it was God's judgment," she remembers. "We might
not live through the night. She used a lot of fear. And then if the
storm was over, then she'd say oh God is so good he actually let us to
live another night."

Remnant's church services have even drawn protests from parents, who
say Shamblin encouraged her followers to cut off contact with their
non-Remnant families.

One of those parents, Pamela Carney, blames Shamblin personally.

"It's all about being under Gwen's control," Carney says. "She wants to
control everybody."

By all accounts, Shamblin has made millions of dollars through the
Weigh Down Workshop, the for-profit arm of her ministry. But, as part
of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by some former employees a few
years ago, she insisted that those financial details be kept under
seal.

Shamblin says she believes the questions about the apparent child abuse
death of a young Remnant child is just God's way of getting out word
about what she calls the New Jerusalem.

"I do believe we are on to things. I believe God is making public what
we are doing."

As to the truth about Remnant Fellowship, there is this problem:

"You think if you lie for God's sake, it's OK?" Williams asks Shamblin.


"I believe if God calls you to, you'd better protect Jerusalem," she
answers, pointing to her Bible.

"There are so many cases in here where people did that very thing to
protect Jerusalem, and so they were rewarded."

[Desertphile]

Controversial Church Finds Itself In The Spotlight Again
NewsChannel5.com/April 13, 2005

Early voting for Brentwood's City Commission began Wednesday, with
seven candidates vying for three seats, but there's a growing
controversy about three of the candidates who were running together as
a block.

Their names appeared together on campaign signs, and the three were
featured on a website that was licensed to a member of the Weigh-Down
Workshop, a weight-loss program founded by Gwen Shamblin.

Shamlbin also founded the Remnant Fellowship in Brentwood, which was
under investigation after the death of a child whose family belonged to
the church.

Only one of the three candidates, Don Fischer, was a member of the
church.

The 7 candidates that running for Brentwood's City Commission will
debate Thursday night at Brentwood City Hall beginning at 7:00 P.M.

[Desertphile]

Church leader: Abuse case being used to attack her
Associated Press/June 30, 2004
By Karin Miller
Franklin -- The leader of the Remnant Fellowship Church says her
critics and police are using a child abuse investigation into an
8-year-old's death to bring down her ministry.

Gwen Shamblin, whose church was raided last month as part of the
investigation into Josef Smith's death, told The Associated Press in an
interview yesterday that she is the true target.

''It's an unfortunate taking advantage of the tragic death of a child
so they can whip Remnant Fellowship and Gwen Shamblin,'' she said in
her office at the Weigh Down Workshop.

The workshop in Franklin is headquarters for the Christian diet program
she created in 1986 and temporary home to the church that grew from it
five years ago.

Police are investigating the church and its connection to Joseph and
Sonya Smith, church members from Mableton, Ga., who are accused of
child abuse in their son's death last year. But Shamblin said it's the
Smiths who are being abused by law enforcement, cult experts and the
media.

She said critics have fooled former Remnant members into believing they
were part of a cult. Shamblin accepts the label of prophet - defining
it as someone who leads people to repentance - but laughs at the idea
that she is a cult leader who uses mind control on her flock.

''Why are we having to defend ourselves? It's because these religious
experts have gotten these people riled up,'' she said. ''This is their
occupation. They can't wait. They talk about me every day. I can't
believe that kind of focus; it's sick.''

Rafael Martinez of Spiritwatch Ministries in Cleveland, Tenn., has
called Remnant Fellowship a cult and ''as abusive a religious group as
any I've seen.''

She said she ignored such allegations until Spiritwatch and former
Remnant members got involved in the case against the Smiths.

Former Remnant members suggested to investigators and reporters that
the Smiths abused their child because of church teachings about
discipline that include the use of corporal punishment.

Shamblin said she believes the Smiths' contention that the boy ran into
a banister, hit his head and had a seizure that led to his death the
next day.

She said she believes a Georgia detective ''did not have enough
evidence to wrap up his theory that the family were murderers'' and was
contacted by disgruntled former members and the anti-cult leaders. That
led to the church raid.

Former members also accuse Remnant leaders of condoning beatings with
glue-gun sticks and locking disobedient children in their rooms with
only a Bible for company.

Shamblin said the church leaves discipline to parents but believes in
spankings as a last resort.

Shamblin said she used a wooden spoon on her children and has never
advocated glue sticks but doesn't think there's anything wrong with it.


