Anti-Shakerism refers to negative attitudes concerning the Shakers. At their peak in popularity in the first half of the 19th century in the United States, the Shakers had approximately 4,000 to 6,000 members. , the Shakers currently have at least three active members; few to no extant religious or ethnic groups have fewer members than the Shakers. Issues Perhaps most significant to the hostility towards Shakers concerned their celibacy, millenarianism, and views on race and gender. The main current writer on anti-Shakerism compares allegations against them as similar to other celibate religious groups like Roman Catholic monks and nuns, although there are also similarities with hostility to Mormons or Masons. People who formerly resided in Shaker communities even wrote anti-Shaker tracts as some former, or allegedly former, nuns did. Their millenarian views drew ire. Under Joseph Meachem, beliefs concerning God coming to destroy the Anti-Christ and create a better world grew more pronounced." The Shaker convert Frederick W. Evans in 1888 wrote an essay, based more on his enthusiasm than mainstream Shakerism, called a . In it he exclaimed such a reconstruction event would cause poverty to disappear. Other individual Shakers proclaimed messages of joy or disaster were given to them by God or spirits. Even if none of this had official acceptance some blamed Shakerism and took these events to mean the Shakers had occult aspects that inspired domination or damnation of the lands they settled. The Shakers were also among the first groups to refer to God as Father/Mother or to alternatively refer to God as Mother sometimes while referring to God as Father at other times. They viewed God as a duality containing God the Father and a feminine Holy Spirit. This dualist and half-feminine view of God put them radically out of the mainstream. Their tendency toward "petticoat government", a term used by a Shaker named Philemon Stewart, also aroused suspicion among local men. In reality Shaker women largely conformed to nineteenth century expectations of domesticated femininity and left much of the financial aspect to Shaker men, but their official equality and leadership roles aroused suspicion. Shakers appeared for the time to be radical on women's issues, and the elevation of Mother Ann Lee as a crucial part of the Second Coming outraged mainstream Christians as being blasphemous. They also tended to believe in racial equality and harmony although in ways that may be regarded as