Amy Cunningham

The form of your book is interesting; it’s set up to be discussed and shared in a group, making it ideal for women’s spirituality groups. Helen LaKelly Hunt: I would be thrilled if the book were presented that way. Letty Cottin Pogrebin is the only other woman who has written a book like this. She put it out a long time ago, and I don’t think it got heard sufficiently. She said that feminism invited her into the movement but told her that she’d have to give up her faith. And Judaism told her that she’d have to give up her feminism. She felt schizophrenic. My book invites women to tell their stories-if you start talking about who you are, both your faith and feminism will come out.

You see a great deal of hope in dialogue. In addition to small groups of women coming together to address this in their homes, we need the National Council of Churches or different feminist groups to convene panels on the issues of faith and feminism and have the dialogue going on to establish where the issues are where we can easily converge. It seems everyone is tip-toeing around the fact that there’s a great breach, and we can’t afford the divide. I was stunned with the Vatican’s proclamation approved by the Pope against feminism and an explication about where all the feminists have gone wrong. The Pope does some very worthy things, but he obviously missed his opportunity on this issue. Obviously he has such a narrow view of what feminism is and many feminists have a very narrow view of what religion is. Not until the two forums come together will the convergence happen. — Beliefnet.com