Plot Synopsis

Controversial religious leader and Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara, positioned herself as God's prophet and preached the virtues of being thin. As the founder of the Tennessee-based Remnant Fellowship Church and the Weigh Down Workshop -- a massively successful Christian-based diet program that preached the virtue of a slim waist and the power of prayer for weight loss -- she was a rare woman to lead a Southern megachurch. As her church grew across the nation, so did her iron-fisted grip as its leader -- accumulating power and money, while creating a larger-than-life public persona with dramatically teased and towering hair. At the peak of her power and influence, Gwen demanded that church members alienate themselves from anyone who was not a member, banished those that became overweight, threatened legal action against dissenters, and advocated for strict punishment of those who failed to follow church tenets. But her reign suddenly came to a tragic end in May 2021, when the plane that her husband Joe was flying crashed shortly after takeoff, killing Gwen, Joe, their son-in-law, and four other Church leaders. CREDITS: Executive Producer: Nancy Bennett, Jesse Prupas; Director: John L'Ecuyer; Writers: Richard Blaney, Gregory Small.