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Friday 6.20.03

The Canadian earthquake: Worldwide Pablo cannot let the week come to a close without taking note of the historic legal developments that appear to legalize marriage for same-sex partners in Canada. Last week, the Ontario province's highest court ruled that current federal marriage laws are discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. Wednesday, the national cabinet agreed and accordingly rewrote policies to allow gays to wed.

If events play out the way they look at the moment (and things could change very quickly, Worldwide Pablo reminds you), gays and lesbians from all over Canada will be flocking to Ontario, where the rules take effect immediately. And it won't be just for Canadian gays and lesbians: Canada has no residency requirement for marriage: the whole world is invited.

This legal tremor has unleashed a tsunami of interest from many directions – gay and straight, pro and con, at home and from afar. The Human Rights Campaign already is urging caution that newly wedded gays and lesbians might encounter legal difficulties when they return stateside. A website has been thrown up (unfortunate choice of words on WWP's part, sorry about that) to help same-sex couples plan their nuptials. Of course, religious conservatives and members of the "sex is for procreation only" crowd are in high dudgeon. Even the W-House, which secretly had been hoping the issue would disappear in time for next year's election, is now frantically trying to figure out how to return the issue to the political back burner. After all, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the façade of being a "uniter" while catering (some would say, pandering) to the social conservatives and religious right that are at the heart of the GOP base.

Worldwide Pablo is tickled at the idea that he could marry (even though such a prospect seems increasingly academic). It’s WWP’s guess that more lesbians than gay men will avail themselves of the new opportunity to enter wedded bliss. Confession: Worldwide Pablo still subscribes to the "all men are pigs" school of love and sex. (Are men really wired for matrimony?) Nevertheless, it’s a happy day when gays are afforded the "special right" that is guaranteed to every American heterosexual – no matter he or she be a Sunday school teacher or a convicted serial killer (or for that matter, a 10-time failure at marriage). Read more about in this report.

Meanwhile, the world awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the gay sodomy case, Lawrence v. Texas. Is only Worldwide Pablo concerned with the fact that the Court has chosen to wait until after gay pride festivities are over to announce its decision? (It’s happened before, when the Court decided Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986.) It is worrisome, and it’s yet another reminder that when it comes to equality, the United States is no leader.

Double-standard alert: If marriage is only for opposite-sex couples, isn’t that saying marriage is all about … genital sex? Seems to Worldwide Pablo that this is the very same canard employed by the religious right against gays – that gay life, unlike the purity and rightness of everyone else’s life, is only and always about … genital sex.

Meanwhile, on our side of the border: Presbyterians are on the prowl to purge the heretics in their midst. And those pesky Southern Baptists are at it again.

Debunking the myth of airplane air: We’ve all heard the warnings about breathing the air in commercial jets. Turns out, there’s little or no truth to it.

Cue the Valkyries, Part II: WWP housemate writes at noon Thursday after two suspicious fires nearby:

‘Copters flying for noon news. Two commercial fires, in this part of town, both Asian owned. We smell arson.

Indeed.

Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Only in Oregon.

Thursday 6.19.03

Countdown to media hegemony: If you are as disgusted with the Federal Communications Commission’s recent back-room power play as Worldwide Pablo is (and judging from your letters and public opinion polls, you probably are), now is the time to register your complaint. The U.S. Senate is poised to revoke part of the FCC’s decision to allow cross-ownership between newspapers and broadcasting outlets and permit, if not encourage, corporate broadcasters an unprecedented stranglehold on local media markets. Unlikely opponent William Safire rallies the troops. While the Senate is likely to quash important parts of the mega-media power play, the House of Representatives is another matter. WWP and William Safire agree for once, on two things: The FCC decision stinks to high heaven, and now is the time to say so to your Congressional representative.

A happy birthday: The anniversary Tuesday of John Wesley’s birth provided oodles of news coverage and commentary, both in conventional media and online. Three hundred years after the birth of their founder, there is a still much to make Methodists proud. But Worldwide Pablo notes that there is just as much to concern them. Shrinking membership in the United States and United Kingdom – the very places Methodism began and flourished – is of essential concern. But so too is the deepening schism among American Methodists over homosexuality, the purpose and structure of the denomination, and its role in the world. Ditto for the drift from Wesley’s original and once radical approach (or, method, if you will) that wedded personal piety with a social gospel.

But complacency may be the biggest problem for Methodists today (despite extensive social outreach programs today would have pleased Wesley), according to an Associated Press article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"Toward the end of his life, Wesley worried that Methodists had become too wealthy," [Wesley scholar Douglas] Meeks said. "Eighteen months before he died, he gave a very painful sermon ("The Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity") in which he said Methodists had earned all they could and saved all they could, but had forgotten to give all they could."

