The "Music" of Noah's Curse May Be Over, but the "Melody" Lingers On

Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell
 
One of the joys as well as challenges of "downsizing" as one attempts to settle into what will probably be his/her last home is to re-discover books that have been forgotten. "It" was in one of the boxes that had been set aside to be opened at a later date. When it was time to open that box, "It" peered out at me. "It" was NOAH'S CURSE, The Biblical Justification of American Slavery, Stephen R. Haynes, Oxford University Press, 2002.
 
Of course, finding the book prompted me to revisit those words in Genesis 9:24-27 that served as the Biblical justification for slavery and racial segregation: "When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him (Telling his brothers of Noah's nakedness) he said, 'Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.' He also said, 'Blessed by the Lord my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave. May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem: and let Canaan be his slave.'"

Stephen R. Haynes in the Preface utilizes the thoughts in Ham and Japheth in America; The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South, by Thomas V. Peterson to write; "Peterson defines myths as shared cultural symbols that uphold a social order. According to this definition, the story of Noah and his sons functioned mythically in the Old South inasmuch as the characters and actions it narrated symbolized Southern cultural beliefs, institutions and attitudes, successfully bringing together whites' racial stereotypes, political theories, religious beliefs and economic realities."

I suggest the melody of Noah's Curse has lingered because we have seen how First Timothy 2: 11,12 was and still is being used by some to deny ordination to women. And, Romans 1: 26, 27 is used by the United Methodist Church to say in our Book of Discipline, "The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching." (The Nurturing Community, 161 F, "Human Sexuality").

Who among us is able to explain how/why the use of the First Timothy passage to once deny women ordination in the Methodist Church and Romans 1 to deny ordination to same gender loving persons who affirm their relationship/commitment, does what "Noah's Curse" did to justify slavery and racial segregation?

And, how and for whom does Romans 1 symbolize, "cultural beliefs, institutions and attitudes  that bring together (sexual) stereotypes, political theories, religious beliefs and economic realities"?

If we could determine who among us has the need to make of the Romans 1 passage a Pauline Curse" to deny same gender loving persons a place of equality in the UMC, we might "turn a corner" that we should have turned years ago. Our failure to learn from our history of mis-use of Biblical passages is being passed on from generation to generation.

Why do I care so much? I care because having known mistreatment by the Church because of my race, I have been impatient with the mistreatment my Church has imposed on persons because of their gender and/or their sexual orientation. And, I do not want our 5 year old grand daughter who attends a United Methodist Church every Sunday with her parents, to grow up in a denomination that seems to need some group to "curse", year after year after year.