“The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own” Frank Zappa.
New York State was the Southern California of the Nineteenth Century. Many a man with a cracked pate traveled the great psychic highway through Central New York. Several started new religions, often with strange views about sex and marriage.
The Latter Day Saints or Mormons and the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints or FLDS trace their roots to Joseph Smith, a Vermonter who supposedly received the book of Mormon from an angel near Palmyra, New York. The Book of Mormon was first printed and sold in Palmyra. Early Mormons believed in polygamy as do the FLDS today. Joseph Smith was lynched by a mob in Illinois for his religious beliefs.
John Humphrey Noyes started the Oneida Community. The community had many positive qualities but practiced what was called complex marriage in which every man and every woman were married to each other. This belief along with other strange beliefs about sex and marriage caused people to be suspicious of the group.
The Seventh Day Adventists trace some of their roots to William Miller, a New York State farmer turned preacher. Miller was best known for his conviction that Jesus Christ would return to earth in 1843, which, of course, did not happen.
Mother Anne Lee, originally a Quaker, founded the Shakers in Niskayuna. The Shakers were celibate. Married people could become Shakers, but had to give up the comforts of marriage. Their Pentecostal form of worship, their views of marriage and other ideas brought them persecution. Lee’s death was brought about by wounds she received after being beaten by a mob.
Jemimah Wilkinson, another former Quaker, and believer in celibacy started a religious community near Penn Yann, New York. Wilkinson was known as the Universal Public Friend.
Then there were the Fox sisters, spirit rappers living near Rochester who would eventually confess that they were frauds.
I am sure there were other strange religions that originated in New York State. These are the ones that I can remember off the top of my head.
All of these religious groups were outside the mainstream, they were all persecuted for their beliefs. Today, however, they are for the most part accepted by society. In the case of the Shakers, who are almost extinct, they are positively revered.
3 Comments
June 13, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Amen. Heard of the Essenes?
June 13, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Yes, but they got their start in Israel not in New York State.
December 22, 2008 at 7:15 am
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