Have you ever heard of the “Curse of Ham?” The text where it was drawn from is found in Genesis 9 after the flood waters receded and the Ark that sheltered Noah, his family and a boat load of animals were once again on solid ground. The picture painted for us in the passage is that because of Noah’s righteousness and faithfulness to God, he and his family survived the destruction of the great flood and were given a fresh opportunity to inhabit the earth and fill it with human beings once again.
It is definitely a fascinating bible story but you won’t find the words “Curse of Ham” in the passage. What you will find is the most commonly quoted bible text used to justify white supremacy while supporting the enslavement of Black people among “Jesus loving Christians” since the 19th century.
To try and understand how white Christians used the bible to “justified” slavery, we need to read Genesis 9:20-22. The text tells the story of life after the flood when Noah began cultivating the soil as the caretaker of the earth, planting seeds of every kind. The prized crop must of been the grapes from the vineyard he planted because the wine made from those grapes is where the story gets interesting.
The text tells us that one day Noah drank some wine. What the text doesn’t tell us is how much he drank, but we can surmise quite a bit because we learn he was so drunk that he laid down inside his tent, presumably to sleep it off. Then Ham, Noah’s youngest son, entered Noah’s tent and saw that his father was naked and went outside to tell his brothers.
The story continues with Ham’s brothers, Shem and Japheth grabbing a robe then walking backwards into their father’s tent so as not to see his nakedness. They laid the robe across Noah’s exposed body and we presume they left him there to recover.
When Noah woke up from his drunken sleep, he learns that his youngest son had seen him laying naked and Noah became furious at Ham. In Noah’s rage, he pronounced a curse not on Ham but on Ham’s son, Canaan, calling him the “lowest of servants to his relatives,” condemning Canaan to be as a servant to his family.
Clearly I’m not a Bible scholar yet I’ve always sought God’s truth and not someone’s casual, coffee shop, Sunday school interpretation of the scriptures. I’ve longed to know what God’s intended message was and continues to be, as I believe God’s word is timeless. When I struggle to understand God’s truth, that’s when I take it upon myself to study and research until I can make some sense of it or God gives me peace about it or both, preferably. This was one of those challenging passages.
What I have learned is that theologians and scholars have disagreed for centuries on this scene in scripture. So I do consider myself in good company as I scratch my head wondering how anyone could find God’s endorsement for enslaving dark complexioned people to build their white supremacist nation from these few verses. Seriously, how can it be?
I’ve read and reread the text over and over again, in various translations and I still don’t understand. Yet, somehow Christians were able to read it and use it to their own benefit and justify the enslavement and horrific abuse of other humans because those other human’s ancestor was Ham’s son Canaan and Noah happened to curse Canaan instead of his father, for something Canaan did not do.
One such example of the twisting of scripture for ones own benefit is from the 19th century Southern Seminary trustee and Baptist Pastor, Iveson Brookes who preached that enslaving Africans was an institution provided by heaven. He was known to generously share his belief that keeping slaves was intended for the mutual benefit of master and slave, as proved by God himself.
Though that thinking is now almost 200 years old, there remains a dark influence of this outrageous manipulation of God’s Holy word still. We hear it in the voices of white supremacists as they chant their hatred and flaunt their white skin. We hear it in our politicians who create laws that suppress the Black vote, who then go home and treat their dogs better than their Black constituents. We hear it in our city streets, we hear it in our legal system, we hear it in our prisons, in our schools, we hear it! We hear it!
This is our Black History, America.
I watched this teaching just yesterday with regards to bible and twisted use of select passages. https://www.westgatechurch.org/westgate-teaching/hownottoreadthebible/week2
It seems to me humans have been using their religion to justify bad behavior since the beginning. It doesn’t take much twisting of scripture to justify something if you want it bad enough. God help us please❣️