Bible Trivia: The Hangover

In Genesis 9:18-28, Noah gets drunk and passes out naked.  When his son Ham finds him passed out, he warns his brothers Shem and Japheth, who then carefully cover him without looking at him.  When Noah wakes up, he

A:  apologizes to his sons

B:  apologizes to god

C:  curses his sons Shem and Japheth

D:  curses Ham

 anyone else have a wacky dad?  gets old quick, huh?

 ANSWER:  D

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
²⁰ Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^[a] to plant a vineyard. ²¹ When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
²⁴ When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

“Cursed be Canaan!
    The lowest of slaves
    will he be to his brothers.”

²⁶ He also said,

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!
    May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
²⁷ May God extend Japheth’s^[b] territory;
    may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
    and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. ²⁹ Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

 i told you, i'm a grower!

 Turns out that this passage has been widely discussed and widely disagreed upon among biblical scholars.  

dude, dad, gray hair, gross

You may ask why.  Who cares and whats the point of all of this?  Well, the answer is more insidious than you could possibly imagine.

From Wikipedia:

The story's original objective was to justify the subjection of the Canaanites to the Israelites,^[6] but in later centuries, the narrative was interpreted by some Jews,^[7] Christians and Muslims as a curse of, and an explanation for, black skin.^[8][9] Nevertheless, many Christian denominations strongly disagree with such interpretations due to the fact that in the original biblical text, Ham himself is not cursed and race or skin color is never mentioned, and therefore, out of context in the story of Genesis 9.^[10][11]

 That's right!

This is just one of the many passages that have been used by Christians over the years to justify racism, slavery and oppression of people with dark skin.