Dogs?

If the PC Police were around in Jesus' day, their heads would have exploded the day he was approached by the Syrophoenician woman, asking him to cast a demon out of her child, and he put her off saying, “First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs" (Mk 7:27).

"Dogs?  Did we just hear you call that woman's child a dog?" the spinning heads of the PC Police would be yelling in disbelief!  "Racist, bigot, Syrophoenicianphobe!" and any number of other pejoratives would have been hurled at him as their spinning heads reached overload, replicating Mt St Helen.

They would have done so because they would not have understood where Jesus was coming from or where he was going in his ministry.  PC Police are rarely seeking to understand, just bring people into compliance with their vision of polite and acceptable wording and labels.

Jesus' response was parabolic, meant to draw on word pictures - a simple illustration meant to convey a shared meaning. For those open to learn, parables can be quite revealing.  He talked about the understood priority of taking care of your children before taking care of others.  The term "dog" is to highlight the importance of your responsibility to your children, not to diminish others.

The apostle Paul would later emphasize this familial responsibility in saying, "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim 5:8).  Biblically,  there is a strong emphasis on prioritizing family firstt.

That doesn't mean you don't care for or help out others, it simply means you do not neglect your children in helping others, that you see to you own first and then others.  The language is strong for emphasis sake just as when Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters---yes, even their own life---such a person cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14:26).  We are to put Jesus first, which means choosing him over family at times.

The priority of Christ is seen clearly in Acts 1:8 when the disciples are given their marching orders: "...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." So, PC Police, superglue your heads back together, Jesus isn't bigoted, he is prioritized and he calls us to be as well: "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers" (Gal 6:10).  Jus' Say'n.