Fat-shaming Christian cult proves humans are vulnerable to joining anything. But don’t be afraid, nature has a cure.
HBO’s The way down docuseries was intriguing on many levels. The need for humans to belong to a community may override all reasoning and logic at times. It is this very reason why you should embrace independent thinking. Our desire to belong is based on survival. Despite living in a first-world country, we are still vulnerable to joining groups to feel a sense of belonging. Therefore, Independent thinking, as a result, has to be used as a filter to adapt to 21st-century society. Yet our bodies aren’t used to, nor have they evolved to understand this. Evolutionary-wise, we are still primitive. However, nothing screams survival like religion and health. Honestly, it’s a perfect recipe for a cult as religion and health nuts are both cults in their own right. Also, the evolutionary theory of the need to belong has evolved. Social psychologists now understand that the desire to reach a goal is just as strong as a motive as the need to belong. In this case, the goal is to lose weight. Let’s find out why a fat-shaming Christian cult proves humans are vulnerable to joining anything.
Even before everything became politically correct today, there were still forbidden questions accepted by most in society. One is, never ask a woman how much she weighs. Thanks to Hollywood, the worship of vanity, and celebrity culture, women were always concerned about their weight. However, It wasn’t about being healthy or unhealthy but rather being accepted by society. If this weren’t the case, the body positivity of overweight people wouldn’t be a thing. Body positivity, in fact, is a cult that subtly weakens its participants in fighting off covid-19, but I digress. Despite being a popular New Year’s resolution, losing weight and keeping it off consistently are very hard for the average American. Furthermore, the remnant church is located in the bible belt of America. This means the bible is already ingrained as the word of God in the hearts of its residents. While some Christians are taught the bible contains some mythology, those in the bible belt interpret the bible literally.
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Ex-remnant member Terri Phillips was one of the millions of Americans struggling with weight loss. She chooses to join the remnant. After her pastor from her previous church moved to another state, she began to struggle spiritually as her fill-in pastors weren’t inspiring her. Phillips faced two dilemmas, 48 pounds overweight and needing spiritual food. The remnant church could solve two problems with pastor Shamblin’s infamous weigh down program at the church. Tired of fad diets and counting calories, Phillips was so committed to losing the weight she commuted 2 hours just to attend the class several times a week. Phillips remembers wearing a sweatsuit to her first weigh-down class as it was the only pants she could fit.
A major reason Phillips states she left her old church is that the attendees looked unhappy and unmotivated. She notes that the moment she joined the remnant, people were full of life and joy. This is a common misconception with cults. We’re biased to think that those in cults will be serious, strict, and abusive upon our introduction to them. It takes time for it to manifest; it won’t be that way off the bat. Former remnant members repeatedly spoke on how the fat-shaming Christian church hid behind a happy-go-lucky facade in the HBO docuseries. They were all susceptible to joining cults because they operate subtly. If they were mean and aggressive covertly, they wouldn’t be able to seduce potential members.
As a new attendee at remnant, things are going more than great for Phillips. She’s made friends with several members; she even loses 30 pounds in a month. Her husband, who was hesitant to join, enjoys the church as well. Phillips states her marriage wasn’t good before joining the church. She blames this on growing up with an independent mother that never waited on her or her father. However, since joining the church, serving her husband(her words, not mine), and being kind, she states her marriage is great. She could even have her kids sit during service for 2 hours, whereas they couldn’t sit for 1 hour at her previous church.
“The more independent a person is, financially and physically, the less controlled he is by the cult.”
― Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs
Phillips was able to get one of her high-functioning autistic children off the medicine. The remnant church teaches that putting things inside the body that contaminates it is a form of disobedience to God. Through a 5 year span, her son experimented with 15 different medicines and was only entering 5th grade, so this was a huge success. So much, in fact, that it inspired Phillips to stop taking her medicine for clinical depression. After 2 months of no symptoms, Phillips felt that she was being obedient to God, so he rewarded her by relieving her depression. When Phillips speaks of obedience, it is important to remember that it aligns with remnant pastor Gwen Shamblin’s interpretation and ideology of the bible. For instance, the book of saul was a subject taught in the weigh down class. Despite becoming the first king of Israel, Sauls’s disobedience to God led him to be dethroned.
