BETTY FRIEDAN TO NUNS: "Wear your habits!"

Author Helen LaKelly Hunt’s interview about her book Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance has some nuttiness in it — such as scolding the Pope for "narrowness" in his approach to feminism — but it is also interesting to see secular feminists grappling with religion.  This anecdote was particularly amusing:

"With Betty [Friedan], she was never against religion. She was always frustrated that feminists projected that. In fact, of the seven people who founded NOW [National Organization for Women], two of them were nuns. And when they had their first press conference, Betty said, ‘Wear your habits.’ And the nuns said, ‘We don’t want to wear our habits because we are here to start a social movement—it’s not about a religious thing.’ And Betty said, ‘No, I want you to wear your habits for this.’ And they said, no, they wouldn’t. And finally Betty said, ‘Dammit, wear your habits!’"

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Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin