Naming Rights

There is quite a furor going on about an incident here regarding a parent's right to name his or her child any name he or she wishes. Common sense seems to be lacking in both the couple's choice of a name and in  a judge who ordered the couple to rename the boy a name she chose for child. The question is largely whether a judge has the right to force a parent to change the name of a child because he or she feels it is "unsuitable" (even if it is).  It's an easy answer in a democratic nation. NO!

Here's what happened. Tennessee Child Support judge Lu Ann Ballew,  had her own ideas about the right name for an 8 month old little boy.  She decided that Messiah, what the mom and dad named him, was an inappropriate first name and ordered that Messiah's name be changed to "Martin Deshawn McCullough" (the new first name and middle name are the last names of the two parents), thus incorporating the last names of both parents instead of using "Messiah". Yep! The judge said the couple must change the name of the baby and the birth certificate to show that Messiah is now Martin.  “The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person,” said the judge at the hearing.

The question is not only how stupid it was to name their child Messiah, but also why would a judge try to take away the right of the parent to name the child whatever they wished? The judge said that the United States is overwhelmingly a Christian county, and that she was merely looking out for the little boy’s welfare. “It could put him at odds with a lot of people,” she said, “and at this point, he has had no choice in what his name is.” But this violates the parent's the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

No doubt a higher court will over-rule that decision to change the name and Martin will become the Messiah again.......... to be teased until he goes mad from the Messiah jokes he is destined to hear all during his lifetime.  Actually, Messiah isn't as bizarre as some other common religious names used here. "Jesus" is often used by Hispanics when naming their children and "Madonna" is also a common one from that singer of the same name who acts anything like a Madonna or Messiah. Judges have no authority to name babies, so this judge must have an agenda of her own in trying to do so. And there already hundreds of Messiah's, if not thousands, running around America (most probably wishing mom and dad used more common sense when naming him).

Naming a child Messiah is not the best idea., though probably better than choosing "Dirtbag", "Vagina", "Maryjuana" or an endless list of others that will make the child have an identity crisis from day one. Choosing "Messiah" just shows that stupid people can have babies and when they do, they act stupidly when parenting. Hmmm Maybe the judge should change her own name to Messiah, since she seems to think she is the all-knowing one.....