The Shakers, or the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance, represent one of the most successful utopian communities in American history. Although their last remaining community currently numbers less than ten members, the Shakers have
The Shakers, or the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance, represent one of the most successful utopian communities in American history. Although their last remaining community currently numbers less than ten members, the Shakers have maintained a utopian presence in the United States for over two hundred years. One of the secrets of their success seems to be the fact that while they have lived since the 18th century by a set of basic tenets, they have always believed in constant re velation from the spirit world, and they never operated under the elaborate sets of rules that some less successful utopian communities imposed upon their members. The Shakers were founded in England in 1770 by Ann Lee. In the 1760's, Lee joined a sect of Quakers called "Shaking Quakers". The Quakers were said to "shake" because they danced and spoke in tongues. Lee had become dissatisfied with the Anglican church , and this dissatisfaction was coupled with the fact that Lee and her husband had had four children, all of whom died in infancy. Following the death of her fourth child, Lee claimed to have had a vision from God in which it was explained to her that sex ual intercourse was the root of all sin, and that to truly serve God, one must be celibate. She came to believed that God was bisexual because both man and woman were made in His image, and that this was duplicated throughout nature. Every living thing, animal or vegetable, had both a male and female component. Her followers began to call her "Mother" Ann because they believed her to be the female component of Christ's spirit and that she represented the second appearance of Christ on earth. In 1772, Ann received another vision from God, in the form of a tree, in which it was communicated to her that "a place had been prepared" for the Shakers in America.
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