Anti-Shakerism refers to beliefs concerning the Shakers which were considered hateful or unfair. As of 2005, the Shakers currently have just four active members(Shaker Quarterly, [citation needed], and never had more than 10,000. Hence, this is among the most narrowly directed prejudices in history[dubious – discuss]. That statement may seem hyperbolic, but it is supported by the fact few or no religious or ethnic groups have less members then the Shakers.(Ethnologue on nearly extinct languages, Adherents.com to check religion size.) Nevertheless in least one website that maintains "Anti-Shakerism" views exists.
The Shakers faced prejudice early on in England. Their marching and ecstatic style of worship engendered criticism or hostility. Their belief in celibacy for all members and views on the Second Coming also caused them to be viewed unfavorably by the English. Added to this many of the claims they allegedly believed of Mother Ann Lee and God seemed out of the mainstream among Christianity. They believed God was a masculine/feminine duality instead of a trinity or unity. Many critics felt they had strange views of Mother Ann Lee including the idea she was Christ reincarnated and therefore a Goddess. Or that she had learned upwards of thirty languages by divine intervention.
These and other issues meant that many Shakers spent time in English prison. Because of this they moved in the mid-1770s to the United States in hopes of improved situations. Although legal persecution rarely happened in the U.S., violence against the Shakers did occur from time to time, in particular when Shakers harbored American Indians or slaves deemed fugitives.
Perhaps most significant to the hostility towards Shakers concerned their celibacy, millenarianism, and views on race and gender.
The main current writer on anti-Shakerism compares allegations against them as similar to other celibate religious groups like Roman Catholic monks and nuns[1]. Although there are also similarities with hostility to Mormons or Masons. People who formerly resided in Shaker communities even wrote anti-Shaker tracts as some former, or allegedly former, nuns did.
Their millenarian views drew ire that in some respects is more understandable. Under Joseph Meachem, beliefs concerning God coming to destroy the Anti-Christ and create a better world grew more pronounced. The Shaker convert Frederick W. Evans in 1888 wrote an essay, based more on his enthusiasm then mainstream Shakerism, called a "Shaker reconstruction of the American Government."[2] In it he exclaimed such a reconstruction event would cause poverty to disappear. Other individual Shakers proclaimed messages of joy or disaster were given to them by God or spirits. Even if none of this had official acceptance some blamed Shakerism and took these events to mean the Shakers had occult aspects that inspired domination or damnation of the lands they settled.
The Shakers were also among the first group to refer to God as Father/Mother or to alternatively refer to God as Mother sometimes while referring to God as Father at other times. They viewed God as a duality containing God the Father and a feminine Holy Spirit. This dualist and half-feminine view of God put them radically out of the mainstream. Also their tendency toward "petticoat government", a term used by a Shaker named Philemon Stewart, aroused suspicion among local men. In reality Shaker women largely conformed to nineteenth century expectations of domesticated femininity and left much of the financial aspect to Shaker men, but their official equality and leadership roles aroused suspicion. Shakers appeared for the time to be radical on women's issues and the elevation of Mother Ann Lee as a crucial part of the Second Coming outraged mainstream Christians as being blasphemous.
They also tended to believe in racial equality and harmony although in ways that sound vaguely condescending today. For example songs said to be "inspired by American Indian spirits" tended to involve stereotyped pidgin English like "Me love Mother and she love me Quille ose van da wahaw me!"(notebook from their Golden Harvest CD) Still these beliefs caused them the most violence as it encouraged them to harbor fugitive slaves or American Indians.
A strong source of literature hostile to a religion or group comes from former members or apostates. This is as true of Shakerism as it is of other groups. In the case of apostate Shakers there are strong similarities between their tracts and those written by ex-nuns or ex-Mormons.
The most significant Shaker apostate writer was likely Mary Marshall Dyer whose anti-Shaker efforts ran from 1815 to 1852. In 1813 she had joined the Shakers with her husband and family she joined the Shakers of Enfield, New Hampshire. However two years later she left blaming them for alienating her from her children. Despite that her husband and her family decided to stay. After that she did tours and wrote tracts against the Shakers. The main writings she did were A Brief Statement of the Sufferings of Mary Dyer and A Portraiture of Shakerism in 1822. She also got a mob together to storm the Enfield Shaker Community to take her children back, but this effort failed. For one her husband Joseph remained devout to the community and criticized her in strong terms. Further only one of her five kids ever left the Shakers and he never became close to her either. By the 1850s her anti-Shaker views seemed extreme, in New England at least, and she died as a largely forgotten figure in 1867.
During the twentieth century the Shakers went into significant decline, see article on Shakers, so hostility to Shakerism did as well. Although never a large denomination, their influence had been disproportionate due to their skills at seed businesses and their general productivity. However technology and culture changed so by the 1970s the faith had been reduced to a scattering of elderly women.
This decline led even ex-Shakers to view them in relatively positive terms. This began in the 1860s as toward the end of her life Mary Dyer had difficulty making friends among apostate Shakers. They viewed her as too harsh and her son never reconnected with her furthering the discomfort with her. As the group declined further most viewed them as being, at worst, as sexually repressed eccentrics who in least made nice furniture. A more common view saw them as quaint or even idyllic.
There remains small elements of the Christian countercult movement that still use the Shakers as an example of a "cult." As a whole this acts more as derision of a religion deemed to be essentially dead, but much of the old rhetoric still exists. Although Reverend Robert S. Liichow links it more to real or perceived New-Age cults. Lastly some indicate the term "Shaker" itself is an abusive one and that the proper term is "The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing", although as with the Quakers, that issue has largely ebbed.