A prominent African-American pastor has announced plans to ask the Southern Baptist Convention to amend its constitution to ban churches that condone racism.
Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, said in a blog and press release dated May 27 that he would ask messengers at the SBC annual meeting June 15-16 to consider amending an article on membership to exclude churches that “act to affirm, approve or endorse … racial discrimination and bigotry in any form.”
The membership article already bans churches that condone “homosexual behavior” in an amendment added during the 1990s after one North Carolina church licensed a practicing homosexual as a minister and another performed a ceremony blessing a same-sex union.
McKissic said he wants a similar zero-tolerance ban on racism because of “residual racism or latent bigotry” in the nation’s second-largest religious body. Part of that is “unrepentant belief” in the “curse of Ham” theology used historically to mistreat persons of color.
The curse of Ham refers to one of Noah’s three sons mentioned in the Bible. In Genesis 9:20-25, Ham enters a tent and discovers his father naked and drunk then goes back to tell his brothers. They avert their eyes to avoid looking at Noah and use a garment to cover their father’s nakedness. After he awakes Noah curses Ham’s descendants to become servants of those of his brothers.
Some scholars view the story as a rationalization for Israel’s conquest and enslavement of the Canaanites, presumed to be descendants of Ham. Later some Christians came to believe the story explained different skin colors and used it to justify enslavement of African blacks.
