UTTERLY SWEPT AWAY

While the Shakers were perfectly suited for taking in new or disaffected Christians, they greatly angered local residents. This was primarily because their celibacy rules broke up families. Ann Lee was said to have told new converts, "You must forsake the marriage of the flesh or you cannot be married to the Lamb." Not only did spouses and children suffer when a family member joined the Shakers, but wives, husbands, and children were physically separated from each other when they joined the communes—even when the entire family joined! In addition to this, Shaker refusal to fight in the Revolutionary War due to their pacifist principles also added to the social bitterness against them. Eventually though, persecution ended because "many Americans protested the mistreatment of the Shakers by a country fighting for its own freedom and civil rights." However, even without offense taken during war time, people who had lost their children or spouses to the Shakers remained their most vocal opponents throughout Shaker history. Sometimes, they took legal action to remove their children from the grounds of the sect's communities.

'Mother Ann' was just beginning to formulate the idea that not all could live a celibate life, and that marrying and raising a family was the "least" of sins, when she died a rather early death. The Shakers continued under the iron-rule of James Whittaker. 'Father James', as he was called, regimented every facet of a Believers daily life in the communes, from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. He expected all members to sever family ties, and he himself wrote to his parents to tell them they were a stench to his nostrils because they would not embrace the Shaker lifestyle! One of the 'originals' from England, he died in 1787 at the age of only thirty-six, and was succeeded by none other than John Meacham. Upon his death, Meacham was replaced by Lucy Wright, who had previously been leader over the female Shakers. After some internal controversy within the Shaker community over Wright being a woman, she successfully presided over the entire Society of Believers for the next thirty-five years.

Under all three of these new leaders, the Shakers continued with a stricter order of obedience and hierarchy than Ann Lee began with. Their communes well-functioning, they were quite financially prosperous. They experienced an impressive increase in numbers in a short time frame, populating their self-made orderly villages throughout many states in the U.S. By the 1840's, Shakers enjoyed a known peak population of about 4,100-signed covenant members throughout their communities.44Journalist Charles Nordhoff, who studied communes of the United States, concluded that the Shakers were the most successful of all during their time period in American history.45

In spite of their functional success and peak membership, the Shakers experienced a serious spiritual malaise by the 1840's. Their spiritually charged revivalist meetings had waned long ago, and their worship had reduced itself to orderly-choreographed dances and marches by the 1820's. It was not uncommon for outsiders to come view the elaborate dances as a form of entertainment (often to mock the Shakers). There were even separate doors for the "world's people" to enter into the meetinghouses.

Even though the Shakers still danced vigorously, revivalistic 'manifestations' had long since disappeared. Suddenly though, they reappeared again on August 16, 1837 through a group of teenage girls at the Watervliet Shaker community near Albany, New York. For over the next decade, the new spiritual phenomenon served to 'revive' them, traveling rapidly from Shaker communities in the Northeast to those in the Midwest. The phenomenon ranged from nontrance emotional/spiritual elation to speaking in tongues to 'drunkeness,' to falling down in a catatonic state for days. Not only that, but some seemed 'punished' by these unseen forces. It was reported that sometimes people suffered violent contortions, blindness, or other unpleasant supernatural side-effects if they refused to go along with these 'exercises'.50

Most of the visions occurred in meetings during worship. They began with highly symbolic, nonsensical yet comforting visions of 'gifts' from angels, often sent from heaven by early leaders such as Mother Ann. Then, trances began to occur in which these dead leaders spoke through the believers in different voices. By 1843, a vast variety of famous dead people and saints were appearing to and speaking through the Shakers.51 They also became "'drunk' on 'spiritual wine' or received as a group 1he 'gift' of laughing until all were rolling on the floor. There was no telling who would become an instrument, giving voice to the spirit of someone who had died or going into a trance that could last for days."52

Worship services became so chaotic and bizarre, that the Shakers decided that the 'world's people' (outsiders), would not understand and so closed their worship meetings to the public. Behind closed doors, the Shaker's became completely engrossed in "Mother's Work" as they called it. New songs were sung, artwork commenced, 'prophecies' came, and Shakers marched around with imaginary spiritual 'brooms', all at the direction from the "spirit land" and "Mother Ann." Some sisters and brothers became known as "instruments" or 'mediums' to describe their ability to be taken over with messages from the dead.53

Shaker 'revival' phenomenon got so absurd, that they were even visited and temporarily possessed by various cultural groups in the "gathering of all nations!" By this time, the Shakers had developed a belief that salvation could be found for the dead, and that is why departed 'pagan' spirits would come to Shaker villages to entreat for salvation. 54Once, at a meeting in Watervliet, New York, one of the sisters began to whirl around without becoming dizzy for fifteen minutes. When she was done, she gave a message to an elder, who then gave her permission to announce the following: "A tribe of savage Indians has been around for two days. They're outside the building now, looking in the windows! Mother Ann says to take in the poor spirits and assist them to get salvation!" Once the door was thrown open, the sister could see the spirits as they came in to possess the Shakers, causing them to whoop and holler until the spirits were considered saved and then they left the compound.56

Don't think that the elders just opened the door to anything, though, or that there wasn't some controversy within the Society over this revival. Most, if not all, of the 'messages' were passed to the elders for their discernment before they were shared with everyone else. Some were rejected as not really being from 'Mother Ann'. Some 'instruments' unhappy that their messages went unheard or unobeyed (especially the ones that denounced celibacy), left the Shaker communities. In the end, the elders asserted more control than any others before them. They enacted the Millennial Laws of 1845, the strictest and most rigid set of regulations in all of Shaker history.

In retrospect, it was decided by most that the Shaker 'revival' was really not that helpful to the Shaker community. Elder James Pote of Alfred, Maine, was glad to see it all slowly wind down and end by about 1850, since he was never convinced that "Mother's Work," as they called it, was of divine spirits to begin with. In the wake of the upheaval it caused, Historian Stephen Stein concluded that this 'revival' was actually harmful to the stability of the Society, leading more often to pride than true spiritual renewal.58

The most shocking result of it all though, appears to be the spread of Spiritualism outside the Shaker communities, if you believe what the spirits said. According to the Believers, the spirits announced their departure and revealed their plan of spreading themselves to the rest of the nation amongst the 'world's people'. After their 'revival' ended, the Shakers eagerly awaited the fulfillment of this prediction. They were very excited when they heard that messages from the spirits were being given to two farmer's girls in Rochester, New York.59 Although the supernatural events (knockings) that the girls showcased was later found to be a fraud, "the notion of contacting spirits" took off in America. Many Shakers were found "holding seances" like other Americans. Rather than be perturbed by this turn of events, "elders and eldresses of the time expressed their pleasure at the interest younger Believers were taking in spiritual matters."60

It is important to note that although the spiritual phenomenon that characterized 'Mother's work' for the Shakers transpired over a time period of more than a decade, they were rather obviously occult early on. In fact, the first time a Shaker leader was an "instrument" for the dead was only a year after it all began, on April 22, 1838. On that day an important New Lebanon elder went into a trance while another personality that claimed to be Mother Ann Lee spoke at length to the congregation. Therefore, we might be able to say that the occult overtones of their 'renewal' could have been easily discerned, if the Shakers had only questioned it.

I realize that the Shakers did not live in a culture that was saturated with Spiritualism at the time (instead, they apparently are at least partially responsible for today's occult-saturated United States). Yet although it all began with people as innocent and naïve as children and teenagers, all the Shakers had to do was check the Old Testament to get their bearings. There, they would have discovered God's decrees on the practice of calling up the dead. They could have also easily found that prophecy is a message from the Holy Spirit, and not from the dead. They would have been concerned rather than thrilled with their false spiritual renewal.

The Shakers had once again found a way to work around the Biblical standard in order to accept their subjective spiritual experiences in a positive light. Ignoring the Old Testament and New, they accredited visits from the 'spirit world' to the work of God and the Spirit. In their minds, 'Mother Ann' was really Christ's co-redemptress and the embodiment of the Holy Spirit anyhow, so a message from her was as good as a message from the Holy Spirit! In fact, one of the spirits most welcomed during this false renewal was Holy Mother Wisdom. Mother Ann had taught this was the name of the female part of God, and Sister Miranda Barber of the New Lebanon community became the most regular conduit for her.

Thankfully, Shaker leaders did not start executing people for witchcraft as happened in the Salem witch hunt hysteria in the 1600's (trials and executions of such nature are not at all 'Christian'). Yet, Shaker response to spiritual phenomenon could be said to have been just as manipulated by 'child-like' whim as the Salem witch trials were. There is ample indication that the Shakers followed the lead of their spirits to have the "gift of being simple" and childlike. One of their most popular revival songs, called "Simple Gifts" sung about this very thing!63 Alas, it certainly appears that their quest for simplicity helped 'birth' the spiritualism phenomena for the entire nation of the United States—a somber result that can be still felt today. Such is the legacy of accepting and promoting everything 'spiritual' and mystical over and above Biblical scrutiny and standards.

So, do we really think 'gray areas' are harmless now?
 

McNAMER AND THE KENTUCKY REVIVAL

As we look again at Shaker relationship to another well-known American revival, let us quickly remind ourselves of the Shaker relationship to the first one. The Shakers cannot be said to be a representation of the Great Awakening any more than Meacham can be said to represent the Great Awakening standards of repentance and salvation. Instead, he set them aside in order to embrace a 'new kind' of salvation. He thought the 'shaking' phenomenon was evidence of God's power because of a 'favorable only' viewpoint regarding 'manifestations' (if one has them, they must be of God!). Looking at the 'power' only, he ignored the Gnostic doctrines and instead joined and supported the Shakers.

