Sep 4, 2012 -- 11:15PM, Dutch777 wrote:

Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community.  Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs".  I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman.  Big deal.

Besides, it's my job to stir the $#!+. 

Dutch, your signature says, "The Socratic Standard:  Follow the evidence;____ if it doesn't make sense, it's bull$#!+."

It doesn't make sense that Jesus would be racist. Therefore, it must be...

Sep 5, 2012 -- 12:46AM, MsTopaz wrote:

Sep 4, 2012 -- 11:15PM, Dutch777 wrote:

Yes, I am aware that "dog" is one of several anti-Gentile slurs used in the Jewish Community.  Rabbi Meier Kahane called Arabs "dogs".  I'm also aware that Jesus used the term toward the SyroPhoenician woman.  Big deal.

Besides, it's my job to stir the $#!+. 

Dutch, your signature says, "The Socratic Standard:  Follow the evidence;____ if it doesn't make sense, it's bull$#!+."

It doesn't make sense that Jesus would be racist. Therefore, it must be...

Certainly it makes sense.  The Jews are the Chosen People and Jesus was sent to them, was one of them.

Instead of trying to fit Christ to the Politically Correct Procrustean Bed of American Liberalism, try to imagine how a Greek in Corinth or Antioch would have heard the story.  This hypothetical Greek didn't know about racism, after all.  Racism is a post Darwinian concept.

Yes, Jesus used a racist slur.  Clearly, without a doubt.  But,and this is the moral of this story, he also clearly heard the response of the woman.  He clearly listened and responded to her, in compassion and in a lesson learned.  That's what this story tells us.  Clearly Jesus was raised in a culture that despised anyone who was not born into it.  Clearly, he expressed that in this story, but he had his mind opened and responded by breaking the pattern of this life time of learning.  I wonder if we, any of us, could be so quick to do the same?

As an African-American,  I would like to shed some light on this.  The n-word is simply a corruption of the word,"Negro".  Most of the slaves were Negroes from Africa.  Originally, there was nothing wrong with the use of the word, it was just a lazy mispronunciation.  It became more sinsiter, however, when slavery was ended and mistreatment of the former slaves began.  By the time I was born, in 1935, the word had taken on the connotations that we now have for it. 

Likewise, we cannot judge how the term, "dog" was used at the time Jesus used it.  Was it acceptable at the time?  Should the woman have been offended?  We do not know, but I certainly do not think it is appropriate to call him a racist.