''We are the opposite of what has been portrayed. We are a God-fearing
group of people that teach loving discipline. As far as a glue stick
goes, I'm sitting there going, 'Please, for heaven's sake, we've got
some generations that used paddles. Here we're using something like a
licorice stick.' ''

She said her congregation includes people who wouldn't condone child
abuse - including pediatricians, a doctor who sits on a child death
review board, and teachers who have reported abuse in their classrooms.


But Shamblin said she accepts the possibility that she could be
arrested, as were Jesus and several biblical leaders.

''If I'm imprisoned because of this, if they take my home, whatever, I
believe that my calling is to write in clear terms how to fall in love
with God. And I have been true to that calling, even in the midst of
all this,'' she said.

[Desertphile]

Church founded by diet guru scrutinized after boy dies
Associated Press/June 20, 2004
By Karin Miller
Franklin -- The Remnant Fellowship, a church that grew out of a
Christian weight-loss program, preaches obedience and tough discipline
for unruly children.

Those beliefs have put the religious movement under scrutiny in a case
involving two members accused of beating their 8-year-old son to death
last year in suburban Atlanta's Cobb County.

Last month, investigators raided the Franklin headquarters of the
church and weight-loss program, seeking evidence of a connection to
Josef Smith's death.

Authorities say the boy was chronically abused and died from a blow to
the head. His parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith of Mableton, Ga., are
charged with felony murder, child cruelty and deprivation of a minor.

Remnant Fellowship founder Gwen Shamblin, other church leaders and more
than two dozen members would not return phone calls or e-mails from The
Associated Press.

However, Shamblin has said church leaders believe in discipline but
they don't sanction abuse. Remnant leaders believe the Smiths'
contention that the boy's death was an accident and are helping pay for
their lawyers.

Church leaders say on a Web site that the media ''have already tried
and found this couple guilty. These same individuals are now attempting
to associate the teachings of Remnant Fellowship with this unfortunate
incident.''

But it's former Remnant members who are saying church leaders
sanctioned severe beatings and locking children in a bare room with a
Bible until they learned obedience to God and their parents. Audiotapes
made by those former members recorded Shamblin praising such
''showdowns'' with children, including the Smiths' son Josef.

Discipline and obedience are underlying themes of the church's
teachings and of the weight-loss program that Shamblin began in 1986.

The Weigh Down Workshop, held in Christian churches throughout the
world, attracted thousands. The diet doesn't ban any foods but requires
eating only when the stomach growls and only until the dieter is full.

''Once you are obedient to God's rules in the areas of eating (hunger
and fullness), you not only lose the excess weight, but you will lose
the desire to overeat. He cares very much about - and is displeased
with - overindulgence,'' Shamblin says on the Weigh Down Web site.

The workshops made millions of dollars, but Shamblin wasn't satisfied.

As she traveled the country, she began to believe many churches were
condoning sins such as gluttony. She found them to be ''counterfeit''
churches worshipping false gods, including sex, money, drugs and self.

''The evidence that multiple gods have stepped into our hearts (the
temple of God) is the ever-increasing indulgences and sin in the
church,'' Shamblin writes on the Remnant Web site.

''Divorce and rebellious children and obesity and the use of drugs and
anti-authority and pride and arrogance against His exact wishes have
increased over the years.''

In 1999, she founded Remnant Fellowship, which she calls the one true
church, choosing the name from biblical passages about God calling
together a remnant of true believers.

Remnant claims to have about 130 churches scattered throughout the
country, but many consist of a few families meeting at one another's
homes. Franklin members now meet at a Weigh Down warehouse, but a large
church is under construction south of town.

Many have moved from other states to join Remnant here and are happy
with their choice, as evidenced by a recent Saturday night at a
restaurant where about 50 adults and children gathered to support the
new piano player, a Remnant member.

Church members also told a couple of interested listeners about
miracles they had experienced through the church: tremendous weight
loss, reunited families and an intense love of God.

For some, that enthusiasm doesn't last. Rob and Brenda H. of Florida
were among the first to join Remnant and became leaders of the
fledgling movement.

''She offered me something I had wanted all my life - a perfect
church,'' said Rob H., who had been a lay minister in a Southern
Baptist congregation.

However, he and his wife said they weren't allowed to associate with
their daughter and grandchildren, who weren't Remnant believers. And
they weren't allowed to question church leaders, particularly Shamblin.


