Curse of Ham

Author’s Note: This post talks about some very racist ideas. We here at Spirituality & Religious Studies DO NOT agree with ANY racist rhetoric at all, EVER! If this post triggers you, please move on to 1 of our other posts. Thank you.

In the Book of Genesis, the curse of Ham is described as a curse that was imposed upon Ham’s son, Canaan, by the patriarch Noah. It happens in the context of Noah’s drunkenness & it’s provoked by a “shameful” act that was perpetrated by Noah’s son, Ham, who “saw the nakedness of his father.”

The exact reason for Ham’s transgressions & the reason Noah cursed Canaan when Ham had sinned has been debated for over 2,000 years.

The story’s original purpose may have been to justify the biblical subjection of the Canaanites to the Israelites, or a land claim to a portion of the New Kingdom of Egypt, which ruled Canaan in the late Bronze Age.

In later centuries, the narrative was interpreted by some Jews, Christians, & Muslims as an explanation for black skin. As well as a justification for the enslavement of black people. Many Christians, Muslims, & Jews now disagree with such interpretations. Because in the biblical text, Ham himself isn’t cursed. Race or skin color isn’t even mentioned in the text at all, anywhere.

The idea of this curse has its beginnings in Genesis 9:20-27. The story goes:

Noah began to be a farmer. He planted a vineyard. He drank some of the wine that the vineyard produced & enjoyed the drink a little too much. Noah was naked in his tent. Ham (the dad of Canaan) saw Noah’s nakedness. Ham told his 2 brothers. Shem & Jepheth took a garment & put the garment on both their shoulders & covered Noah’s nakedness, while they walked backwards. They kept their faces turned away from Noah so they didn’t see him naked.

Noah woke up from his drunken stupor. He knew what Ham had done. “Cursed be Canaan. A servant of servants will be to his brothers. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Canaan will be his servant. God will enlarge Japheth. He’ll live in the tents of Shem. Canaan will be his servant,” Noah said. (Genesis 9:20-27)

The objection of the story may have been to justify the subject status of the Canaanites (the descendants of Ham) to the Israelites (the descendants of Shem). The narrative of the curse is replete with difficulties. It’s uncertain what the exact nature of Ham’s offense is.

In verse 25 of the Genesis story, Noah refers to Shem & Japheth as the “brethren” of Canaan. However, in verse 18, they’re identified as his uncles.

The Table of Nations introduces Canaan & Mizraim (Egypt) among the sons of Ham. The Table of Nations is a genealogy of the sons of Noah & their dispersion into many lands after the Flood. In the Psalms, Egypt is identified with Ham.

A land claim on Canaan, which fell under the rule of the New Kingdom of Egypt in the late Bronze Age, has been suggested as a motive for the curse on Canaan & the association with Ham via Ancient Egypt’s rule over Canaan.

It’s important to realize that the curse was placed/made by Noah, not by God. The curse of Ham (& his descendants) wasn’t confirmed by God. Because the text would mention that, or at least you’d think it would if God had confirmed it. And if God had actually confirmed the curse, then why was the “promised land” called Canaan?

A pesher (interpretation) of the Book of Genesis found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, explains that since Ham was already blessed by God, it made Noah’s curse null & void (Genesis 9:1).

The Book of Jubilees also tells the tale. Jubilees gives a bit more info that Ham had assigned to Canaan a land west of the Nile. All of Noah’s sons agreed to invoke a curse on anyone who tries to seize land that wasn’t assigned to them. Well, Canaan violates this agreement & instead chooses to squat in the land set forth to Shem & his descendants. So Canaan brought on himself the full force of this second curse.

In the past, some groups have claimed that the curse of Ham was a biblical justification for imposing slavery & racial discrimination.

In the 15th century, Dominican Friar Annius of Viterbo invoked Ham’s curse to explain the differences between Europeans & Africans in his writings. Annius doubled down on the racism. He claimed that due to the curse imposed on black people, they would inevitably remain permanently subjugated by Arabs & other Muslims.

Similarly, the Catholic mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich said in her visions that she discovered that black people are, in fact, descendants of Ham.

In 1835, Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon faith) published a work called the Book of Abraham. Get ready, it’s going to be a very bumpy & cringy ride. This is your trigger warning.

This “work” states that the Pharaoh was a descendant of Ham & the Canaanites. Pharaoh ruled justly & was blessed with wisdom, but was barred from getting into the priesthood because of the curse on Ham. According to the Book of Abraham, ALL Egyptians descended from the Canaanite lineage.