Once the shelf life of her medicine left her body, Phillips experienced panic attacks and depression. She was on a spiritual high from the church, and the meds took several months to leave her body, the church’s Christian doctor told her. The doctor also recommended that she take her meds as she has a chemical imbalance. This was when Phillips began to see the real side of her church “friends.” They would tell her to stop crying, read the book of psalms; it’s not all about her, put on make-up, and smile. None of these things worked, and Phillips could not receive compassionate support; everyone was so focused on sticking to the “rules.” Once Phillips finally admitted she was taking her medicine again, the looks of disgust on their faces were too much to bear.
“learn the clichés, doublespeak and coded jargon that the group uses to shut down critical thinking. Each group has its own buzzwords and platitudes.”
― Steven Hassan, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs
After convincing her to drop her “evil” pills in the toilet, Phillips began to cave into the demands of the church. Like most serious cults, outside contact is all but limited. The church offered stores, real estate, car repair shops, etc. Phillips had moved an hour away to join the church, and she needed a support system to help her get through this crisis. Yet she was continuously ridiculed. Phillips felt that members lacked compassion for her because she was a sinner for taking medicine. Churches are already stigmatized for being judgemental, but this takes it to another level.
Phillips would go on to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for depression and anxiety, which she said was “hell”. When it was time for her to use the phone, she tried to get support from her husband and church members. Unfortunately, they told her that’s what she gets because she disobeyed god. Shortly after getting out of the hospital, Phillips struck a deal with her husband. He agreed she could take medicine as long as she didn’t do it in front of her, so he didn’t lie to the church by saying he didn’t see her take it. Phillips also began to research the bible to find the sin in healing yourself from a chemical imbalance that wasn’t spiritual and found nothing against it. Phillips said that remnants’ lack of compassion stems from Pastor Shamblim telling members not to enable those who are sinning. Pastor Shamblin is also quoted as referring to sad and depressed members as “slobbering retards”. Also, Phillips was excluded from an email group because the church praying for her would have tainted the church’s pure image.
The fat-shaming Christian church only cared about its image. The church/cult leader Gwen Shamblin hid her overweight husband from the public, divorced him, and remarried a failing actor, wannabe country musician. Its members felt the pressure of losing weight. Otherwise, they were disobeying God and worshipped the refrigerator over god. And you can’t take meds despite being clinically depressed. Phillips’s doctor warned her that 30% of clinically depressed patients commit suicide; this helped change Phillips’s husband’s mind about her not taking meds.
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Remnant pastor Gwen Shamblin told members not to eat unless they experience “the growl” and not to overeat. This is a decent way to combat the deadly sin of gluttony. However, Shamblin portrayed herself as the leader of the cult, which is the deadly sin of idolatry. Cults are so intriguing because they show what people are willing to tolerate just to be a part of something. New research, however, gives us hope.
For those who are free thinkers who have trouble dealing with social groups, nature has a remedy. Nature-relatedness is our ability to relate to nature and experience it. While research is still ongoing, it has been observed in HIGHLY INDEPENDENT PEOPLE that nature can compensate for the need to belong. Not only can its herbs heal you, or can forest bathing help heal depression but experiencing it will curb your desire to belong. The cure for cults, social media addiction, depression, and various ailments and illnesses is all found in nature. Perhaps Unabomber Ted Kaczynski realized this as he lived alone in nature for over 25 years. In one scene, Sharlto Copley, who plays Ted Kaczynski, says that “after being in nature for a while, the feeling of being bored goes away.”.
In conclusion, in our previous article on Guru Jambaji, who formed a religious conservation group in India, had devotees who risked their lives to protect the trees. Maybe they understood 500 years ago what researchers are just starting to realize now. We can’t live without nature. Also, it proves that the Jewish interpretation of man’s dominion over nature is to rule righteously over it rather than destroy it is correct also. It appears that our desire to belong to the wrong crowd, gangs, cults, political parties and religious extremists can be curbed by having a relationship with nature and ourselves.
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