The Testament of Ann Lee Meets A Good Christian Education

A Good Christian Education Pt. 1

I wish the American education system was better. Or at the very least, I wish Americans - especially Christian Americans - had a stronger grasp on the history of Protestantism in America. 

I am so pissed that the story of Ann Lee and the Shaker movement was a novel one to me, and that I learned about it at a screening of The Testament of Ann Lee, a screening I RSVP’d to on a whim that was motivated by Amanda Seyfried. I hate that at my big age of 35, I am just now learning of a woman who, in the 18th century, started a religious movement in fucking America. 

I went to Christian schools all the way through high school. I took religion classes and history classes, and as is basically required in Christian schools, everything I studied had a Christian tilt to it. But not a damned single lesson was given on Ann Lee.  Indeed, the movement never gained widespread popularity; at its peak, the Shakers numbered around 5,000 members. It is still, however, an impactful movement due to the leadership of Ann Lee. The concept of a woman pastor is still a novel one today; as of 2022, women only make up about 13% of pastors in Protestant churches. A woman founding and leading a religious group in a fledgling country is, well, literally unheard of by most people. 

Maybe that's the point. Teaching Ann Lee could lead to little girls having overblown ideas about their lot in life. We can't have that.

There Always Has To Be An Enemy

The Testament of Ann Lee portrays the Shakers as generally harmless. After a little research, I find that message to be generally true. Sure, they were a little annoying with all their wailing and celibacy, but they were good people. They were staunch abolitionists who believed in and practiced racial and gender equality. Their celibacy came from a place of wanting to be closer to God, not as a control tactic. They were pacifists, and they built their own communities and evangelized with peace instead of damnation.

They were good people, but their beliefs and practices were foreign to American Protestantism, which by this time had already split into a handful of different denominations. Regardless of the Shakers’ intent, different meant dangerous. Differences fueled paranoia and hate, and the Shakers experienced a lot of abuse from Christians in the New World. 

Because gender is always weaponized, Ann Lee was accused of being a witch, of actually being a man, and was arrested multiple times. She was beaten, attacked, and abused. But she held on to her beliefs all the way up to her death at the age of 48. 

Today, we don’t burn women we assume to be witches at the stake. Hell, today most American women would be considered witches. That’s a lot of firewood to gather. But that doesn’t mean that this country hasn’t found brutal ways to combat anyone or anything that is assumed to be an enemy to White, male, Christian homogeneity. 

This country has lynched Black men at the behest of racism fueled with lies, enslaved us, segregated us, and tried its hardest to keep us far away from real political power. We now witness digital lynching of Black Americans. While these videos existing make it impossible not to see the abuse afforded to black people, they are also traumatic for Black people to see, especially if we’re not expecting it to just pop up on our feed. America ruined and/or unjustly damaged Japanese livelihoods and sent Japanese Americans to internment camps under the guise of safety during WWII. Chinese people have been massacred during hate-fueled riots, with one brutal massacre taking place in Los Angeles in 1871. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a rise of hate crimes against Chinese people - and all Asian people - as a response to a falsely perceived danger. This orange regime has expanded funding for ICE, and they are literally kidnapping immigrants, particularly Latino/Latina/Latine people, under the guise of “protecting America from dangerous criminals”. Trans folks are being targeted in an increasingly alarming way. They’re being excluded from sports, deemed dangerous for using public bathrooms, deemed terrorists for supporting each other, and some companies are now even being threatened for selling chest binders. All because they are being framed as “dangerous” to a “traditional” gender status quo.

Every time a minority is targeted, it is because they are perceived to be dangerous to America’s status quo. That status quo is straight cis-male WASPs. So yeah, America may not be burning women en masse, but it is doing its damndest to hold on to as much homogeneity as possible. To do otherwise is to lose power, influence, and prestige. Sharing, acceptance, and actual, unconditional love are dangerous.

A Good Christian Education Pt. 2

My good Christian education was successful in instilling the belief that the events of the Bible were real. However, it also taught me some truths that made it easier later on for me to denounce Christianity entirely. I learned about the Crusades, and I thought everyone learned about the fucking Puritans. At some point, I learned about the Native American boarding schools. I learned about Manifest Destiny and its implications. I am very familiar with the Old & New Testaments, and I know that the Old Testament can at times be more gruesome than a Grimm's fairy tale.

When I started learning about other, older religions, I realized how much of American Protestantism is dependent on blind faith - and how blind faith can engender paranoia, apathy, and stunted intellectualism.

During the credits, a couple behind us was discussing the accuracy of the film. One person assumed the film was inaccurate because Christians were continuously and increasingly hurting the Shakers (who, frankly, are also Christians). Her partner tried to gently explain that it is accurate because of who Christians were back then. My wife and I muttered to each other that it was extremely accurate and that Christians aren’t that much different today. 

I am confident assuming that this woman grew up Christian, but without a strong education in Christian history. Unfortunately, I think this is the case with most American Christians. In a religion where blind faith is strongly encouraged, it can be hard for someone who grew up Christian to accept new concepts about religion. In Protestantism, anything that doesn’t align with specific developed denominations is blasphemy. Catholicism is blasphemy. Questioning the Bible, therefore God, is blasphemy past a point. 

Blasphemy is not to be tolerated. It's actually funny when you think about it: this woman had trouble accepting the events of the film because "Christian are inherently kind and good" but if she is indeed a Christian, and she met a Shaker today, she may think they’re blasphemous because of their woman leader and their belief that Jesus manifested through her, and if enough Christians got together to denounce and abuse them effectively, she may well join that group.

And That’s On Ann Lee.

Thanks to my aforementioned good Christian education and subsequent denial of Jesus Christ as God incarnate, I loved this film. I admired Ann Lee's strength of conviction and kindness, her lack of hypocrisy and courage. I loved the music in the film. Most importantly, I learned about the Shakers, a blasphemous sect of Christianity led by a woman who some thought was a witch, who sought religious freedom in a land that to this day hasn’t fully accepted religious freedom, and died with her conviction intact after building a landing pad for her church in the New Land.

The Testament of Ann Lee shares the type of stories we all need to hear when we’re young. It demands that we fully understand American Protestantism if we want to understand this country. The film is a testament to the bravery of the Shakers and of any person living in America who practices any religion or lifestyle outside any of the American Protestant denominations. Understanding American Protestantism and how it ties into every flaw of American culture is part of the solution towards fixing American Protestantism and making this land truly inclusive for all who step foot on our shores seeking safety, opportunity, and freedom.

The Testament of Ann Lee is out in theaters on December 25th, 2025.