The Book of Abraham was eventually made into Scripture by the Mormon Church. And it is still in active use today. This passage is the only 1 found in any Mormon scripture that bars a particular “lineage” of people from holding the priesthood.

While there’s nothing in the Book of Abraham that explicitly states that Noah’s curse was the same curse that is mentioned in the Bible, or that the Egyptians were related to other black Africans. Some leaders later used the verses of this text as justification for the church policy with regard to the priesthood ban.

The 2002 edition of the Doctrine & Covenants Student Manual pointed to Abraham 1:21-27 as the reason why highly melaninated friends of the male gender weren’t given the priesthood until 1978. That’s 148 years, y’all. Really? That’s almost 150 years, guys. We can’t. We just can’t. And here’s the kicker: they also said that those who tried to abolish slavery were going against the decrees of God.

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Serpent Seed

Author’s Note: We here at Spirituality & Religious Studies DO NOT in any way, shape, or form agree with ANY of the racist views/opinions of the people who interpret this doctrine in that way. We have zero tolerance. We will delete & ban any users who leave racist or hate speech in the comments. Thank you for your time! Now, on the post.

This is also known as dual–seed or the 2-seedline doctrine.

This is a controversial (& sometimes racist) doctrine in some fringe Christian or other Abrahamic religious movements that have an interesting interpretation of the biblical “Fall of Man“: the Serpent (the Garden of Eden serpent) mated with Eve in the Garden of Eden. The result of their “union” was Cain.

Followers of this doctrine believe this event resulted in the creation of 2 races of people: the “wicked” descendants of the Serpent, who were destined for damnation, & the righteous descendants of Adam, who were destined to have eternal life.

This doctrine frames human history as a conflict between these 2 races in which the descendants of Adam will eventually triumph over the descendants of the Serpent.

Irenaeus (circa 180. Check out the post about Irenaeus.), an early Church Father, condemned the notion of some people being naturally possessed of seeds of divinity in Against Heresies as a “Gnostic” heresy supported by Valentinus (100-160).

Valentinus didn’t propose that there were kids by Eve through the serpent or that there was a seed of the damned in contrast to the spiritual seed of the elect.

*Trigger Warning* This is where the racism is mentioned.

During the 19th century, the full Serpent Seed doctrine was invented by Daniel Parker (1781-1844), who promoted the doctrine among Primitive Baptists & wrote about it in his book Views on the Two Seeds (1826).

This doctrine was embraced by American religious leaders, who wanted to promote racist beliefs. It was brought into the teachings of British Israelism by C. A. L. Totten (1851-1908) & Russel Kelso Carter (1849-1928).

Teachers of the Christian Identity theology, which branched off from British Israelism, preached the doctrine during the 20th century & promoted it within racist groups. Some believers of the doctrine use this to justify antisemitism or racism by claiming that Jews or members of non-white races were the descendants of Cain & the Serpent, who were interpreted to be Satan or an intelligent non-human creature that lived before Adam & Eve.

Around the world, there are millions of followers of the Serpent seed doctrine within Branhamism & the Unification Church. In 2000, there were an estimated 50,000 followers of it within Christian Identity.

The Anti-Defamation League & various Christian apologetics organizations have denounced racist versions of the serpent seed teaching by claiming that they are incompatible with the teachings of traditional Christianity. They’ve accused promoters of exacerbating racial tensions by spreading hate.

In its most prominent modern form, it explains the biblical account of the Fall of Man by stating that the Serpent mated with Eve in the Garden of Eden. The offspring of their spicy time was Cain. It claims that Eve had adult spicy time with Adam a 2nd time. Abel & his younger bro, Seth, were the 2 kids that Adam & Eve had together. So by this theory, Cain was Abel (& Seth)’s half-brother, since they share different dads.

Variations of the doctrine claim that the Serpent‘s descendants have no souls because they’re partially descended from animals & are therefore predestined for damnation. Some groups are markedly militant on the subject because of their millennial teachings. As a result, they believe that at the end of days, a final battle will be fought in which the “pure” race will triumph over the “impure” one.

The identity of the Serpent varies from group to group. Some groups claim that the Serpent is Satan himself. While other groups claim that the Serpent is an animal that is either ape or human-like. Other groups incorporated pre-Adamite ideas that held the Serpent was a non-human creature whose creation predated that of Adam. A test run, if you will.