Members weren't allowed to read material unless Shamblin had written it
or listen to Christian music unless it was by her son Michael, H. said.


''They were filling your mind with nothing but Gwen Shamblin and her
twisted Scripture. Leaders would tell you, 'You are listening to a
prophet from God,' '' H. said.

Last fall, they neared a breaking point when church leaders tried to
prevent H. from starting a job selling real estate. The final straw,
they said, was the Smith boy's death.

H. said he read about the investigation and noticed that Shamblin was
lying to investigators about whether glue sticks (long thin rods used
in glue guns) were used to beat children to avoid leaving a mark.

''She says that never came from her, but there is not one thing done in
Remnant Fellowship that Gwen does not approve of,'' he said.

Former members Betsy and Steve Miozzi of Ohio say they were told to
advocate such discipline for the child of a local member. Church
leaders told them the boy didn't need medication for his attention
deficit disorder.

''Just smack the child 10 times across the back of the thigh. If that
doesn't work, do it again and again, and if it still doesn't work, put
him in a room with nothing but a Bible and leave him there till he
obeys or turns 18,'' Miozzi said he was told.

On visits to the Franklin church, the Miozzis often saw glue sticks
protruding from diaper bags. They were used on children as young as 18
months who fidgeted during the long services, Miozzi said.

''They make you believe if you don't do it, you don't love God, you
don't love your child and you can't be part of Remnant. If you're not a
part of Remnant, you're going to hell,'' Miozzi said.

Six months after leaving Remnant, the Miozzis still struggle with that
fear. They have recently begun talking with other former members
dealing with the same issues.

Several are being counseled by Rafael Martinez of Spiritwatch
Ministries in Cleveland, Tenn., who says Remnant Fellowship is clearly
a cult. He says Shamblin tapped into the vulnerabilities of Weigh Down
participants and took advantage of them.

''They are as abusive a religious group as any I've seen. And I've
never seen a group get so abusive, so damaging in so short a time,''
Martinez said.

[Desertphile]

Weigh Down Workshop will be back in business following raid
Review Appeal/May 20, 2004
By Melissa N. Warren
Franklin Police removed file boxes and flattened boxes after executing
several search warrants in the 29-hour takeover of the Weigh Down
Workshop headquarters.

"We did leave two police officers in the facility [Wednesday] night so
that the building remained in our control," Deputy Chief Al Segal said.
"We are finished now, and [Weigh Down] will be back to business
shortly."

The beige stucco building is situated behind tall pine trees off
Seaboard Lane and is the current meeting place for the Remnant
Fellowship International church. Police also searched a warehouse
facility on Gen. George Patton Drive but have not released what, if
anything, they removed from either of the buildings.

The raid is part of an ongoing investigation by the department and
occurred concurrently with another investigation by the Cobb County
(Ga.) Crimes Against Children Division. The detective from that
department, David Schweizer, arrived in Franklin nearly four days ago
and left last night, Segal said.

"I am actively searching the building for a link to the death of an
8-year-old," Schweizer said yesterday. "His family is part of the Weigh
Down Workshop."

Segal said it is procedure for an out-of-state agency to request the
help of a local department in serving a search warrant but could not
say whether or not the overlapping searches were related.

"These are two separate investigations," the deputy chief said.

Even though Franklin's entire criminal investigation division was
present at the headquarters, Segal stressed that he was keeping an eye
on the department's reports of other crimes.

"We certainly would not jeopardize any other case, but we do
prioritize," he said. "Several detectives have left to go to work on
other cases since we've been here."

Gwen Shamblin, the founder of both the Weigh Down Workshop and Remnant
Fellowship International, was not on the premises. The few employees
who were inside the building yesterday did refuse to comment, although
Segal said the organization had been cooperative.

[Desertphile]

Faith and the fork
Is it time for religion to examine its role in expanding waistlines?

San Diego Union-Tribune/May 20, 2004
By Sandi Dolbee
Doughnuts after church services. Cheesecake at the temple. Spaghetti
dinners in the parish hall. Fried chicken for the Sunday potluck.
Pastries to help break the Ramadan fast.

Praise the Lord and pass the devil's food cake.

"Most Jewish holidays can be summed up with: They've attacked us, we
won, let's eat," says Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel
Synagogue in San Carlos. "Food is considered to be an integral part of
every single celebration."

