Michael S Black's conversations with Reverend Rafael Martinez continue about how life in the hothouse of the Remnant Fellowship inner circle of cultic leadership became a gilded cage he fought in vain to escape. A 90 minute episode, it traces one of the darkest fields of brokenness Michael was compelled to cross.

Michael S. Black continues his unflinching retrospective look back at his time as a leader of the Remnant Fellowship cult founded by his late mother, Gwen Shamblin Lara. As the movement's social boundaries hardened by self-deceptive excess and inner immorality, Michael's struggles to know the difference between right and wrong intensified.

Our conversation with Michael S. Black continues, as he shared how, from a place of privilege respected by thousands as a leader of the Remnant Fellowship cult, the cracks in the walls of the New Jerusalem became impossible to ignore. His disillusionment with the hypocrisy, abuse and exploitation of those within his movement became a cognitive dissonance he could not ignore any longer.

Michael S. Black, son of the infamously late Gwen Shamblin Lara, continues our discussions about his past involvement in the Remnant Fellowship,

He was the Psalmist of Zion, a gifted young man whose musical and vocal abilities were wholeheartedly devoted to the leadership of worship at the Remnant Fellowship Church as it launched in 1999.

As the son of the late Gwen Shamblin Lara, he was appointed by his now sadly infamous mother as a leader of the movement whose spiritual direction included the creation of music that advanced the Remnant worldview most creatively and was adored and followed reverently by hundreds of thousands in Lara's Weigh Down seminars and crusades.

But the story didn't end there. His disillusion, his dysfunction and ultimately his departure from it is a testimony that "Zion", as the church culture with Remnant characterizes itself, needs to hear and is a cautionary tale as to how the love of absolute power, as well as the love of money, absolutely corrupts as the root of all evil.

We are privileged to host this first of several interviews with Michael S. Black, formerly known as MIchael Shamblin. In this episode, he reflects on his family's ordeal as Gwen's lifelong obsession with flaunting authority became a megalomania that birthed her Remnant vision.

While Xenos/Dwell, as any cult, may have good points and even laudable points, they are more than negated by it's disconnection from the plain reality that it is underpinned with an authoritarian and abusive culture. Our brief summary about this movement's ongoing spin cycle in regard to its questionable history and present state of corrupted affairs includes a review of Xenos/Dwell leadership evasion and an examination of the movement's ecclesiastical machinery it uses to attract and retrain new prospects in the same way any other cult works.

This is our podcast edition of a previously streamed Spiritwatch livestream episode series called "Through The Xenosverse". It is the sixth livestream that was done and four previous ex-Xenos/Dwell members provided thought provoking consideration of a unique line of query: what positive and even beneficial influences did the Xenos/Dwell culture provide for them and others? And how did such constructive community ultimately contribute to even deeper deception?

We are restarting our podcast and are grateful you've returned: tell others! For this first episode of our fourth season, our focus today on our podcast is upon the Pure Life Ministries parachurch bandwagon - a residential program where addicts to pornography supposedly receive intimate personal spiritual direction to be freed from it. This coerced formation is a travesty of compassionate spiritual direction and is an abusive and damaging organization that empowers the hand of the Gladstone/Madison cult in Cincinnati by serving as a recruitment front for it. We're thankful for the testimony of Chris Johnson, a former participant of PLM who has become one of many survivors who is breaking a silence about it's aberrant and wicked activity guised in the robes of "toughlove". WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY CAUSE TRIGGERING FOR SURVIVORS OF RELIGIOUS AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

Stephen Ketter's desire for truth in his life led him to the Xenos/Dwell movement back in the days when it was still calling itself the "Fish House." He joined it as an old warehouse on Sinclair Road in Columbus, Ohio was pressed into service the "non traditional" church's growth. Like so many, it all provided a place of profound spiritual impact until he began to understand what the nature was of the kinetic force behind its' power. And it was that love of Biblical truth that helped him see that oh so critical difference. We're glad to have him unpack that for us here.

The Remnant Fellowship (RF) cult of Franklin, Tennessee was likened to being the exclusive "Kingdom of Love" by its deceased founder, Gwen Shamblin Lara. And she and her coterie of leaders there were the most charming, the most engaging of recruiters for what they also called "Zion", beckoning people searching for God, community and meaning.

Our guest, Ge'Cobi Pittman and her family found this draw irresistible as people of faith seeking refuge and being persuaded Lara's Remnant vision as the place to find it. We are grateful to have her share an enlightening and deeply personal reverie about her journey into what would become a travail of authoritarian community where love, when it was found, was in quite short supply. LIke our previous podcasts and streams with other ex-RF members, the journey is painful to listen to yet a testimony to a young woman's determination to seek the truth, no matter where it led her.