***

Some of Wesley's teachings "frighten Methodists today, because they question the consumerist and materialist values of our market society," Meeks said.

"It's been diluted over the years, but ... it's a sleeping giant. It could be awakened today. ... It could make a big difference to our political, economic and social existence, and to our family life -- all of those things that are breaking down at the beginning of the 21st century, as they were in the 18th century."

"John Wesley still has his future ahead of us, as it were."

Christianity Today has a nice online roundup of other articles and postings on John Wesley’s big day.

While we’re in the U.K.: The Royal Mail has released its newest stamp, and it’s creating a royal sensation. Here’s why.

Sign of the times: It’s an increasingly common site, those big paper-shredder trucks parked outside office buildings. Instead of shredding sensitive documents yourself, the mobile service comes to you, collects your papers and shreds them even before leaving the parking lot. Worldwide Pablo thinks it’s quite a sight when those big behemoths begin their work: It’s a gyrating, huffing-and-puffing, decibel-crushing act of recycling.

Worldwide Pablo witnessed an unusual occasion of such paper shredding earlier this week, near WWP World Headquarters: A paper shredding service rolls up to the office building next door. Not long after, another document shredder service, a competitor, rolls up to the same loading dock. Both shredder services go about their work, mincing the reams and reams of sensitive documents (although WWP thinks they’re mostly just annoying credit-card offers deep-sixed by office workers, but he digresses). And then, lo, what should arrive? A third truck, this one a delivery of … you guessed it … office paper!

What goes in must come out! So much for the age of paperless communication.

Women We Love, Part IV: Maureen Dowd of the New York Times notes that when Hillary Rodham Clinton was in the White House, she was besieged with questions and cascading investigations. Now, George W. Bush is in the same situation. Read about Bushworld and Hillaryland. [Thanks, Rob S.]

Cue the Valkyries: The past two mornings, Worldwide Pablo has awakened to the buzz of helicopters swarming over his neighborhood, beginning as early as 5 a.m. What’s up? Turns out it’s news coverage of a four-alarm fire that destroyed a toy and collectible import store nearby. WWP doubts there is much to be learned from 1,000 feet; after all, aren’t the sources on the ground? This seems especially so on the second day, when the lofty view is no more dramatic than staring at the bottom of WWP’s kettle barbecue in the backyard.

Worldwide Pablo thinks the whole thing is a bit overwrought, and he looks forward to awaking once again to the sound of the morning birds, instead of the live recreation of a soundtrack from "Apocalypse Now."

Update: Turns out there’s a reason for the Whirleybird Redux. Worldwide Pablo is chastened and reminded to listen to the emergency scanner more closely in the future.

Rap sheet: The Trailblazers get a new president. Who cares?

Pride IV: Here’s an update to yesterday’s posting about the tussle over gay pride observances at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Wednesday 6.18.03

Pride, Part I: Now that he's tanned, rested and ready, Worldwide Pablo reflects on the joy, and the chaos, that is Pride Northwest. Last week's tribute to the sexual minority community and its contributions to the greater community culminated Sunday with the traditional parade and rally. Per custom, it was the usual array of bands, floats, churches, marchers, clubs, parents, friends, politicians, naked lesbians, artists ... hey, wait-a-minute! Naked lesbians?

Yes, naked lesbians. This spectacle is just a part of the increasingly juvenile behavior that "exposes" itself each year on Pride Day. Topless women parading around the streets and parks of downtown Portland may someone’s idea of a hot time, summer in the city, but to Worldwide Pablo it’s just so much self-indulgent breast-thumping (if you’ll pardon the expression). Worldwide Pablo spent his fair share of the afternoon averting his gaze from the visual cornucopia of sagging flesh and nether-region body parts. (And no, those clever little pasties made from Human Rights Campaign bumper stickers did not help matters.)

Can anyone tell WWP what the doffing of clothing has to do with pride? And why is it that (and here, WWP is treading very carefully) the said females were all so, shall we say, Rubenesque? WWP enjoys the naked form, male or female, as much as the next guy. But please, gals: Next year, more J. Lo and less Rosie.

A WWP follower writes on the same topic:

"I [was] at Starbucks near the Paramount Hotel and watched the parade from about 1:30 on. (Darcelle was there when I got there.) I got a lot of negative comments from various people on the Max [and elsewhere] about how awful the lesbians were – that was from a grandfather teaching his granddaughter (good church folk, I bet) – another older couple complaining that it was on Father's Day (‘How do they expect us to respect them by doing that kind of thing?’) Very negative. It depresses me." [Thanks, Matthew M.]

