New article online: Jesus the racist

by Krystofer Penner | Published 22nd September 2012 in Ways of Seeing

William O’Brien examines the story from the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus encounters the Gentile woman whose daughter is possessed by an unclean spirit, and finds Jesus using a racial slur towards her, calling her a dog.

While this revelation is unsettling, O’Brien looks at it from a positive angle; what if “the Other, the victim of our oppressive stereotypes…holds the key to transformation and liberation.”

Despite all his perceived progressivism, O’Brien wonders if in all the crossing of social boundaries he has done he has constructed stereotypes and paradigms against his perceived “unclean Other.”