Breaking bread is also big in Christianity.

"Christ said we are to love one another," says the Rev. Gene Beezer, of
Faith Bible Fellowship in Santee. "If you never eat together, can it be
said that you love one another?"

Stories of Jesus abound with images of eating. "Much of what he did was
around a table," says Father John Dolan at St. Rose of Lima Roman
Catholic Church in Chula Vista.

But the marriage of food and faith may need some postnuptial
counseling.

With obesity at epidemic proportions in the United States and unhealthy
eating habits and lack of exercise closing in on tobacco use as the
country's leading cause of avoidable death, it may be time to ask about
religion's place at the table of blame.

"I think that the church, generally speaking, has not done a real good
job of addressing what the Bible talks about as gluttony. That's a
really unpopular word," says Elyse Fitzpatrick, a Christian author,
counselor and founder of Women Helping Women Ministries in Escondido.

A 1998 Purdue University study found that religious people were more
overweight than non-religious people. Though the problem cut across all
faiths, Baptists were the heaviest, with Jews, Muslims and Buddhists
the least overweight.

Should congregations step up to the plate, so to speak?

"We have a responsibility to take care of the body, and we have to stop
providing the doughnuts," says Deidre Little-Persson, a nutritionist,
wellness coach and author of "Fit for Eternity." "It's like they're
giving the drug dealers the needles."

Nudged by a buffet of popular books about faith-based diets and special
ministries that focus on nutrition and health, some religious groups
are shifting toward a more holistic approach of connecting the mind,
body and spirit.

"There is a kind of revival for people coming back to realizing that
the church does have influence over drug abuse and obesity and eating
disorders," says Little-Persson, who lives in Escondido.

For more than four years, Gloria Lynch has helped lead a local program
that goes into African-American churches to teach about better eating
habits and healthier lifestyles.

She says the program talks to people about baking instead of frying,
about cutting back on fat and loading up on fruits and vegetables.

"A lot of them are changing," says Lynch, coordinator of the Revival
Time Nutrition Network that is based out of her husband's church,
Revival Time Community Church of God in Christ in North Park. "One of
the things we advocate is it's a lifestyle. It's not something that
happens overnight."

According to the American Obesity Association, 70 percent of blacks are
overweight, compared to 73 percent of Mexican-Americans and 62 percent
of whites.

Is this really what religion ought to be concerning itself with in the
great scheme of things? "Absolutely," Lynch answers. "God is not just
concerned about the spiritual part of man. . . . You can't be what you
need to be spiritually if you're not healthy."

Florida wellness guru Jordan Rubin turned to the Bible, the Hebrew
books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus in particular, for eating habits
that he says changed his life. His book about it, "The Maker's Diet,"
was released last month and is a bestseller.

Rubin describes it as going back to our dietary roots, how he believes
God intended for people to eat, which includes meals of organic foods
and only certain meats and fish.

He doesn't only blame communal religious gatherings for feeding our
fat. "I think everybody's part of the problem. Organizations in general
have been geared toward food and particularly junk food."

These same organizations, Rubin says, can be part of the solution.

Students in the weekly religious education program at All Hallows Roman
Catholic Church in La Jolla get bagels and bottled water instead of ice
cream sandwiches. Karen Downs instituted that change after she became
minister of catechesis, or religious instruction.

She was more concerned with sugar intake than weight issues. "Children
in the afternoon need to be fed, but they don't need to be wired,"
Downs explains.

Fitzpatrick, the North County counselor and writer, notes that the
Bible teaches that our bodies belong to God. That's what ministers
ought to be teaching, too, adds Fitzpatrick, whose books include "Love
to Eat, Hate to Eat: Breaking the Bondage of Destructive Eating
Habits."

Food has become this culture's false god, argues Gwen Shamblin, a
Tennessee dietitian and founder of a Bible-based weight-loss program,
the Weigh Down Workshop. That lust, she says, needs to be redirected to
religion.

Or, as she puts it, "You can't bow down to a pan of brownies and God."

Faith leaders agree on one thing: Their religion doesn't promote abuse.


"In Buddhism, we're constantly working on our minds and being mindful,"
says Kelsang Gyalmo, education program coordinator at Vajrarupini
Buddhist Center in Hillcrest.

"I believe that the cause of this epidemic is actually attachment to
food," she says. "We believe that food is the source of our happiness,
and because of this, we develop an addiction to food."

Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and other faiths preach
moderation as part of their theology.

"You have to have self-control, as with anything else," says Rabbi
Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel.

Imam Baseem Syed of the Islamic Center of North County in Poway says
he's noticed how people may take only a small piece of a doughnut
instead of the whole thing. That way, they can have the fellowship
without too much of the fat. "In our society, food is considered a good
thing, but at the same time there is a religious responsibility to eat
everything in moderation," Syed says.

Rabbi Rosenthal, like several other clergy in the county, is reluctant
to sermonize about obesity. "The criticism just makes them feel worse,"
he says. "Certainly they know they are overweight. They know they have
a problem."

Besides, he adds, "I'm not sure I'd want them to feel uncomfortable
coming to the synagogue."

Ditto for the Rev. Beezer, of Faith Bible Fellowship in Santee. "We
don't want to be offensive," he says.

There's also the risk of making people feel unworthy or that God
doesn't like fat people, says the Rev. Jeanette Moffett, executive
pastor of the Church at Rancho Bernardo. "We try to love people to
Christ, and love them to wholeness, not punish them to wholeness," she
adds.

North Coast Church in Vista, which offers services in multiple venues,
tailors its snack menu to match each specific location. A contemporary
service for young people at one end of the main campus features
Mountain Dew, for example, while family-oriented services at nearby
Roosevelt Middle School in Oceanside serve Krispy Kreme doughnuts and
Starbucks coffee.

"I don't know that we're really contributing big time to an overweight
problem," says Pastor Jennifer Groth, who is in charge of growth and
development at North Coast Church. "Since it's just a Sunday morning
treat, I don't think it swings the scales one way or the other."

Still, the question has the Rev. Kathy Hurt thinking out loud about the
goodies served at her Solana Beach congregation, the Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito. "Maybe," she adds, "there is
something that can be less hard on our waistlines."

[Desertphile]

Ministry's offices searched for clues in boy's death
Detectives seize files from Weigh Down

Tennessean/May 20, 2004
By Courtney Watson
Franklin -- A Georgia detective says he believes he has tied the death
of an 8-year-old boy to a Williamson County-based ministry, but the
organization has issued a statement saying it has done nothing wrong
and believes the death was accidental.

Cobb County Police detective David Schweizer and a group of Franklin
police detectives searched the office and warehouses of Weigh Down
Ministries in Cool Springs yesterday, collecting files and computer
disks.

The daylong search is a continuation of the case against Joseph and
Sonya Smith, members of the Weigh Down-affiliated Remnant Fellowship
Church. The Smiths were charged in December with felony murder, cruelty
to a child and deprivation of a minor in the October death of their
son, Josef.

''This is part of that investigation,'' Schweizer said of the search
efforts. ''We already have a link. We knew the family was a member of
the church. I'm trying to tie my case into a nice, neat knot so I can
send it on to the prosecution.''

Franklin police also are conducting an investigation of the ministry,
Deputy Police Chief Al Segal said. He would not discuss details of it.
No arrests have been made.

Police arrested the Cobb County boy's parents after the child received
what Schweizer called a ''blunt force trauma to the head.'' He said the
case, which has not gone to trial, was one of ''chronic child abuse.''

The faith-based weight-loss program, Weigh Down, and its affiliated
church were founded by diet guru and Brentwood resident Gwen Shamblin.
Her best-selling book, The Weigh Down Diet, launched a worldwide
program with workshops that meet weekly in more than 30,000 locations,
according to the ministry's Web site.

While Remnant Fellowship promotes discipline for children, including
what its Web site describes as ''traditional spankings,'' Shamblin and
other church members have supported the Smiths' stance that Josef died
from an accident-related injury.

The Web site, remnantfellowship.org, includes a statement labeled
''Media response.'' Here is an excerpt:

''Recently, one of our members lost a child, and the death was tragic
and devastating to all of us. The death of Josef Mykel Smith was the
direct result of a tragic accident witnessed by his older brother. & It
is an extreme leap of logic by journalists and media to say that
traditional spankings and groundings of a child to his bedroom is in
any way associated with a head injury.''

The statement urged the public not to ''rush to judgment without
presenting all the facts'' and promised more information when the Smith
case has gone through the courts.

