MAYBE.
I CERTAINLY HOPE SO.
I was struck by some of the similarities between the Shakers and the Dubs.
(Let the reader use discernement.)
I. Group Profile
1. Name: Shakers (The United Society of Believers)
2. Founder: Ann Lee
3. Date of Birth: February 29, 1736
4. Birth Place: Manchester, England
5. Year Founded: 1772
6. History:
The Shakers are one of the few success stories resulting from the proliferation of communitarian and millenarian groups in eighteenth and nineteeenth century Europe and America. They splintered from a Quaker community in Manchester, England (Gidley and Bowles 1990). James Wardley, its preacher, had absorbed the teachings of the millenial French Prophets and his community began to evolve around 1746 (Melton 1992). The members were known as the Shaking Quakers and were viewed as radical for their communion with the spirits of the dead and impassioned shaking that would occur at their services (Horgan, 1982; Robinson 1975). As radicals, all the members were harrassed, including a young married woman named Ann Lee. Fervent from a young age, Ann had a revelation during a long imprisonment that she was the Second Coming of Christ, the vital female component of God the Father-Mother (Bainbridge 1997; Gidley and Bowles 1990; Horgan 1982; Robinson 1975).
The vision had a great impact on the congregation and "Mother" Ann became the official leader of the group in 1772. With a distinctly new version of the Second Coming and other beliefs contradictory to mainstream Christian ideology, it was at this juncture that the Shaking Quakers became known as the Shakers (Gidley and Bowles 1990). These radical views increased the Shakers' persecution and a small group composed of her brother, niece, husband and five others followed Mother Ann's vision of a holy sanctuary in the New World to New York in May,1774 (Bainbridge 1997; Horgan 1982; Robinson 1975). They struggled for five years to survive, gaining few converts, on a communal farm in Watervliet, NY (Bainbridge 1997; Robinson 1975). During this period they faced great persecution for being both English and pacifistic in the middle of the Revolutionary War (Horgan 1982).
The turning point was a wave of religious revivalism called the New Light Stir that swept across New England between 1776 and 1783 (Gidley and Bowles 1990), bringing in new converts from other millenial groups and allowing the Shakers to safely proselytize. In 1779 Joseph Meacham and his followers joined the Shakers, becoming their first converts (Gidley and Bowles 1990). The Shaker mission in New England ended in 1784 -- the same year as Mother Ann's death (Gidley and Bowles 1990; Horgan 1982; Humez 1993) -- though they later missioned in Kentucky and Ohio during the Kentucky Revival of 1797-1805. Most of this expansion happened under Joseph Meacham's leadership, which began with Father John Whittaker's death in 1787. Meacham organized the communities and made New Lebanon, NY the Parent Ministry from which came both spiritual and commercial leadership (Horgan 1982; Melton 1992). These industries would become both the sustaining income for the Shakers and a form of recruiting and publicity as their simple, functional furniture designs, music and dancing, and self-published books became popular in secular culture (Andrews 1972; Morse 1987). By the mid-1800's they reached their peak membership and peak popularity, becoming a sort of tourist attraction that outsiders (known as The World's People) could observe in their communities on Saturday evenings (Morse 1987; Gifford 1989).
The Civil War ended the American fascination with the many millenarian, communitarian and utopian social experiments of the early nineteenth century and replaced it with an emphasis on class struggle in an increasingly industrial and urban society (Horgan 1982). Industrialization made Shaker crafts obsolete and depleted even further the attraction of a way of life already made less tasteful by the emphasis on celibacy and severe simplicity (Gidley and Bowles 1990; Horgan 1982; Robinson 1975). Between this decline in attraction and the society's inability to create a new generation of believers, the communities steadily declined and disbanded.
Little is known of the 20th Century Shakers besides their decline because they closed even their journals -- previously released in order to further spread first person witness of Shaker beliefs -- to the outside world in the first decades of this century (Stein 1992). In 1965 this deterioration was speeded by a group decision to admit no new members (Melton 1992). Today only the Canterbury, New Hampshire, and Sabbath Day Lake, Maine, communities remain and even then the members live on small plots of the properties while the rest is devoted to historic preservation and museums like those found at Pleasant Hill, KY , and South Union, KY (Gidley and Bowles 1990; Melton 1992). The Sabbath Day Lake group did recently admit three new members but they weren't recognized by the other remaining original members (Melton 1992).
Sacred or Revered Texts: Composed originally of mainly illiterate factory workers, the Shakers did not rely heavily on written doctrines and preferred first-person religious experiences. They did draw guidance from the Bible; the personal writings of Ann Lee (known as Mother's Wisdom ) and other spiritual leaders like Joseph Meacham; the series of Testimonies books; and other Shaker-produced journals and books testifying about the Shaker experience from a first-person point-of-view.
Cult or Sect: Negative sentiments are typically implied when the concepts "cult" and "sect" are employed in popular discourse. Since the Religious Movements Homepage seeks to promote religious tolerance and appreciation of the positive benefits of pluralism and religious diversity in human cultures, we encourage the use of alternative concepts that do not carry implicit negative stereotypes. For a more detailed discussion of both scholarly and popular usage of the concepts "cult" and "sect," please visit our Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" page, where you will find additional links to related issues.
Size of Group: Today there are seven women living in small sections of the Canterbury, New Hampshire and Sabbath Day Lake, ME community. At their peak membership between 1830 and 1840, there were 6,000 Shakers in 19 communities (Melton 1992).
