Editing Gwen Shamblin Lara (section)

== Associations with corporal punishment ==
{{main|Georgia v. Smith}}
Shamblin has been accused of promoting [[Corporal punishment in the home|corporal punishment]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Ferrarin |first=Elena |title=Why Gwen Shamblin's Remnant Fellowship Church Was Investigated in a Child's Murder |url=https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/remnant-church-murder |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=A&E |date=October 6, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> She and other Remnant Fellowship members paid for the legal defense of adherents [[Georgia v. Smith|Joseph and Sonya Smith]], who were ultimately convicted of [[child abuse]] and [[murder]] of their eight-year-old son Josef. 

On October 8, 2003, the Smiths punished Josef by placing him in a small wicker box with electrical cords wrapped around the outside holding the lid closed.<ref name="courtTVnews">{{cite web |last=Pordum |first=Matt |date=2007-02-09 |title=Prosecutor says religious parents punished their 8-year-old son to death |url=http://www.courttv.com/trials/smith/020707_ctv.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070219130709/http://www.courttv.com/trials/smith/020707_ctv.html |archive-date=2007-02-19 |access-date=December 29, 2022 |website=Court TV News |publisher=Court TV}}</ref> They then watched an online service from Remnant Fellowship, after which they opened the box and found Josef braindead.<ref name="courtTVnews" /> County medical examiners concluded that the child died as a result of "acute and chronic" abuse. The Smiths routinely beat Josef with foot-long [[Hot-melt adhesive|glue sticks]],<ref name="courtTVnews" /> belts, and heated [[coat hangers]]. Police reported that the couple locked Josef in his room for days or weeks, providing a bucket for bodily waste and a picture of Jesus on the ceiling for him to pray to. Another child in the family, Milek Smith, died 11 weeks before Josef's death, with the cause of death reported variously as [[pneumonia]] or [[SIDS]].<ref name=":0" />

During the investigation of the death, authorities conducted a raid of Remnant Fellowship due to its teachings on child discipline. Church members created a website to advocate the Smiths' innocence, suggesting Josef died of a bacterial infection and that his own skin markings came from scratching his own [[Dermatitis|eczema]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-03-29 |title=Church stands by parents convicted of death |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17842789 |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> ''[[Georgia v. Smith]]'' resulted in the Smiths' conviction in February 2007, and they were sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison on March 27, 2007, the maximum punishment.<ref>{{cite web|title=Smith v. State, 703 S.E.2d 629 – CourtListener.com|url=https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2110998/smith-v-state/|access-date=2021-10-06|website=CourtListener|language=en-us}}</ref> A member of the church expressed a desire to "support the Smiths in any way possible". The [[Supreme Court of Georgia (U.S. state)|Supreme Court of Georgia]] upheld the convictions in 2010,<ref>{{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.gasupreme.us/sc-op/pdf/s10a1281.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101116163834/http://www.gasupreme.us/sc-op/pdf/s10a1281.pdf |archive-date=2010-11-16 |access-date=2011-01-27}}</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] denied the case in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search - Supreme Court of the United States |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/10-1093.htm |access-date=2025-05-02 |website=www.supremecourt.gov}}</ref>