An Interview with Wendy Webber
*Audio interview has been edited.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Was there a family background in non-belief?
Wendy Webber: Yes, and no. My dad was raised Catholic. My mom was raised Jewish. I am a mix of both of those coming from those families. We didn’t practice in my home, but I was exposed to religion and religious practice in my larger family.
Jacobsen: What was it like growing up in the community?
Webber: Where I grew up in southern New Mexico is a very Hispanic, Catholic community. Obviously, there are other religions present, but it is mostly Catholic. Religion was around. Personally, I didn’t find the lack of religious belief to be a problem.
I didn’t lose friends over that. For me, it was a fact. It didn’t matter between my friends and me.
Jacobsen: Eventually, you found yourself at Yale Divinity School. What was the experience there?
Webber: I got a Master of Religion there. I was studying theology of oppression and reconciliation with an eye on religious history. It was interesting to be a non-religious person at a school that was founded as a Christian seminary. Most of the people at the school were religious. But not everyone. There was a group of non-religious and non-theistic folk.