Yet Meacham was long dead by the time this new Shaker false 'spiritual renewal' started with its blatant spiritualism. By then, they had another 'ex-revivalist' in their midst.

The early 1800 Kentucky camp meetings (mark that as many, many years prior to the beginning of the Shaker spiritualism phenomenon), were thought to be "too excessive" by the Shakers, Oneida Perfectionists and Mormons of the same time period.64 The Mormons and the Oneidas, just like the Shakers, were anxious to set up their self-perpetuating communities and spread the new and questionable doctrines of their founders. They were all essentially separatists, interacting with the outside world only as necessary to protect their interests or to 'evangelize' others into their groups. It is not unusual for closed groups to take a dim view of anything outside of their group.

However, Shaker attitude toward the Kentucky revival seems to have been developed by a relative 'new-comer'. He was one of their more significant converts of that time period and another disappointed revivalist, Richard McNemar. McNamer was unlike his predecessor, Meacham. His disappointment with the revival of his time though was not over not 'enough' 'power' or excitement, but of too much.

McNamer had been converted to Shaker doctrine during a 1805 missionary trip through Kentucky that consisted of the following Shakers: Issachar Bates, Benjamin Seth Youngs, and John Meacham, who came some distance from the East. Although the Shakers from the East probably did not know much of the Kentucky Revival prior to meeting McNamer, they certainly did afterwards. Richard McNemar was "an educated Presbyterian minister" who although one of the founders of the Kentucky Revival movement, had been "forced to watch it grow out of control like a prairie fire…He told the Shakers how the God-driven people, massed together in the forest, turned from sin to the Lord. Inflamed night and day by the holy spirit, hungry for righteousness and sinlessness, many responded hysterically, screaming in their anguish, barking like dogs, jerking without stopping, baying on all fours, rolling like logs, falling down stiff as corpses."65

Although we do not know if McNamer approved or disapproved of the later 'manifestations' and spiritialism of the Shaker 'revival' period over a decade later, we do know that he stayed with the Shakers until 1839, only two years into this new 'revival'. At this time he was excommunicated as a result of the spiritual phenomenon. At the age of sixty-nine, having served as a Shaker leader for some thirty-four years, McNamer was falsely denounced by one of the mediums and another elder evicted him from his Shaker community. He was sent away with only his clothes and his printing press so that he might earn his living elsewhere. By the time Shaker headquarters in the East has learned of his eviction and reversed the decision by reinstating him, it was too late. McNamer was physically ill and died soon afterwards. McNamer was so emotionally connected with his community that cutting him off from it seems to have brought about his death.
 

SO WHAT ABOUT POWER?

Both Meacham and McNamer were important converts to the Shakers because they were apparently learned and established leaders, and both came at a crucial time. Ann Lee had accumulated only a few followers in England who had come with her in 1774 to America. After six years of financial hardship, they were generally ignored and discouraged. At the time John Meacham encountered them, the Shakers numbered only about a dozen members. The group might not have survived if it were not for Meacham, who provided the first membership breakthrough for the pitifully small Shaker community because he brought many of his followers with him when he joined. Together with the Shakers from England, they comprised the initial American nucleus of the Shaker church.68

Richard McNamer came as among the first converts after the 1,200 mile trek on foot of the Shaker missionaries to the West, providing the Shakers back East with enough new members to start colonies to the West. After his conversion to Shaker beliefs, he ministered along with his new Shaker friends and brought in his entire flock to the new religion. In 1807 he published the first Shaker book called Kentucky Revival, a book that contained a number of Shaker hymnals, doctrinal works, and histories.71

It is clear that the Shakers took advantage of attracting new converts upon the wane or disintegration of each of the great American revivals. Meacham, who yearned for more revival excitement, joined the Shakers due to their apparent power bestowed by God. McNamer, however, was disappointed with how out-of-order the Kentucky Revival meetings had become, and opted for the 'tamer' meetings of the Shakers. From this, it seems that neither viewpoint on 'manifestations' (liberal, favorable-only, or conservatively critical) protected either ex-revivalist from embracing false doctrine. Instead, ex-revivalist leaders who were willing to embrace new and controversial doctrine became the key figures to giving the Shakers a boost, right at the time they needed it. They each left behind their former beliefs in order to set sail for the wind that appealed to them.

The only other significant infusion into the Shakers from any religious movement was from the Millerites. In 1843, Rev. William Miller predicted the end of the world, convincing thousands of his followers to wait on mountainsides and roof tops at the appointed time for the Second Coming. When the end did not come, his disappointed followers either went insane, committed suicide, picked up their old lives, or—as many did-- joined the Shakers. Those who joined the Shakers probably did so because they wanted the Millennium to come true, and the Shakers were already proclaiming it had arrived in their communities. Thus, their end-time expectations were not too disappointed.

