Move: An American Religion

Author/Contributor(s):	Evans, Richard
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date:	11/21/2025
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

Richard Kent Evans tells the story of MOVE, a small, little-known, mostly African American group that emerged in Philadelphia in the early 1970s. In 1985, the Philadelphia Police Department--working in concert with federal and state law enforcement--attacked a home that MOVE members shared in West Philadelphia. Eleven people were killed in the attack, including five children. Many MOVE members thought of themselves as belonging to a religion, but to others, most importantly the courts, MOVE was anything but. Evans uses MOVE's story as a lens through which to examine how we decide what constitutes a genuine religious tradition, and the enormous consequences of that decision.