After a few months in fly-infested stables converted to bunkhouses, they are herded onto trains that take them to a remote part of Utah. The America the family sees from the window — their country — is exceedingly beautiful, a counterpoint to their grim situation. Late at night, the woman in the family recites the Lord’s Prayer. In Genesis, after Ham sees Noah naked, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan — falsely identified by later interpreters as a progenitor of Egyptians and other dark-skinned people: “Cursed be Canaan! Today, we are once again witness to mothers wailing over their children’s dead bodies, bombed hospitals — violence and suffering so vast it is unfathomable.

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Persons: Shawn Copeland, Ham, Noah, Ham’s, Canaan —, Copeland, ” Organizations: ” Locations: ”, Utah, America