As I've already demonstrated, there were many other sects and cults who were more conservative than either the Shakers or McNamer regarding spiritual 'power' or 'manifestations' or 'order,' yet who were certainly no more doctrinally correct than the Shakers in any orthodox sense. I've mentioned the Oneidas and Mormons already, who did not appreciate the 'excessive' Kentucky meetings any more than the Shakers. The Mormons are known to embrace spiritual gifts and tell of miraculous events, but the Oneidas did none of this. Since the Oneidas shunned 'power' even more than the others, did this make them less likely to have 'bizarre' beliefs and practices?

Not at all. In fact, the Oneidas were probably the most bizarre new community to develop in America during their time. Their leader, John Noyes, was determined that God had sent him to start a new religious system that righted the wrong of chaos between the genders. The old religious traditions had failed to bring about equality between the sexes, he claimed, and so he was chosen to do it. Toward this end, he started a Bible School in Putney, Vermont, and then a full-scale 'commune' experiment.

Noyes was actually no 'feminist' though, having often stated that men were superior to women and posting criticisms about the women's rights movements in his newspapers. He and his followers practiced a controversial sexual system of group marriage, birth control, and even selective breeding directed by Noyes himself. In spite of the contradictory public announcements and the 'code language' found in Noyes' writings about and for his group, there is evidence that members of his experimental community suffered severe emotional and mental problems.

The Oneida Community is no more, having dissolved in 1881, and the Shakers are listed on page 91 in the 1999 Guinness Book of Records as the world's "smallest Christian sect," with only seven members left.

The extra-Biblical demands of both the Oneidas and the Shakers upon their converts ultimately became their undoing, because the basic family unit was fragmented and strained beyond normal perpetuation.

Spiritual power or the lack there of, Charismatic spiritual gifts or not, did not safeguard anyone from Biblical and spiritual error in the examples presented here. Although there are numerous other examples of the development of cults and fringe groups from which to draw upon, it is my conclusion that neither inclusion or exclusion of spiritual gifts or power protect the believer from the most strange of cults like the Oneidas. The acceptance or rejection of the spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible neither predicts nor guarantees doctrinal sanity or insanity in other, possibly more important, matters.

If we are willing to accept the proof of human frailty against deception, this should keep us all humble no matter what our position is regarding the present-day existence of gifts of the Spirit. As a result, we should remain anxious to cling to the Biblical workable standard rather than to embrace the questionable doctrines and practices of any esteemed leader or group. And, instead of being driven to distraction by impressive or strange spiritual power, we would do well to rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit( John 16:13; 1 John 2:26-27), the Bible, and the ministry of grounded Christians to equip us. It is better to do this than get lost in the fog by making our subjective experiences, imaginations, and pet theories above all.

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Footnote #43  pp. 27-39 The Shakers, by Jean Kinney Williams
Footnote #44  This according to the New Lebanon Shaker manuscript, Introduction to Records of Sacred Communications.  U.S. Census data identified 3,842 Shakers in 1850, and 3,502 in 1860. Prior to 1840, U.S. census reported only heads of households and thus full membership of the group cannot be certain. This data from pp.245 in 'notes' section of "Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons.
Footnote #49  pp 37 Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons, by Lawrence Foster
Footnote #50  pp. 46, Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons, by Lawrence Foster. This taken from the New Lebanon "Introduction to Records of Sacred Communications" pp. 41-44, summarizes the wide range of phenomena involved as does Elkins, "Senior Order of Shakers"
Footnote #51  Ibid pp. 47-49
Footnote #52  pp. 70, The Shakers, by Jean Kinney Williams
Footnote #54  pp. 49, Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons, by Lawrence Foster
Footnote #56  pp. 37-38 The Story of the Shakers by Flo Morse
Footnote #57  pp. 50 Women, family, and utopia:  communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormon, by Lawrence Foster
Footnote #58  pp. 73 The Shakers by Jean Kinney Williams
Footnote #59  pp. 43-44 The Story of the Shakers by Flo Morse
Footnote #60  pp. 80-81 The Shakers, by Jean Kinney Williams
Footnote #63  pp. 33- 35 The Story of the Shakers by Flo Morse
Footnote #64  pp. 122 Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons (from comments under 1829 lithograph)
Footnote #65  pp. 23- 25 The Story of the Shakers, by Flo Morse
Footnote #66  pp. 49 Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons, by Lawrence Foster
Footnote #68  pp. 10 The Story of the Shakers by Flo Morse
Footnote #71  pp 34 Women, family, and utopia: communal experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons, by Lawrence Foster

© Copyright 2000  by Teri Lee Earl All Rights Reserved