I’ve seen some discussion about how much of white America just doesn’t “get” the African American church experience. But I haven’t seen much mention of how Jesus himself could have easily become the subject of a Fox News-style hit job. Consider, just for starters, his encounter with the Syrophoenician woman:
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”
Did you catch that? Jesus just called that woman a dog! (And you do know what the specific word for “girl dog” is, right?) Should he be denounced as sexist or racist? Knowing Fox News–and much of the SCLM–probably both.
Some people will say that you can quote scripture out of context to make whatever point you like. But it’s more than that. You can take quotes from any person out of context, string enough of those moments together, and make that person “untouchable”.
I believe it is well past time to demand better than that from our media.