''Due to the 'ambush' style and sensationalized 'gotcha' journalism
that we have recently seen, and out of respect for the legal
procedures, we have chosen not to comment any more on this family's
case until they have been acquitted of the allegation and released by
the court,'' the Weigh Down and Remnant Fellowship statement said.

[Desertphile]

Weigh Down Crackdown
Faith-based weight loss headquarters raided for possible role in boy's
death

Review Appeal/May 19, 2004
By Melissa N. Warren
Law enforcement officers descended on Franklin's Weigh Down Workshop on
Wednesday, reportedly as part of a continuing investigation into the
role the teachings of an affiliated church played in the death of a
Georgia boy.

Joseph Smith, 44, and Sonya Smith, 36, were charged in December with
felony murder, cruelty to a child and contributing to the deprivation
of a minor in the death of their 8-year-old son, Josef Mykel Smith, who
died Oct. 9, 2003.

Witnesses reported police arrived before lunch and at press time, all
seven members of the Franklin Police's detective division, Chief Jackie
Moore, Deputy Chief Al Segal and Lt. Mike Jordan were on the scene.

'We are assisting Cobb County (Ga.) with their ongoing investigation,'
Segal said. 'We also are serving two search warrants on a separate
investigation.'

Cobb County Detective David Schweizer of the Crimes Against Children
Division said he is indeed 'actively searching the building for a link
to the death of an 8-year-old.'

'We already have a link,' Schweizer said. 'His family is part of the
Weigh Down Workshop.' He had warrants for both the Weigh Down Workshop
and Remnant Fellowship offices. Schweizer has been in Franklin for
three days.

'I am just trying to tie my case into a nice, little, neat knot. This
is the final phase of my investigation of this case,' he said.

According to a December 2003 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
the 8-year-old 'was beaten so severely that his brain swelled and
bruises covered much of his body, police said. Police said his parents
sometimes locked the boy in a closet and made him pray to a picture of
Jesus.'

Josef's death came just months after the July 25, 2003, death of his
17-month-old brother, Milek, the Journal-Constitution reported, saying
his death was contributed to pneumonia although an investigation is
ongoing.

The Journal-Constitution reported a 14-year-old relative of Josef Smith
who described the child as being 'demon possessed,' a statement with
which the parents agreed. A report by the Department of Family and
Children's Services (DFCS) reported the Smiths belonged to Remnant
Fellowship International, which currently operates out of Weigh Down
Workshop on Seaboard Lane in Cool Springs. A new church is under
construction on Franklin Road in Brentwood.

The nondenominational church and Weigh Down Workshop were both founded
by Gwen Shamblin, whose book, 'The Weigh Down Diet,' has sold millions
of copies.

Following Josef's death, during an interview with DFCS workers, the
boy's father told them the family had been watching a webcast of
Remnant's religious services when the boy began a tantrum, the
Journal-Constitution reported.

That same day, according to the newspaper, Joseph Smith told
authorities 'he disciplined Josef by hitting him with a 2- or
3-foot-long, whip-like glue stick. Police say the parents used the
stick to beat the boy, and that sometimes an older boy was ordered to
hold Josef while he was beaten.'

The day of his death, his mother said Josef had gotten 'several
whippings,' which normally came in increments of 10, according to the
Journal-Constitution story.

[Desertphile]

Police Raid Weigh Down Workshop
NewsChannel5/May 19, 2004

Wednesday, police raided a business in connection with the
Brentwood-based church Remnant Fellowship.

Police said the raid was part of a murder investigation.

Detectives with search warrants in hand entered the Weigh Down
Workshop, which is run by Gwen Shamblin, the head of Remnant
Fellowship.

Two members of the church, Joseph and Sonya Smith, were arrested in
Atlanta for allegedly beating their 8-year-old son to death.

Detectives testified that the couple admitted to using glue sticks to
beat their son. It's an idea that a NewsChannel Five Investigation
discovered, originated inside Remnant Fellowship, a church that
preaches strict discipline of children.

Detectives said they hope the search will yield evidence that may
explain what the Smiths were thinking and what role, if any, their
religious beliefs played in the death of the child.

Investigators said they're worried there could be more victims.

NewsChannel Five learned that in addition to the investigation out of
Atlanta, Franklin police have now opened their own investigation.

[M***@hotmail.com]

This is dangerous .How let this go on?
I came out cult jehvoah witnesses they a cult
hope is help ones came out.
martin from uk