{"id":4541,"date":"2006-11-19T12:21:47","date_gmt":"2006-11-19T12:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/the-sausage-grinder.html"},"modified":"2006-11-19T12:21:47","modified_gmt":"2006-11-19T12:21:47","slug":"the-sausage-grinder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/the-sausage-grinder.html","title":{"rendered":"The sausage grinder"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s what they call the process of pulling stories together for newspapers and magazines. God knows what’s going to come out.<\/p>\n

So yes, I’m quoted in this TIME article<\/a> – the cover story on the Pope (and in case you’re interested in such things, I was just interviewed on Friday – so they move fast) – but I want to say that my quote was taken just a little bit out of context. (Of course)<\/p>\n

My quote:<\/p>\n

\n
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Still, many Catholics are rooting for him to come up with a way to engage without enraging. The widely read Catholic blogger Amy Welborn says, "I think there’s a pretty widespread fed-up-ness with Islamic sensitivity. I agree that elements of Islam that either explicitly espouse violence or are less than aggressive in combatting it need to be challenged and nudged, [just as] I would like to see the Pope continue to challenge and nudge people of all different religions\u2014Christian and non-Christian\u2014to look at the suffering of people." She thinks that, given the heat he’s taking in parts of the Islamic world, his willingness to go through with his Turkish trip is "so brave." <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the interview, I said this in the context of a reference to this column of John Allen’s <\/a>, in which he spoke about a Theology on Tap he’d done in Westchester County, and he himself had express surprise at the depth of the fed-upness of his listeners. I was sort of hoping the reporter (who was a nice guy) would you know, go to Allen for any more. But. So there you have it.<\/p>\n

From Allen’s piece:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

What surprised me as we began to talk about these concepts was the depth of skepticism I sensed, as well as the fairly palpable irritation with what are perceived as irrational and defensive patterns of behavior in the Islamic world.<\/p>\n

One man, for example, repeatedly asked why it seems that Christians are always the ones expected to ask forgiveness, while to date no one has suggested that Islamic leaders ought to make a public apology for attacks on Christian churches, or the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia. A young woman wanted to know if it\u2019s realistic to expect Islam to be open to the pope\u2019s call for reason, given that Mohammad himself is depicted in the Qur\u2019an as a warrior, and given its harsh language about infidels and unbelievers. Another woman expressed incredulity that Islam is ready for the \u201cconversion\u201d to which the pope seems to want to invite it.<\/p>\n

The questions all played to vigorous nodding of heads. How fair the perceptions are is not, for the moment, the point — they’re out there, and are shaping attitudes about what to do next. Of course, people would probably have asked the same things prior to Regensburg, but the experience of the last month obviously deepened the passion with which people asked them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what they call the process of pulling stories together for newspapers and magazines. God knows what’s going to come out. So yes, I’m quoted in this TIME article – the cover story on the Pope (and in case you’re interested in such things, I was just interviewed on Friday – so they move fast)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe sausage grinder - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/11\/the-sausage-grinder.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The sausage grinder - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That’s what they call the process of pulling stories together for newspapers and magazines. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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