The Shakers, formally known as The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, were a Christian millenarian sect famous for their furniture, communal sharing of all property, ecstatic worship, and completely forbidding all sexual intercourse, even between married couples. The total ban on sex and marriage is why the Shakers are functionally extinct - there are a grand total of three in the world. They believed that Jesus's Second Coming had already occurred, this time taking the form of a woman, Mother Ann Lee.
In 1831, a Shaker community was just 15 miles south of the Mormon Church's headquarters in Kirtland, OH. In March of that year, a man named Leman Copley joined the Church after he had been a Shaker for many years, though the fact that he lived several miles outside of the Shaker settlement, owned a large farm, and remained married show that he wasn't a diehard.
The prophet Joseph Smith wrote of Leman following his conversion that he "was apparently honest hearted but still retained ideas that the Shakers were right in some particulars of their faith." Leman was anxious to share the good news of the Mormon gospel with his former brethren, and "in order to gain a more perfect understanding of the subject," Joseph inquired of the Lord and received the following revelation:
(tl;dr - sex and marriage are actually why the earth exists in the first place, Jesus will not return as a woman or some random guy, compelling others to abstain from meat is wrong)
Copley and Sidney Rigdon traveled to the Shaker settlement and met with their leader, Ashbel Kitchell, and spent the evening and next morning engaging in pleasant conversation, agreeing not to try to convert one another. Parley Pratt arrived and told them to pay no attention to Kitchell, as they came with the Lord's authority. Following a Shaker meeting, Rigdon stood and, with permission, read the revelation in its entirety.
Kitchell said, "I reject your message, and release you and your 'Christ' from any further burden about us, and take all the responsibility on myself."
Rigdon replied, "This you cannot do - I wish to hear the people speak for themselves." The people then did so, saying, "We are fully satisfied with what we have."
Rigdon relented, and calmly pocketed the revelation. But at that same moment Pratt stood and began shaking his coattail, saying that he shook the dust from his garments as a testimony against the Shakers, who had rejected the word of the Lord.
Kitchell completely lost his composure:
"You filthy beast! Dare you presume to come in here and try to imitate a man of God by shaking your filthy tail?! Confess your sins and purge your soul from lusts." He then turned to Leman and said, "You hypocrite! You knew better. You knew where the living work of God was, but for the sake of indulgence you could deceive yourself and them, but you shall reap the fruit of your own doings."
The three missionaries returned to Kirtland, but Leman was deeply stung by the rebuke and began vacillating between Mormonism and the Shakers, eventually leaving the Church permanently.
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