In Tennessee a judge has ordered a baby’s first name to be registered as “Martin” even though his parents had agreed to call him “Messiah”, claiming that the only true messiah is Jesus Christ, a ruling the boy’s mother will appeal against , a local TV station reported.
The parents of Messiah DeShawn Martin went before Tennessee Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew (Lu Ann, & she’s ruling on other peoples’ names?) because they could not agree on the 7-month-old’s last name.
Ballew instead of simply issuing a ruling, last week ordered the baby’s name changed to Martin DeShawn McCullough, the TV station WBIR reported.
“The word ‘Messiah’ is a title, & it’s a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Ballew told WBIR, indicating a substantive lack of language skills, as well as sharing some pretty definite religious views of her own.
Ballew, said the child would have problems with his parents’ choice of first name because he lives in Cocke County, a predominantly Christian area in eastern Tennessee. (Nothing compared to the problems he’s going to have at college when he has to say where he comes from.)
“It could put him at odds with a lot of people &, at this age, he has had no choice in what his name is,” Ballew said.
Jaleesa Martin, the baby’s mother, said, “I didn’t think a judge could change my baby’s name because of her religious beliefs,”.
Christianity refers to Jesus as the Messiah, while Judaism & the dictionary, use the term to mean “an anticipated savior of the Jews.” Other dictionary definitions say the word can mean “one who is seen as, expected or professes to be a savior or liberator.”
Messiah was the 387th most popular name for boys born in the USA last year. In all, there were 762 applications for boys named Messiah in 2012, up from 368 applications in 2011.
Should have just called him “Brian” & had done with it.
ThursdayAgain 
You must be logged in to post a comment.