Martinis & Jazz

Yesterday morning, I went to Bible study. I would have backed out when I saw that Brendan's car wasn't there, but my grands arrived at the same time as me. So, I went on in & submitted to a substitute leader. It turned out to be a very difficult passage for someone other than Brendan to be handling. It was about Abraham making Hagar & Ishmael leave. One fella, who used to go to the Assembly of God church & often shows it, asked why God would have created the two lines when He knew they would fight. My answer was that He must have hoped we humans wouldn't behave with our standard folly. People were wondering right & left if we were supposed to either convert or get rid of the Muslims. It drove me CRAZY. What is wrong with these people? Jesus taught us "love your neighbor" & I am sure that didn't mean "love your neighbor only if he believes as you do". Sure, we can live our lives as examples of what Christ's teaching means to us, but that doesn't mean condemning other folks for believing a different way. To me, Allah, Yahweh, Brahma, The Great Spirit, Goddess, all those names refer to the one god. Maybe God has different aspects, but I don't believe the Muslims are worshipping some different god. Besides, Yahweh said that he was also blessing Ishmael & the nation that would come from him. WHY do all these groups have to insist that their way is the only right way. How do they KNOW that? Very frustrating. When I told the UBW gals about it, Kat said, "Well, I'm married to a Buddhist". Just plain wrong to be so all-fired-sure that everyone else is going to hell. All of us are appalled at the ignorance. Laura said that Brendan came home from Bible study one time telling her about the debate over women in church leadership that day. He said, "One woman was avowing that women have no place in leadership roles & should be subservient to men while another was talking about Goddess theology". Laura said, "Well, I can guess who that was!" Although, I didn't really say "Goddess"...I used the more acceptable "The Feminine Divine".

I also take exception to the fact that Hagar was forced to be with Abraham & bear his child. Who knows if she even wanted to? It's not like she had a choice. Sarah OWNED her & gave her to Abraham as his "wife". Then, when Sarah got jealous, she had her kicked out. That's just wrong all around. And what is the definition of the adultery thou shalt not commit, anyway? Seems to me that Abraham should have gone straight to hell for having relations with Hagar. Of course, I'm looking at it from a modern perspective & marriage is a very different thing now. That kind of thinking could lead me right into a rant on the whole "sanctity of marriage" thing, but I am not going there today.

After Bible study, the grands took me & the boys out for Chinese. Vita & Maggie were there & I gave them some of our shrimp toast. It was nice to get to spend time with the grands, but the boys were kind of wild (no meds yet) and took a great deal of my attention. I spent the afternoon getting my financial aid squared away & looking at catalogs. My grandmom had wanted us to go through the Betty Crocker, so I obliged.

J & I went out last night for "martinis & jazz" night with some folks from church. Beth & Kat & Laura & Lauren were there. We had an uproariously good time, despite the fact that only Laura had a martini & the usual jazz singer wasn't there. With as delayed as J was getting home from work (she was getting chewed out by her boss, who has been on a big "women are so emotional & men take responsibility & get things done" rant this week...yesterday, she pissed him off by asking him if he was saying the supervisors suck, to which he responded that if she said "suck" again, they were "going to have a problem"), we got there just as the rest of them were getting ready to pay & leave. They stayed another couple hours with us, though, and we had a blast. Kat was telling us about the time she was in college & one of her vegetarian roommates said to another, "You can just smell a carnivore" in Kat's presence at the dinner table (after Kat had offered to cook her meat in entirely separate pans, use different dishes, & wash them with a different sponge). Beth's comment, "Well, you can smell an asshole, too", cracked us all up. We were, without a doubt, the rowdiest group there. And I have no doubt that we had the most fun, as well. J & I split the bruschetta & the spanakopita appetizers for our dinner. I indulged in a cosmo, too. I had on my tiara & everyone thought I needed a pink drink to go with it, although reading about vodka & lemonade on another blog yesterday made me want that!