{"id":32974,"date":"2022-09-10T16:30:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/naming-a-baby-messiah-is-fine-with-most-americans\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:30:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:30:32","slug":"naming-a-baby-messiah-is-fine-with-most-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/naming-a-baby-messiah-is-fine-with-most-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming a Baby \u201cMessiah\u201d is Fine with Most Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Bob Smietana<\/p>\n

NASHVILLE, Tenn.\u2013Three out of four (74 percent) Americans say parents should be able to give their child religious names \u2013 including Messiah – according to a survey from Nashville-based Lifeway Research. A similar number (75 percent) say a judge should not be allowed to change a child\u2019s name for religious reasons.<\/p>\n

The name \u201cMessiah\u201d made headlines in the summer of 2013 after East Tennessee judge Lu Ann Ballew ordered Jaleesa Martin to change her son\u2019s name from \u201cMessiah\u201d to \u201cMartin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin and the baby\u2019s father, Jawaan McCullough, had been in court because they disagreed about the child\u2019s last name.<\/p>\n

“Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Ballew said at the time.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Ballew\u2019s ruling was later overturned. She now faces a possible citation for her ruling, and according to published reports, has until January 6 to respond to a complaint filed with a state judicial board.<\/p>\n

At the time of her ruling, the judge expressed concern the child would be teased because of his name. But it turns out that \u201cMessiah\u201d is a surprisingly common name.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessiah\u201d was the 387th most popular boys name in the United States for 2012, just after \u201cScott\u201d and right before \u201cJay,\u201d according to the Social Security Administration. That\u2019s up from 904th place in 2005.<\/p>\n

When asked if parents should be able to name their child \u201cMessiah\u201d or \u201cChrist,\u201d 53 percent of Americans strongly agree and another 21 percent somewhat agree.<\/p>\n

Only one in five (21 percent) disagree, with 10 percent strongly disagreeing, and 11 percent somewhat disagreeing.<\/p>\n

Researchers also asked Americans to respond to this statement: \u201cJudges should be allowed to change the name parents give their children if there are religious implications to those names that some people might find offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
See also  Churches Still Recovering From Pandemic Losses<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sixty-one percent strongly disagreed, while another 15 percent somewhat agreed.<\/p>\n

About one in five agreed with 8 percent strongly agreeing and another 11 percent who somewhat disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a case where a parent\u2019s rights, child advocacy, and a judge\u2019s religious convictions meet,\u201d said Scott McConnell, vice-president of Lifeway Research. \u201cDespite the fact that the majority of Americans consider themselves Christians and that the judge voiced an orthodox Christian position of there being only one person who earned the title Messiah, three out of four Americans put a parent\u2019s right to name their child above considerations about religious offense or the beliefs of their own religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I am partial to the name Scott,\u201d McConnell added.<\/p>\n

Methodology: The telephone survey of 1,001 adult Americans was conducted September 6-10, 2013. Interviews were conducted in either English or Spanish. Both listed and unlisted numbers were called and approximately 20 percent of the sample was reached by cell phone. Responses were weighted by age, gender, education, race\/Hispanic ethnicity, region and CBSA market size to more accurately reflect the population.) The sample provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +3.1 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.<\/p>\n

Download the research (PDF)<\/p>\n

Bob Smietana is senior writer for Lifeway Christian Resources.<\/p>\n

\n

Related posts:<\/h3>\n
What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Smietana NASHVILLE, Tenn.\u2013Three out of four (74 percent) Americans say parents should be able to give their child religious names \u2013 including Messiah – according to a survey from Nashville-based Lifeway Research. A similar number (75 percent) say a judge should not be allowed to change a child\u2019s name for religious reasons. The … Continue reading “Naming a Baby \u201cMessiah\u201d is Fine with Most Americans”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}