The doctrine also varies between groups. Some groups claim that the descendants of the Serpent are all people who aren’t of Northern European descent. Other Christian Identity groups claim that the descendants of the Serpent are either Jews or Africans. (We can’t with these people!)

William Branham connected the Serpent’s descendants with Ham (the biblical originator/progenitor of the African peoples), several Jewish figures, the highly educated, & society’s criminals. Arnold Murray connected the descendants of the Serpent with the Kenites, a group of people who he believed had infiltrated some part of Jewish society.

In the Unification Church, the bloodline of all humanity is believed to be contained as a result of Eve’s relations with the Serpent. However, married couples can change their heritages by performing the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony. This allows them to become the adopted kids of their new “Adam“: Sun Myung Moon. You may have heard of the Unification Church; they’re also known by another moniker: The Moonies.

Mainstream Christianity rejects the Serpent Seed doctrine. Because the biblical record explicitly names Adam as the biological father of Cain, this teaching is considered incompatible with the Protestant teaching of biblical infallibility. Some critics argue that this doctrine encourages division & fuels racism, which leads to sin.

Other critics point out the theological repercussions of blurring traditional Christianity’s interpretation of the doctrine of original sin. The Serpent Seed doctrine characterizes original sin as a feature of genetic inheritance rather than a spiritual condition.

Mainstream Christianity teaches the belief that all individuals are the spiritual children of Satan because they were born in a state of original sin. Through the act of Christian conversion, individuals can become kids of God through adoption.

This doctrine undermines the basic teaching of Christian conversion by teaching the belief that only individuals who are descended from Adam are the inherent kids of God, a belief which classifies them as the only people who don’t need to convert to Christianity. While the Serpent’s seedling was irredeemable.

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UC Irvine: Colonial Mexico’s forgotten history. “Trayectorias Afro is a digital database documenting the movement of enslaved Africans within colonial Mexico. Developed in collaboration with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, the website launched publicly at UC Merced in March 2026, with an official event in Oaxaca planned for fall 2026. While the project is currently […]

Repubblica.it: Congo, sogno mondiale 52 anni dopo. Nel 1974 con il Brasile la punizione che fece la storia

Questa sera, contro la Giamaica, gli africani cercano una qualificazione storica dopo quella ottenuta quando il Paese si chiamava Zaire. Indimenticabile, in quella edizione, un episodio avvenuto nella partita con i sudamericani

Congo, World Dream 52 years after. In 1974 with Brazil, the punishment that made history.

Tonight, against Jamaica, Africans are seeking a historic qualification after one achieved when the country was called Zaire. Unforgettable, in that edition, an incident that occurred in the match against the South Americans.

#Congo #WorldDream #Brazil #Jamaica #Africans #Zaire #theSouthAmericans

https://www.repubblica.it/sport/calcio/esteri/2026/03/31/news/congo_mondiale_1974_brasile_punizione-425255245/

LA NOTIZIA: Benvenuti a Dubai!

L’Iran bombarda le monarchie del Golfo e vedo sui social tanta gente che è fuggita da Dubai e rimpiange quel lusso pacchiano. Ma come si fa a vivere a Dubai?
Elena Giustini
via email
Gentile lettrice, in effetti Dubai è la città più pacchiana del mondo, un deserto morale e storico avulso da tutto, senza passato, cultura, tradizioni, una città di palazzi orribili che solo ai parvenu sembrano belli. Capisco i nativi, perché fino a due generazioni fa non sapevano leggere né scrivere, vivevano in tenda, non avevano mai visto una casa e un bel dì si sono svegliati miliardari. Ma sono una minoranza. A parte i turisti – frotte di miliardari ed escort che vanno lì per prostituirsi – Dubai ha 4 milioni di residenti, di cui 320.000 (l’8%) nativi, il resto immigrati. L’Emirato si regge sulle fatiche di milioni di asiatici: operai, camerieri, muratori… Tutti asiatici perché Dubai, come gli altri Paesi del Golfo, non vuole africani (il sottofondo razzista degli arricchiti). All’ingresso a Dubai ai lavoratori viene tolto il passaporto e potranno riaverlo solo a fine contratto, se il datore di lavoro è d’accordo. In altre parole, Dubai prospera sullo schiavismo. Ma chi va lì a cercare sfarzi se ne infischia. Ho visto il profilo social di una formosa influencer italiana, che vive a Dubai e nelle foto appare solo seminuda. Poiché è molto derisa nei commenti, in un video si rivolge ai followers con un tono angelico, rimproverando chi le manca di rispetto e sostenendo che lei usa rispetto e cortesia con tutti. Nei commenti un lettore chiede: “Scusa, ma che lavoro fai?” e lei risponde: “Ca**o vuoi? Sfigato”. Benvenuti a Dubai!
L'articolo Benvenuti a Dubai! sembra essere il primo su LA NOTIZIA.