It depresses Worldwide Pablo, too.

Thankfully, the nudity nuisance was not mentioned in this nice report in the Big O. (Queer, isn’t it, that our daily newspaper understands pride better than some … queers?)

Pride, Part II: One of the highlights of Portland’s Pride Parade for Worldwide Pablo is the large contingent of persons representing churches, synagogues and faith communities, taking to the streets to declare their welcome to all persons. Their presence defies the stereotype that churches exist to oppress gays and other sexual minorities. More and more, WWP thinks, that message is beginning to sink in. Attendance by gays is up in WWP’s church, and Sunday’s contingent has never been larger or more boisterous. (Who could not enjoy the United Church of Christ’s "drill" team … you know, power drills with small gay freedom flags instead of drill bits?)

WWP wonders if Just Out, Portland’s gay newspaper of record, will acknowledge this trend by finally including a photograph of these folk in their upcoming coverage of the event. Just wondering. It hasn’t ever happened, at least not in WWP’s memory.

Pride, Part III: Some federal employees, momentarily cut off by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from celebrating Pride Week festivities, score a win of sorts. HRC has the details. WWP Memo to Ashcroft: Did you really think no one would notice?

Speaking of Ashcroft: Have you taken the Homeland Security Self-Exam? It’s way too funny, and proof once again, that some people have too much time on their hands.

Tuesday 6.17.03

"Think and let think." He started one of the world's largest denominations (without meaning to do so), but never joined it himself. He died with 70,000 devoted followers, but never found a happy marriage partner. Along with his brother Charles, he translated, wrote and popularized nearly 7,000 hymns, many of which are so ingrained that they might be considered a strand of the Christian DNA. Through his advocacy of social reforms and empowerment of self-help, he is credited with saving 18th century England from the same revolutionary fate as France. More than 200 years before it was fashionable to do so, he operated a shelter for homeless women, and he vigorously opposed slavery and wrote self-help books about money, health and education, all aimed to the poor. And though he had no church, he became the most famous preacher (and very likely, the most famous Englishman, outside the King) of his day.

"I look upon the whole world as my parish." [John Wesley]

For some 70 million Methodists around the world, today, June 17, is a very special date: It marks the 300th anniversary (the tercentenary) of the birth of their founder, John Wesley, the dynamo described in the paragraph above. In his life, Wesley is estimated to have traveled 250,000 miles in his lifetime, much of it on horseback. He often preached several times a day, usually to crowds of common people (once to a throng of 30,000 coal miners). His message of personal piety and a social gospel struck a chord, and they are as relevant now as then.

"Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can." [John Wesley]

The Wesleys (along with George Whitefield and Thomas Coke) produced the "Methodist Revival" in England, which later spread evangelistic faith to the American colonies. There, it spread even more quickly, and today its influence on American life is still in evidence: the more than 38,000 congregations (a greater number than post offices), scores of hospitals and universities, and innumerable egalitarian social reforms we now take for granted – they are all rooted in Wesleyan thought and belief. Even today, as some Christians invoke the commonly heard phrase, "What would Jesus do?," Methodists are still prone to ask: "What would John Wesley say?"

"Think and let think." [John Wesley]

The life of this remarkable man will be feted today with events all across the globe. (An ecumenical service was broadcast early today by the BBC.) Worldwide Pablo invites his readers to learn more about the "brand plucked from the fire."

"In essentials, fidelity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity." [John Wesley]

Monday 6.16.03:

Tired doggies: Worldwide Pablo is downright pooped after a long weekend in the sun, first a day full of yard work on Saturday, and then marching in the Pride parade on Sunday. As usual, Portland Pride was the usual blend of festiveness and chaos. (How else to describe a parade the marches for 20 seconds but then sputters for several minutes before restarting?) But what the heck. Sunday was the perfect opportunity for Worldwide Pablo to strut his stuff in front what must be thousands of eligible bachelors.

Read about pride day in today’s Big O. One participant was even so kind as to post his digital photographs online. Check them out.

News of WWP, Part 1: People are beginning to take notice of Worldwide Pablo. One writer enthuses: "My, if those writings are not creativity at the zenith." WWP fairly blushes. [Thanks, Patricia K.]

News of WWP, Part 2: Even the Portland Tribune gets into the act. See who is quoting Worldwide Pablo.

A note: Worldwide Pablo will return tomorrow with more musings on Pride and other current events. He’s too doggone tired at the moment to write even one word more.

Read something
about it
(WWP’s Top 5):

The United Methodist Church

First UMC, Portland OR

Oregon State Bar Bulletin

Andrew Sullivan

Reconciling Ministries Network

Other news and opinion links: