Curse of Ham

[Soloist]

Wife: I have heard multiple times over the years Mennonites believing this as to the black people and slavery/ethnic superiority, although I’m not saying the majority of them espouse or believe it. The majority don’t even talk about it and I think at least some of them have maybe said they don’t believe in it, but it seems like it’s out there, and is probably running through some other denominations as well. Probably came from outside influences, as it was popularized during slave times.

Anyhow, I was reading the Bible last night, and also just looking into that whole thing and it was like a lightbulb came on, because that curse was NOT on all of Ham’s descendants. It was on Canaan, the youngest son. Cush was the oldest son, was not cursed, and between Mariam getting leprosy for fussing about Moses’ Cushite wife, and two awesome Ethiopian eunuchs in the old and New Testament (Feel free to add more that I have missed), it doesn’t actually seem like God had a negative view on the Cushites or that they were particularly cursed. I don’t know the ethnicity of the other children of Ham or the other two guys, although the Bible seems clear that Cushites were connected with Ethiopian empire, and makes reference to their skin color.

Hopefully, this doesn’t get too argumentative. The primary reason I posted it on here is because I figured I’m not the only one to have ever heard that, and someone else might benefit from what I learned. As far as I know, the Canaanites were mostly wiped out, and also some of them, like Rahab, married in or could’ve converted (for example, the Gibionites), and I don’t think it’s actually beneficial to try to trace people’s roots all the way back to Noah.

Gen 9:25  And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Gen 9:26  And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Gen 9:27  God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.



Gen 10:6  And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan

As a sidenote, the whole mark of Cain thing is kind of silly, because I’m assuming all of his descendants died in the flood, not to mention that I don’t think it was clear that the mark was on all his children or what it was.

[barnhart]

Things don't need to be logical for people to believe them.

[Soloist]

Things don't need to be logical for people to believe them.

Wife: I think some people might believe it just because that was what they were taught by their parents, and they never really thought to question it. I don’t know that it actually plays out in their life choices, but it feels like something that should be corrected, especially as we do missions and have people of different ethnicities come into our churches.

[JohnH]

Note that eventually the Israelites were commanded to conduct a wholesale genocide against the Canaanites. Whatever they were must have been really bad.

[Soloist]

Note that eventually the Israelites were commanded to conduct a wholesale genocide against the Canaanites. Whatever they were must have been really bad.

Wife: You are absolutely right, but it would appear that curse or not, the Canaanites had free will, and some, like Rahab or the Gibionites, were smart enough to heed God’s warning, and choose to follow Him versus their false gods. The majority did not.

[barnhart]

Things don't need to be logical for people to believe them.

Wife: I think some people might believe it just because that was what they were taught by their parents, and they never really thought to question it. I don’t know that it actually plays out in their life choices, but it feels like something that should be corrected, especially as we do missions and have people of different ethnicities come into our churches.

It should be corrected regardless because it's wrong, harmful and the voice of spirit of the age 150 years ago.

It's also a failure to establish a Christocentric story arch of the Bible. This ties into the discussion about the Anabaptist perspective episode on Doug Wilson. When the relationship between the old and new covenants is collapsed or minimized it opens the door to the old to bring things into the present like a Theocracy and ethnic based theologies to explain who are God's people and who aren't.

[joshuabgood]

Folks need to justify what they want to do...the Curse of Ham was a convenient way to do that.

[Soloist]

Folks need to justify what they want to do...the Curse of Ham was a convenient way to do that.

Wife: I agree, and I think it’s sad when it’s drifted into plain churches and other churches, where people just assume that it’s actually in the Bible and don’t know better. Obviously, they could actually look it up, but sometimes you don’t even know to question.

There’s other things that I assumed were from the Bible, and was surprised to find out later that it wasn’t in there. I can’t think of all of them, but the one I can think of is how my grandfather doused for water as a driller, and they were trying to teach me how to do it using a forked willow stick, gave me some scientific explanation about the water from the stick being attracted to the water from the ground, as well as a Bible reference to Moses. As I was a child, I believed them, but I was not able to do it. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I actually heard the thing about dousing and realized it was connected to witchcraft and didn’t seem to have any science behind it.

[HondurasKeiser]

Folks need to justify what they want to do...the Curse of Ham was a convenient way to do that.

The first time I even heard about said curse was reading Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible.

[barnhart]

Folks need to justify what they want to do...the Curse of Ham was a convenient way to do that.

The first time I even heard about said curse was reading Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible.

I learned about it from a history book.