Welcome to Dubai!

Iran bombs Gulf monarchies and I see so much people on social media who have fled from Dubai and regret that pretentious luxury. But how do you live in Dubai?
Elena Giustini
via email
Dear reader, in fact Dubai is the most pretentious city in the world, a moral and historical desert detached from everything, without a past, culture, traditions, a city of horrible palaces that only the nouveau riche find beautiful. I understand the natives, because two generations ago they didn’t even know how to read or write, they lived in tents, they had never seen a house and they suddenly woke up billionaires. But they are a minority. Besides the tourists – hordes of billionaires and escorts who go there to prostitute themselves – Dubai has 4 million residents, of whom 320,000 (8%) are native, the rest are immigrants. The Emirate is held together by the sweat of millions of Asians: workers, waiters, builders… All Asians because Dubai, like the other countries of the Gulf, doesn’t want Africans (the racist undertones of the wealthy). At the entrance to Dubai, workers have their passports taken away and they can only get them back at the end of the contract, if the employer agrees. In other words, Dubai thrives on slavery. But who goes there to seek extravagance cares little. I saw the social profile of a fiery Italian influencer who lives in Dubai and appears in the photos only nude. Because she is heavily ridiculed in the comments, in a video she addresses her followers with an angelic tone, scolding those who disrespect her and claiming that she treats everyone with respect and courtesy. In the comments, a reader asks: “Excuse me, what do you do?” and she replies: “What do you want? Loser.” Welcome to Dubai!
The article Welcome to Dubai! seems to be the first on LA NOTIZIA.

#Dubai #ElenaGiustini #Emirate #Asians #Africans #Italian #first #LANOTIZIA

https://www.lanotiziagiornale.it/benvenuti-a-dubai/

#Trans & #Intersex #History #Africa — Digital Archive

"It is important that we as #African trans, #gender diverse and intersex people speak for ourselves" — #VictorMukasa

"This statement by one of Trans & Intersex History Africa’s (TIHA) founders, Victor Mukasa, speaks to the rationale behind the TIHA digital archive, the history of trans, gender diverse and intersex movements in Africa, and the importance of archiving our histories/herstories/theirstories.

Supporting advocacy and movement building through archiving

We document events and important moments in a digital archive in the form of a visual timeline, as well as audio and video interviews as experienced and remembered by activists on the African Continent and within the #AfricanDiaspora.

As is the case worldwide, the anti-gender, conservative, #TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) rhetoric continues to gain strength and influences government policies, law and public sentiment, which impacts trans, gender diverse and intersex people’s lived realities and their fundamental human rights. We believe that the Trans & Intersex History in Africa (#TIHA) digital archive can contribute to the efforts of organisations, specifically those who cannot publicise their work due to threat of financial and legal consequences (which includes one of our founding partners), to ensure that trans, gender diverse and intersex existence and lived experience is recorded. This record will play a part in ensuring the collaborative strength of the African movements in combating the anti-trans, anti-gender-diverse and anti-intersex sentiment on the continent and in the African diaspora.

The TIHA digital archive acknowledges the existence of multiple movements, networks, groups and individuals and that the stories to be told are intersectional and carry various voices to form histories/herstories/theirstories. We are making a start with the information currently available but invite stories in whatever media to be submitted from across the continent and from the many places and voices not yet represented.

While we are in a continuous process of rethinking this important work, we invite you to engage with the information that the TIHA digital archive and Trans & Intersex Archival Conversations present. Get involved! Reach out! You can list your organisation/group, share your stories through the Timeline or through the Talk Show by getting in touch with us. We particularly invite first person stories and can facilitate the sharing of these in various languages."

Learn more:
https://transintersexhistory.africa/

#GBLTQ #LGBTQI #Transpeople #TransHistory #GenderQueer #Agender #Genderfluid #QueerHistory #Africans #RejectColonialism