Stacey, my grandparents and I went to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, which is about 45 minutes from my apartment. We spent the afternoon there, being sent backwards in time nearly 200 years. It's an amazing part of history, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are some pictures.
It was started as an offset of the Quaker movement, led by a woman name Mother Ann Lee. She started the religion, called the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing...but they shortened it to "Shakers."
They rejected procreation.
They rejected earthly pleasure.
They rejected outside influences.
Mother Ann was "turned off" from sexuality from an early age. This manifested itself in never wanting to marry, until her father forced her to do so. Upon marrying, she got pregnant eight times--she lost four to stillbirths and another four before the age of six.
She was turned off from sexuality.
From there on out, she pursued perfection, but left out marriage and sex.
She became a radical.
She taught others that God had given her a vision-a vision that told of the attainment of perfection through the abolition of sexuality and marriage. They believed her. And the Shaker revolution began.
She believed that the convulsions experienced during worship was the Holy Spirit purging oneself of sin. And the name stuck-Shakers.
Obviously this was not popular and even shunned upon by her United Kingdom neighbors, so she decided to leave (after multiple arrests from the State) and head to America. And the rest is history--she told everyone she saw that she was the female embodiment of God on earth.
She claimed that she was perfectly sanctified.
And they believed every word she said, as if it were liquid gold, streaming from her lips. They would have served her, worshiped her, and even died for her. I sometimes wonder if she did it simply for the purpose of revolution. She said,
We [the Shakers] are the people who turned the world upside down.
As her fame grew, so did her spiritual power. She once claimed to speak to four clergymen for four straight hours in over seventy languages. She advocated that the only way to Heaven was through celibacy-that we can attain the road to the Pearly Gates if we could just keep our V-card in our pockets.
After several other miracles, around 1770, the society gave her titles like, "Mother in Spiritual Things," and my personal favorite, "Ann, the Word."
There were 6,000 Shakers at the height of the movement. Today, there are none.
Lasting, real Truth comes only from Above. Who are you believing in?
"Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and somebody. We are all believers."
They rejected procreation.
They rejected earthly pleasure.
They rejected outside influences.
Mother Ann was "turned off" from sexuality from an early age. This manifested itself in never wanting to marry, until her father forced her to do so. Upon marrying, she got pregnant eight times--she lost four to stillbirths and another four before the age of six.
She was turned off from sexuality.
From there on out, she pursued perfection, but left out marriage and sex.
She became a radical.
She taught others that God had given her a vision-a vision that told of the attainment of perfection through the abolition of sexuality and marriage. They believed her. And the Shaker revolution began.
She believed that the convulsions experienced during worship was the Holy Spirit purging oneself of sin. And the name stuck-Shakers.
Obviously this was not popular and even shunned upon by her United Kingdom neighbors, so she decided to leave (after multiple arrests from the State) and head to America. And the rest is history--she told everyone she saw that she was the female embodiment of God on earth.
She claimed that she was perfectly sanctified.
And they believed every word she said, as if it were liquid gold, streaming from her lips. They would have served her, worshiped her, and even died for her. I sometimes wonder if she did it simply for the purpose of revolution. She said,
We [the Shakers] are the people who turned the world upside down.
As her fame grew, so did her spiritual power. She once claimed to speak to four clergymen for four straight hours in over seventy languages. She advocated that the only way to Heaven was through celibacy-that we can attain the road to the Pearly Gates if we could just keep our V-card in our pockets.
After several other miracles, around 1770, the society gave her titles like, "Mother in Spiritual Things," and my personal favorite, "Ann, the Word."
There were 6,000 Shakers at the height of the movement. Today, there are none.
Lasting, real Truth comes only from Above. Who are you believing in?
"Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and somebody. We are all believers."
-Rob Bell
1 comment:
How interesting (in a really weird way). In some ways it reminds me of the movie "The Village."
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