3/25: Second Reading

Hello everybody!

I'm now on page 111 of Race, and I'm up to part four of the book overall. This second reading section has been very religion-oriented, mainly focusing on the conflict between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. It also covered how some of the ideas mentioned in the Bible influenced countries all over the world, especially on the subject of race. One story in particular focuses on Noah and his son named Ham. I interpreted the part of the book discussing this specific story as Aronson's main argument in the section, and today, I am focusing on how the ideology that stemmed from this story still applies in current events today.

I am somewhat learned when it comes to Christianity; I grew up going to church and Sunday school, so I have some general knowledge about the stories in the Bible. I have also been aware of people who take part in "biblical literalism", which, as you can probably guess from the term, means taking literally everything in the Bible (stories, psalms, etc.) and interpreting it as the true word of God. However, I never knew about the story involving Noah and Ham.

Aronson describes the story saying that Noah "... drank too much wine and fell asleep naked. Ham was immodest enough to look at his sleeping father, while Shem and Japheth properly averted their eyes and covered Noah with a cloth." After finding out that Ham looked at him, Noah then curses Canaan, Ham's son, to be a servant for the rest of his life (a bit of an overreaction in my opinion). However, Aronson then informs us that the story was misinterpreted and came to be understood that Ham had been cursed, and that he had dark skin. This was the evidence that people needed for justifying slavery. If the "word of God" said that people with dark skin were meant to be servants, then that meant it was okay for slavery to exist.

This painting, called "Curse of Ham", displays the story previously mentioned.

(Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Now, although almost everybody today agrees that slavery is not justifiable, there are still groups, such as white supremacists (specifically "white nationalists" in the article I discuss), that justify their racist ideology with religion, just like those who justified slavery hundreds of years ago. This article discusses how the author of a recently released book, Blood and Faith: Christianity in American White Nationalism, believes that Christianity still has a sinister connection with the mindsets of white nationalists.

The author, Dr. Damon T. Berry, says that in more recent history, groups like the KKK and other white supremacist groups have used information from the Bible to back up their racist and discriminatory views. Such evidence includes how the Bible says Jews descended from Cain, who murdered his own brother, or how they use "...the Tower of Babel, as scriptural evidence that God wants racial segregation."  These are racist groups that still exist today. This modern-day behavior is not much different from that of supporters of slavery a long time ago.

One current event that received tremendous amounts of attention was the event in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white-supremacist rally was taking place. A car ran into the crowd and killed Heather Heyer, a counter demonstrator who was fighting against white supremacy.

 The car ran into the crowd, injuring many. (from Time.com)

However, Dr. Berry describes that many of the white nationalists present at the rally were chanting "Jesus is our white savior" and "all religions will lead to race suicide". This shows the influence that religion still has on some of the racist groups that exist today.

The ideas that Aronson describes in his book pertaining to the connection between racism and religion may seem ridiculous and very outdated, but we are still dealing with them today in current events. For me personally, it is very disheartening to see this behavior connected to the Bible that I have grown up knowing and appreciating. I have always been taught that Jesus loved everyone, and considered everybody equal. The fact that one misinterpretation of a simple story in the Bible lead to the horrible racism that is still alive and well today is equally depressing and interesting to me. I am interested to see if Aronson continues to develop this connection between racism and religion as the book goes on.