(HOST) Our seasonal search for "the perfect gift" reminds commentator Willem Lange of an old song – and the religious community that inspired it.
(LANGE) I recently spent the night at the Shaker community in Enfield, New Hampshire. I’ve always considered the Shakers a mildly wacky bunch who lived in self-contained communities, produced beautiful furniture, and vibrated when they worshiped. They practiced celibacy, and replenished their ranks with recruits, virtually guaranteeing their extinction. But that experience led me back all the way to the end of the Middle Ages.
If there’s any activity more likely to lead to fragmentation and division than religion, I don’t know what it is. The best we can do is agree to disagree and leave each other alone. Quite often we do neither.
The most spectacular religious controversy was between Martin Luther and the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Luther believed all baptized Christians were members of a spiritual priesthood. That idea has been the seed of thousands of religious offshoots.
The Church of England under Henry VIII broke with the Roman church and suffered years of dissidence. In 1689 the Toleration Act legalized Protestant groups outside the Church of England.
Among others, the Quakers finally were able to worship freely. They were joined by exiles from France, the Camisards, who were ecstatics. Their presence among the Quakers was not welcome. So a group broke away and formed a pentecostal sect known as the Shaking Quakers.
They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, and claimed that Christ already had returned, in the persons of their members. They were often imprisoned. Then a blacksmith’s daughter named Ann Lee joined them, and after many trips to jail for disturbing the Sabbath, she was elected "Mother in all spiritual things." She, her family, and seven followers emigrated to America just before the outbreak of the Revolution. Her husband soon deserted her, and her four children apparently did not survive. Unsurprisingly, she declared marriage a state unfit for believers.
The New World fostered the Amana, Oneida, Mormon, and dozens of other groups of utopians. Mother Ann and her followers sought purity and practiced pacifism and equality of gender and race. They became famous for their craftsmanship and believed in the sanctity of work as an expression of their faith.
The Great Stone Dwelling in Enfield was built in 1837: six stories high, with separate entrances for men and women. It’s now a museum. But it’s still inspirited by the craftsmen who fashioned moldings, recessed panels, windows, trim, and an amazing cherry banister that snakes smoothly up several flights of stairs. I found myself running my hand along its whole length, envisioning the patient skill it took to create such near-perfection with common hand tools.
The builders believed – in the words of their song – ’twas a gift to be simple. In that simplicity they approached what so many of us still strive for.
This is Willem Lange in East Montpelier, and I gotta get back to work.