Gay Bible Project: An Introduction

So I've embarked on this project to read the bible from beginning to end. I will be looking at the scripture from the perspective of a scholar, not a christian. I am very excited to complete this project and be able to look at the entire book and decide what I think about it. This blog will serve to document my findings as I read and other thoughts that pop into my head, regardless of whether they are relevant.

I've already come up with a ton of questions and what-if scenarios. I've become very interested in queer politics and race relations and I will be reading the book with those thoughts in mind.

Right now my first question, that I posed to bibleinfo.com and they were unable to successfully answer:

Were the Canaanites black?

(Genesis 4:15) Long long ago, I believe the bible was used to justify slavery. After Cain killed his brother Abel, God put a mark on him to protect him from danger. God is very unclear about the specific mark, but it is believed that it is possible God made Cain black so others would know he was protected. The bibleinfo.com people said the Canaanites were a separate race from the Israelites and probably came from Africa, so according to bibleinfo.com, they are black.

It may be very racist to make such a claim, if you look at the story of the Rape of Dinah. (Genesis 34) She gets raped by a Canaanite man. Her brothers trick the Canaanites into circumcising themselves (OUCH!), and then they murder all these men (horrible). So since these people weren't circumcised it's possible they are from a different race.

Suppose they're black. So would the book then be trying to explain the stereotyped perverseness of the black man by making him the rapist and having all of his people pay the cost of this man's actions with their deaths, all along God isn't really getting involved. It's a bit suspicious. I'm still not sure if they are black, but they may be an oppressed race. I'll keep reading.....