Bible doesn’t justify racial oppression

In his Aug. 23 letter, “Be careful about questioning slavery,” John Rosier declared that “Our creator God has set up two unequal people groups,” and justified slavery by citing Genesis 9:25-27

This text has traditionally been used as an authorization of white supremacy. It authorizes nothing of the kind.

The New International Study Bible explains in this note on page 24: “Noah’s curse singled out the Canaanites. Noah’s curse cannot be used to justify the enslavement of blacks, since most of Ham’s descendants are known to be Caucasian, as the Canaanites certainly were (as shown by ancient paintings of the Canaanites discovered in Egypt).”

Besides, the Canaanite culture ceased to exist more than 2,000 years ago. So the passage doesn’t justify any kind of racial oppression.

This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Bible doesn’t justify racial oppression."