Given by Rev. Madison Shockley August 1, 2021

Our reading is the story of how the world became populated. It has been used to justify the enslavement of blacks since the seventeenth century. Noah cursed his son, Canaan, to be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. There is no further biblical reference to Canaan actually becoming a slave though. The only reference to slavery happens in Exodus where the children of Canaan (Egyptians) enslave the children of Shem (Israel). The curse backfired! The Bible comes to us from the children of Shem. They wrote it. It is thought that the curse was actually a projection by the Israelites who had been enslaved themselves. This projection allows unwanted attributes, emotions, or ideas to be placed on someone else that are actually possessed by themselves.  Noah could not admit to his own drunkenness so he accused Ham of rape and cursing him through Canaan. This same shifting of blame happened when Southerners defended slavery. They said if blacks were free, they would seek revenge on us and rape our women and kill our men. The same projection has been with us ever since. It is behind every presumption of criminality towards blacks. White supremacy has issued a curse on black people. Blacks suffer because some people believe the projection is true. We must break the curse of white supremacy. To do this, we can do three things. First, tell the truth. Accurate history must be taught. Next, we must stop the projection. We must look inside ourselves and face the problems head-on. We can’t be defensive. We must make sure that these projections do not become internalized. Lastly, we must disempower the projectors and empower the cursed. Reparations can break the curse. Apostle Paul said that faith in Christ can break the curse, for in Christ Jesus, we are all children of God.
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