Judge changing baby's name Messiah draws reaction

"Christianity has misunderstood what a messiah is. Christianity is not based on principles found in the Torah or the books of Moses. God himself told us not to listen to anyone that would bring us a way to have a relationship with him that disagrees with what Moses taught us. The problem with Christianity is that it's belief system starts with Jesus and it tries to work backwards to justify itself instead of starting with Moses and going forward in truth."

Everyone knows that Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Is it possible that they have misunderstood the entire concept of the Messiah and his function in God's spiritual economy? [1]

"I never intended on that — naming my son Messiah because it means God," she said. "And I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge's decision to change a baby's first name from Messiah to Martin is drawing strong reactions from people who believe the judge overstepped her powers and those who think parents' creativity should have some limits.

Thousands of people have commented online about the judge's order since WBIR-TV published its story over the weekend. Many of them said Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew went too far, but not all.

"I agree 100 percent that we only have one messiah and that's Jesus Christ," said Edith Wood, a resident of Cocke County in eastern Tennessee, where the boy lives. The mostly rural county is located in the Appalachian foothills and encompasses part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Wood said a cousin called from Atlanta and asked her to find the judge and take her out to dinner. Telephone calls to Ballew from The Associated Press rang unanswered Monday, and her voicemail was full.

The hubbub started when the boy's mother sought an order to establish paternity. It included a request for the judge to determine the child's last name.

When Ballew heard Messiah's first name, she decided it should be changed, too, saying the child could face problems with the name Messiah.

The name on his birth certificate was Messiah DeShawn Martin. The judge changed it to Martin DeShawn McCullough, giving the boy his father's last name while replacing Messiah with his mother's surname.

"The word messiah is a title, and it's a title has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ," she told WBIR-TV in an interview from her office, which had a ceramic figurine of Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus on her desk. A copy of the Ten Commandments hung on the wall.

While Messiah may not be a traditional English name, it is becoming more popular. Messiah was No. 4 among the fastest-rising baby names in 2012, just ahead of King but behind Major at No. 1, according to the Social Security Administration's annual list of popular baby names.

And other religious names are very common, such as Mohammed in Islamic culture and Jesus (pronounced Heh-SOOS') in Hispanic culture.

Asked about the name Jesus, Ballew said it was not relevant to the current case.

A number of countries have rules about what are acceptable baby names. In Iceland earlier this year, a girl won a court battle to legally use the name given to her by her mother. Blaer means "light breeze" in Icelandic, but it was deemed to be not a proper feminine name by authorities, who referred to her in government documents as "Girl."

Hedy Weinberg, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, said the U.S. is different because of the First Amendment.

"Parents, not the government, have the right to name a child," she said. "The judge cannot impose her faith on those who come into her courtroom."

The ACLU has offered to help the parents fight the decision.

Laura Wattenberg, the founder of babynamewizard.com, said she has been using the name Messiah as an example of changing baby names.

"The percentage of kids getting names we think of as normal is shrinking," Wattenberg said. "Today, Paisley is more common than Mary."

Messiah Ramkissoon, a spoken word poet based in New York City, said people sometimes assume his name is a stage name. But he said the name simply represents a messenger and doesn't refer exclusively to Jesus. He added that many people are named Emanuel, which means "God is with us" and is another term used for Jesus in the Bible.

The baby's mother, Jaleesa Martin, told WBIR-TV she chose the name Messiah because she likes the way it sounds and thinks it goes well with the names of her other two sons, Micah and Mason. She said she's appealing the decision and in the meantime will still call her son Messiah.

"I never intended on that — naming my son Messiah because it means God," she said. "And I didn't think a judge could make me change my baby's name because of her religious beliefs."

source:

What is Moshiach? (Messiah?)

Think Judaism is about tradition? It's not.

Because the tradition itself is about something much bigger. About Abraham smashing the idols in his father's house. Moses liberating a people from slavery. Isaiah lecturing a war-hungry civilization on world peace. It's about changing the world and making it the way it's supposed to be.

Every book of Torah is filled with that idea. Every mitzvah we do is part of creating that world. Every moment of our history, that hope beats in our hearts.

Today we discover that humanity has bought into our dream. That the pieces are neatly falling in place. That rays of a new dawn have already begun to shine.

Moshiach: An Introduction

Two of the most fundamental tenets of the Jewish faith – as listed by Maimonides among the Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith – are the belief in the ultimate redemption, an awaited era of world peace, prosperity and wisdom, and the belief that the dead will be resurrected at that time.

The Messianic Era will be ushered in by a Jewish leader generally referred to as the Moshiach (messiah: Hebrew for "the anointed one"), a righteous scion of King David. He will rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and gather the Jewish people from all corners of the earth and return them to the Promised Land.

So it's going to happen—that's what we believe. But why is this important today? Why is the coming of Moshiach so central to the Jewish belief system?At that time, "delicacies will be commonplace like dirt." All the nations will "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Micah 4:3). Humankind will be preoccupied with only one pursuit: the study of G‑dly wisdom. "The earth shall be filled with knowledge of G‑d as water covers the seabed" (Isaiah 11:9).

Okay, so it's going to happen—that's what we believe. But why is this important today? Why is the coming of Moshiach so central to the Jewish belief system?

Because the Torah teaches us that there is purpose to our world. And the Messianic Era is the actualization of that idea.

There are those who maintain that this crass physical world is merely a strategic challenge; one that the soul must battle and transcend en route to a heavenly paradise. According to this line of thinking, the physical and mundane has no intrinsic worth, it retains no value whatsoever once its function has been fully served—it is a means to a spiritual end.

While Jewish belief also speaks of the soul's reward in the hereafter, earned through its toil in the course of life's journey, it sees the refinement of the physical and the infusion of holiness and purpose into the mundane as the paramount objective. It is the sanctification of the human body and the world at large that constitutes the very purpose of its creation.

From the dawn of time, G‑d envisioned for Himself a "dwelling place" right here on Planet Earth. And He put us here to fashion this home. To transform darkness into light.

The curtain will be ripped aside, and all flesh will perceive G‑dAnd soon the day will come when G‑d's glory will be revealed in this nether-realm, and we will enjoy the fruits of our millennia-long work, the end-product of our labor of love.

The curtain will be ripped aside, and all flesh will perceive G‑d. It will be the culmination of the master plan.

The belief in Moshiach has sustained our nation throughout a 2,000 year exile fraught with pogroms, expulsions and persecution—our ancestors' firm belief in a better time to come, and their trust that they would be resurrected to witness that day. And today, finally, we stand at the threshold of redemption. One more good deed by one more person may be all that's needed to seal the deal.

SOURCE: MOSHIACH 101

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