Can Religion Survive Without Kids?
What the fate of the Shakers can teach us about the psychology of faith
In Southern Maine, about forty minutes out of Portland, lies the village of Sabbathday Lake. At its peak in the late nineteenth century, it numbered 150 souls, and was one of several Shaker communes spread across New England and the upper Midwest. We don’t have exact figures, but it’s estimated that at its height in the mid-1800s, the Shaker faith had between two thousand and four thousand adherents. Now Sabbathday Lake is all that’s left, and its population is down to two.
Technically the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming, the Shakers are an offshoot of the Society of Friends, aka the Quakers. They got their nickname from the singing and dancing at their church services. People called them the “shaking Quakers,” or just Shakers.
Like the Quakers, the Shakers preach pacifism. All are equal, regardless of race or sex. But the Shakers have another belief that may account for why they are almost extinct: Shakers are celibate.
Without children to raise in the faith, Shakerism can only spread by appealing to adults. And this raises an interesting question. Can religion survive under these circumstances? Or is religion’s persistence only thanks to its being planted in a more…
