In the early 1960s, Henry Morris revolutionized the young earth creationist world with his seminal work,\u00a0The Genesis Flood<\/em><\/a>. Morris unleashed what is today referred to as a \u201ccreationist renaissance\u201d and became the father of modern young earth creationism. He was also racist\u2014and he grounded his racism in his young earth creationist beliefs.<\/p>\n For some years now, Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, a prominent young earth creationist organization, has been working to tie racism to acceptance of evolution\u2014and to link young earth creationism to racial reconciliation and anti-racism. While I do not appreciate Ham\u2019s lies about evolution and his failure to address the historical racial faults in creationism, I do appreciate his efforts to oppose racism in fundamentalist and evangelical circles.<\/p>\n However, it is important for creationist leaders like Ham to acknowledge that young earth creationism has not always been like this. In the past hundred years, a variety individuals have grounded racist beliefs in both evolution (i.e. claims that caucasians are more highly evolved) and creationism (i.e. claims that the Curse of Ham is on the black race to this day). I had not realized, until recently, that Henry Morris engaged heavily in the latter.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to take my word for it. In his 1997 book,\u00a0The Beginning of the World: A Scientific Study of Genesis\u00a0<\/em>1-11,\u00a0<\/em>Morris wrote about Noah\u2019s curse on his son Ham<\/a>. Of the descendants of Ham, he wrote that:<\/p>\n \u201cTheir future will be one of service\u2014providing mainly for the material and physical needs of mankind.<\/strong> Shem, on the other hand, with his concern for the Lord and His honor, will through his descendants lead men to know and follow God. Japheth also, with his more serious approach to life and its meaning, will see his descendants enlarged geographically and mentally, coming to dwell finally in the spiritual house built by the children of Shem.<\/strong> The children of Ham, however, even those of his youngest and least responsible son, Canaan, will have to be content with giving service to both Shem and Japheth providing the material basis of human society, upon which the spiritual and intellectual concerns of mankind can be superimposed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The sons of Ham provide for \u201cthe material and physical needs of mankind.\u201d The sons of Shem build a \u201cspiritual house.\u201d The sons of Japheth have a \u201cmore serious approach to life and its meaning\u201d and are enlarged \u201cgeographically and mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n Just so we\u2019re clear, the children of Ham are the African, Asian, and Native American races. The children of Shem are the Jewish people and other Middle Eastern peoples. The children of Japheth are Europeans.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have to guess at this, either. Morris writes it himself:<\/p>\n \u201cThe descendants of Ham were marked especially for secular service to mankind.<\/strong> \u2026 The prophecy is worldwide in scope and, since Shem and Japheth are covered, all Ham\u2019s descendants must be also. These include all nations which are neither Semitic nor Japhetic. Thus, all of the earth\u2019s \u2018colored\u2019 races\u2014yellow, red, brown, and black; essentially the Afro-Asian group of peoples, including the American Indians\u2014are possibly Hamitic in origin and included within the scope of the Canaanitic prophecy,<\/strong> as well as the Egyptians, Sumerians, Hittites, and Phoenicians of antiquity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Morris remarks that the descendants of Ham\u2014\u201cyellow, red, brown, and black\u201d\u2014were \u201cmarked especially for secular service to mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n What has this \u201csecular service\u201d involved? Let\u2019s have a look:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Hamites have been the great \u2018servants\u2019 of mankind in the following ways,<\/strong> among many others: (1) they were the original explorers and settlers of practically all parts of the world, following the dispersion at Babel; (2) they were the first cultivators of most of the basic food staples of the world, such as potatoes, corn, beans, cereals, and others, as well as the first ones to domesticate most animals; (3) they developed most of the basic types of structural forms and building tools and materials; (4) they were the first to develop fabrics for clothing and various sewing and weaving devices; (5) they were the discoverers and inventors of an amazingly wide variety of medicines and surgical practices and instruments; (6) most of the concepts of basic mathematics, including algebra, geometry, and trigonometry were developed by Hamites; (7) the machinery of commerce and trade\u2014money, banks, postal systems, etc.\u2014were invented by them; (8) they developed paper, ink, block printing, moveable type, and other accoutrements of writing and communication. It seems that almost no matter what the particular device or principle or system may be, if one traces back far enough, he will find that it originated with the Sumerians or Egyptians or early Chinese or some other Hamitic people. Truly, they have been the \u2018servants\u2019 of mankind in a most amazing way.<\/strong>\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This start may be surprising. I know I found it surprising. After all, some of the things on that list are not what we would consider material or physical accomplishments. The remainder of this section, however, is more predictable:<\/p>\n \u201cYet the prophecy again has its obverse side. Somehow, they have only gone so far and no further. The Japhethites and Semites have, sooner or later, taken over their territories and their inventions, and then developed them and utilized them for their own enlargement. Often the Hamites, especially the Negroes, have become actual personal servants or even slaves to the others. Possessed of a genetic character concerned mainly with mundane matters, they were eventually displaced by the intellectual and philosophical acumen of the Japhethites and the religious zeal of the Semites<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cPossessed of a genetic character concerned mainly with mundane matters\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Morris goes on, growing only more direct:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Japhethites have been \u2018enlarged,\u2019 taking over lands originally settled by Hamites, and developing the Hamitic technology into science and philosophy. Japhethites have provided the intellectual aspect to humanity\u2019s life, Hamites the physical, and Semites the spiritual.<\/strong> Japheth has, even in the present age, largely taken over the religious function from Shem\u2014\u2018he shall dwell in the tents of Shem\u2019 (Gen. 9:27).<\/p>\n \u201cThese very general and broad national and racial characteristics obviously admit of many exceptions on an individual genetic basis. It is also obvious that the prophecy is a divine description of future events, in no way needing the deliberate assistance of man for its accomplishment. Neither Negroes nor any other Hamitic people were intended to be forcibly subjugated on the basis of this Noah declaration. The prophecy would be inevitably fulfilled because of the innate natures of the three genetic stocks, not by virtue of any artificial constraints imposed by man.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cbecuase of the innate natures of the three genetic stocks\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Yes, you did read that right\u2014Morris did in fact write that slavery was the inevitable result of \u201cthe innate natures of the three genetic stocks.\u201d He wrote that.\u00a0<\/em>He wrote that in 1977, and it was published by a creationist publisher.<\/p>\n I grew up reading Henry Morris. I grew up seeing him lionized in young earth creationist circles. He was the father of modern young earth creationism. To the best of my knowledge, however, I never read Morris\u2019\u00a0The Beginning of the World.<\/em>\u00a0I\u2019m glad that I did not; if I had, I would have read it as an impressionable teen. What would I have learned?<\/p>\n