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Her.meneutics is edited by associate editor Katelyn Beaty and online editor Sarah Pulliam Bailey.

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April 29, 2009

Elizabeth Lev Defends Mom's Decision to Turn Down Notre Dame

She may be a bit biased, but her response is still spot-on.

Katelyn Beaty

Mary_Ann_Glendon_ambassador.jpg

Politics Daily contributor Elizabeth Lev fired a smart defense this morning of Mary Ann Glendon's refusal to accept Notre Dame's Laetare Medal and to speak alongside President Obama at the school's May 17 commencement ceremony. Glendon sent a letter Monday saying she could not accept the medal because of Notre Dame's decision to give an honorary degree to someone whose pro-choice policies sharply contradict Catholic teaching. Lev, based in Rome, summarizes Glendon's consistent life ethic nicely:

Professor Glendon was to have been honored for not only for her scholarship, but for her second career, her pro-bono work - ranging from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to the great civil rights issues of the present day - namely, the defense of human life from conception to natural death. Her concerns range from the aging and dying population to the unborn to the well-being and dignity of every life, regardless of race, religion, or economic status. Her outstanding work in this field has earned her the respect of the most brilliant minds of the international community, regardless of whether they agree with her position. So again, to see her merely as "strongly anti-abortion" instead of as a tireless defender of the dignity of life, is to reveal not only a lack of understanding of the subject's work, but also the writer's real interest in this question.

The person labeling Glendon "strongly anti-abortion" was Lev's Politics Daily colleague Kaitlynn Riely, whose Monday column criticized Glendon for not being more diplomatic and "engaging someone of an opposing view . . . [Glendon's] diplomatic style seems to be less suited for U.S.-Vatican relations and more for U.S.-Cuba relations," Riely quipped.

Lev helpfully explains why "diplomacy" is not the appropriate response to Obama's presence at Notre Dame or his policies on abortion:

[D]uring his first 100 days in office, President Obama has worked tirelessly to undermine Professor Glendon's lifetime of work; he is funding abortion out of the bailout package and planning to suppress the protection of conscience for health care workers.

Your notion that her "training in diplomacy" might somehow ease this situation does not take into account that she has a five-minute acceptance speech and he will have a lengthy commencement speech. There is no "engaging" here. Diplomacy generally teaches that if you have a rapier and your opponent has a missile launcher, try not to engage.

Notre Dame president John F. Jenkins released a statement Monday saying he intends to award the Laetare Medal to someone else quickly. Meanwhile, look for more from Elizabeth Lev at Politics Daily's own (and newly launched) women's blog, Woman Up.

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Posted by Katelyn Beaty on April 29, 2009 3:14 PM

Comments

Thanks for the inside look of leftist politics again seeing to it that the other side that disagrees with them is villified. A good old-fashioned indoctrination technique. You are right. This is not the time to go against the media's god as all the time will be concentrated on O'Bama and Glendon will look like she is there agreeing with him because nobody is going to hear her, just him. It will be about him, certainly not anybody else. You have to pick when to fight and when to wait, she has done that. What a shame after such a career she has to be maligned by nobodies who have done nothing with their lives, nothing really important that is. Glendon is a class act and smart at that. I'm afraid I would have fallen for the trap with the award dangling in front of me.

Posted By: Anna | April 30, 2009 8:58 PM

How silly. As an educated woman this person should realize there will always be those who do not hold her beliefs - I think Jesus walked,talked and ate with sinners - should she do less?? I would say, be gracious to all.

Posted By: Liza | May 1, 2009 7:13 AM

Lev and Glendon are certainly entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own "facts."

It is factually untrue to state that Pres. Obama is "funding abortion out of the bailout package." Federal law has long prohiited the use of federal funds for abortion, either domestically or as part of our international aid.

In addition, the accusation that he is "planning to supress the protection of conscience of health care workers" is a signinficant mischaracterization of what Pres. Obama has announced. He has announced his intention to repeal the regulation promulgated by Pres. Bush in the last few days of his administration -- not the long-standing federal law that has provided conscience protection to health care workers for almost 40 years, which will remain unchanged from what it was under Pres. Reagan, Pres. GHW Bush, and for 99.9% of the GW Bush Administration. So, to say, without more, that Pres. Obama is "suppressing conscience" is to misrepresent the facts.

And, as to the mind-reading notion that Pres. Obama has "worked tirelessly to undermine Glendon's life's work," please, what with all the messes that Pres. Bush left to Pres. Obama, I have a hard time believing Pres. Obama gave one whit's worth of thought to Glendon, although he has repeatedly and graciously offered to work with those who differed from him on the abortion issue. Did Glendon offer any response? No, of course not. She's an extremist who has refused to even talk to the other side.

Oh, and as for standing up for principle, where were Glendon and Lev in standing up to the Bush Administration's illegal torture program?

Posted By: Christian Lawyer | May 2, 2009 11:17 AM

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