What strength forgiveness

[Jem]

[quote BigGuynRusty]Are there any Shakers left?
They don't have kids.

BGnR
No. There aren't any remaining. Eldress Betha was the last of the Shakers living here in Canterbury, NH at the Shaker village just up the road. She passed away a few years back. They were a celibate community, and new members were "adopted" in to the community either as orphaned children, or as adults converted to the shaker faith.

Some interesting info about the differences between Shakers and Quakers is here:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers/shakers.htm

Our local Shaker Village is here (more of a living historical museum now):

http://www.shakers.org

Shakers were quite creative and inventive too (guess it helped to channel those pent up sexual energies!) They invented the flat broom, the circular saw, and a variety of other tools and household items.

Another Shaker FAQ here from the Hancock Village in Pittsfield, MA:

http://www.hancockshakervillage.org/learn/faq.html

[Jp!]

Seacrest. That's a stupid and hateful comment. Of course I noticed. But he did not eradicate them....ALL. My point is they will not or would not survive in other places.

[mattkime]

>>That's a stupid and hateful comment.

Um, like for like?

I don't understand why you think "radicals on the other side of the world" would give a damn about them.

[SeattlePhotog]

[quote ztirffritz]The Amish are a wonderful group of people. They are more or less self-sufficient. I was taught in school that they are among the few examples of truly communist society. Not Marxist, not Socialist, but Communist. The support each other through everything. They are human, but very noble on the whole. Quakers and Shakers are similar.
It's a shame that people can't just be noble and strong without mucking it all up with bizzarre religious practices. I've known some really great people of virtually all religions...smart, generous, kind, well-spoken people...who hold all sorts of crazy beliefs.

Hey...this is America. You're free to hold whatever nutty beliefs you want. It's just a shame.

[kj]

>>It's just a shame.

I don't think it's a shame, on any level. It's part of what makes them what they are. I'm not sure you can just separate things like that. kj.

[SeattlePhotog]

[quote kj]>>It's just a shame.

I don't think it's a shame, on any level. It's part of what makes them what they are. I'm not sure you can just separate things like that. kj.
Do you mean you can't separate good traits (like strength and nobility) from weird traits (like symbolically eating someone's body and drinking their blood)?

I don't know if I agree with that. I've known strong people who WERE superstitious and strong people who were not.

(BTW, the blood-drinking was just an example. You can swap any weird religious practices...beard-wearing, non-meat-eating on certain days, killing infidels...whatever.)

[kj]

Hypothetically, I guess I can see separating things like that, but It seems to me the Amish would be very different on the whole, without their religion. I would think religion affects every decision they make in very complex ways. Religion isn't a simple collection of "do's and don'ts) that can be followed without the belief part. kj.