NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A threat delivered with a sniper's bullet.
That's just one of the startling claims from the son of controversial Brentwood religious figure Gwen Shamblin in an exclusive interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Michael Shamblin said the threat was delivered by Shamblin's new husband, former "Tarzan" actor Joe Lara, sometime after their 2018 marriage. Lara, who was proficient with a sniper's rifle, reportedly took Michael out behind the plantation-style home that Shamblin owned in the affluent Brentwood community.
Click on previous stories below
"He showed me a Creedmoor sniper round, and he said, 'This is what we are going to take you out with from 1,200 yards,'" Michael Shamblin recalled.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed up.
"So just to be clear, Joe Lara showed you a sniper's bullet and said that that could be aimed at you."
"Yes," Michael Shamblin responded, quickly adding: "It was an asshole comment."
"And you took that as a threat?"
"I did."
Michael Shamblin said his mother and her new husband were afraid he would interfere with their plans. After their marriage, the couple began producing an online video series called "Life with Gwen and Joe," and they were trying to land a deal for a reality TV show.
"By this point, I was considered practically an enemy of Gwen. We just played the game. I was still there," he recalled. "She knew for years that I was kind of a threat to go to the media to do exactly what I'm doing now."
For Gwen Shamblin's Remnant Fellowship church, her wedding had been a highly-orchestrated church event where their prophet was not only the bride, but the star of the show.
Shamblin married Lara less than two months after she had divorced her husband of almost 40 years — the result, her son insisted, of a not-so-discreet affair in front of her church.
"They would travel together, her and Joe would travel together. They started being sat next to each other at leadership house parties. She was essentially committing adultery."
Shamblin had fallen for the "Tarzan" star after he began attending services at her church.
"He didn't like me because I was the one guy who was not going to kiss up to him. And I didn't really like him either. I didn't trust him. I always kind of felt like he's acting."
Michael Shamblin said his dad, David, later confided he had discovered a secret bank account that Gwen had used to buy gifts for Lara while she was still married to David.
"David Shamblin never had an affair against her. He was not out drinking every [night]. He was intent to be married to her his whole life. He was a good father."
Still, Michael speculated that his mother may not have found the fairy-tale ending for which she had hoped.
"From the day she divorced David Shamblin until the day of her death, they never had one month of peace, her and Joe," he added. "Every month was custody fights with his ex, Natasha. Or there was constant issues, constant trouble."
Michael claimed Lara was not a good influence on Gwen.
"She started experimenting with marijuana and, I heard from people, even harder drugs," he said. "It was constant intoxication on trips and things like that."
"Did Remnant approve?"
"The average Remnant person didn't know any of that. They would only know what they see in the worship service."
Still, Michael said there's a part of him that almost felt sorry for Joe Lara.
"I could tell he didn't want to be there. That's why he was flying so much. It was an escape."
Lara would be at the controls in May 2021 when their plane crashed into Nashville's Percy Priest Lake.
"I think deep down, once he got in that position, I think he wanted out," Michael Shamblin said.
"He wanted a divorce?"
"He wanted out because he had no clue how controlling what kind of life that was going to be with Gwen."
The stories on Michael Shamblin simply aren't one piece.
If you missed a portion of the story, you can still catch up.
PART ONE
Michael Shamblin was blunt.
"Phil, 20 years ago, early on in Remnant, you were the devil. You were Satan incarnate to the Remnant. Of course, Gwen was telling us all of that."
Gwen was Gwen Shamblin, the controversial Christian diet guru who created her own church, the Remnant Fellowship, in affluent Brentwood, Tennessee — a church that some now consider to be a cult.
To read more of part one, you can click this link.
PART TWO
Gwen Shamblin was a controversial Christian diet guru and the leader of what some call a cult right in the middle of Brentwood.
But Shamblin was also a mom and now, for the first time anywhere, her son is speaking out about what he witnessed at her side through almost all of that controversy.
Michael Shamblin, now 43, saw it all — and he said he also regrets it all.
To read more of Part Two, you can click this link.
PART THREE
How does one process the feelings of betrayal by a religious leader — especially when that religious leader is also family?
That's something that Michael Shamblin — son of the late Gwen Shamblin, the controversial religious figure from Brentwood — is still trying to figure out.
"People wonder, how do people buy into cults or how do they buy into these churches or charismatic leaders? It was my mother, and I went along with everything," Shamblin said in an exclusive interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Read more on this portion at this link.
PART FOUR
A threat delivered with a sniper's bullet.
That's just one of the startling claims from the son of controversial Brentwood religious figure Gwen Shamblin in an exclusive interview with NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Michael Shamblin said the threat was delivered by Shamblin's new husband, former "Tarzan" actor Joe Lara, sometime after their 2018 marriage. Lara, who was proficient with a sniper's rifle, reportedly took Michael out behind the plantation-style home that Shamblin owned in the affluent Brentwood community.
PART FIVE
"I'm going to say this, and the people of Remnant are not going to like this."
That was how Michael Shamblin began his thought. The son of Remnant Fellowship founder Gwen Shamblin, Michael is the highest-level defector to ever leave and blow the whistle on the controversial Brentwood church.
Michael Shamblin, who was once listed among Remnant's leaders, now calls it "a cult."
"If the Remnant members sitting in that building realized how much information that these people have on them, there would be no one left in those seats," he told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Read more on this portion at this link.