Pastoral Power

Abstract

From 1977 to 1978, the Philadelphia Police Department established a blockade around the MOVE house. Eventually, this blockade became a starvation blockade, when the mayor, Frank Rizzo, determined that the best way to end the standoff was to starve MOVE people into surrendering. During this standoff, respected religious leaders representing various faith traditions negotiated between MOVE and the city. These religious leaders initially came to MOVE’s defense. Some of them believed that MOVE was a religion, and that the city’s actions threatened religious freedom in the city. As the negotiations wore on, however, MOVE lost their initial support. The religious leaders who previously defended MOVE decided that MOVE was not, in fact, a religion and sided with the city. In so doing, these religious leaders articulated a series of claims about the nature of “true religion” to explain why MOVE was not, in their view, a religion.