Messiah Has Come

What's in a name? Much, it seems. And here's a little story that was all over my local news yesterday about some East Tennessee parents who were told by Tennessee Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew that they would have to change their child's first name - which is Messiah - because that is a title which fits Jesus of Nazareth alone:

The word Messiah is a title, and it's a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ.

This story is doubly silly because the parents were before the judge in the first place because they couldn't agree on what the child's last name should be. But evidently the first name of Messiah offended the religious sensibilities of Magistrate Ballew; although Ballew did offer the additional rationale that because the child would be growing in such a Christianized portion of the country, "It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is."

This reminds of the spring of 1968. My older brother, on a whim, had stopped off at our local mom & pop store and picked up a pack of Topp's Baseball Cards. This soon led to our following the sport closely as we continued amassing a collection of baseball cards.

And then one day my brother opened a pack he had bought and looked at me all wild-eyed and said "holy moley, Doug, here's a guy named Jesus!" It was Jesus Alou, a then Giants outfielder, and we were astounded at his hubris. We wondered what kind of parents would do a thing like name their child Jesus. We stared at the name on that card for a long while in disbelief. But we were kids, too.

Here in the Bible Belt biblical names are common. I have one. My middle name is Nathan. Mom deliberately chose that in honor of the Old Testament prophet. I had childhood friends named Timothy, Thomas, Matthew and so forth. As children we made fun of our friends' names no matter what they were.

My best friend when I was 8 had made up a little rhyme about my first name (I never went by Nathan, although my mom called me that almost exclusively when I was a kid and still does now on occasion). It went like this:

Doug, Doug the beetle-bug,

the rotten apple cider jug.

Funny, right? But it caught on. I was just frustrated because, at eight, my poetic skills were such that I couldn't return the "favor" by thinking of a rhyme for his first name, which was Jimmy (still another biblical name, James). In fact, I don't think my poetic skills are adequate for that task today. But also I've outgrown that type of thing.

So back to Messiah. Of course the mom is outraged and is going to appeal. I was heartened that most of the feedback on the forced name change has been negative. Even here in the Bible Belt the idea of a judge overruling parental rights in choosing a child's name is unpopular - even with a controversial name such as this.

Snake Salvation: The Television Show

Just about the time you think reality TV has reached it limits, another slice of reality finds its way to the airwaves. This time the National Geographic Channel is going to follow the antics of certain Christians who believe "it's as much a commandment from God when He said 'they shall take up serpents,' as it was when he said 'thou shall not commit adultery.'"

 

Indeed Mark's Gospel does state:

 

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

 

They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:18)

 

However, I'm fairly confident there are more Christians breaking the commandment against committing adultery than there are Christians keeping that one about taking up serpents!

 

My traditional religion was once closely allied with those holiness folks who "took up serpents." It was outlawed around these parts by the time I was born. But we knew a few old timers who occasionally attended our services and who once handled snakes in worship. It was rumored that sometimes they would still slip off into the hills in order to worship that way. 

 

So I never experienced anything like that in person. I have seen documentaries that dealt with it. Fascinating stuff. I will even admit to having a sort of respect for people who have that type of faith. But I also tend to think that like my mom used to say, "these folks are tempting God."

 

I can't imagine a series such as Snake Salvation lasting very long. It also seems to me that this will give southern rural folks yet another black eye. But I don't know. I don't have cable so I will have to rely on the reviews.

 

I'm afraid I'll have to stick with less sensational ways of practicing my spirituality! 

An Atheist View Of The Mystery Priest Story

This story of the mysteriously appearing and then disappearing priest who comes along to anoint young car crash victim Katie Lentz and pray for her and her rescuers is continuing to get a lot of press coverage.

 

The Friendly Atheist Hemant Mehta blogs about this and his response, which, while somewhat friendly I suppose, is typical of the unbeliever. That isn't a criticism. Of course the person who doesn't believe in God or the supernatural is limited to natural explanations. But it is also the case that atheists do not always have a good understanding of the religious mind, and I think we see that in his blog. 

 

For example, Mehta points out that this story can be reported less sensationally:

 

The priest said the crew’s equipment would work… and it didn’t. In fact, another crew showed up and — surprise! — they had working equipment. If the priest hadn’t been there, the second crew would still have showed up. That’s not a miracle, that’s just good timing. 

 

The problem there of course - as anyone who is familiar with the Judeo-Christian worldview and the Bible itself can attest - is that believers do not limit their understanding of the word miracle to: acts which are contrary to the laws of nature.

 

I'm quite certain that Ms. Lentz, who was requesting prayer, would consider the "good timing" of the second rescue crew arriving in time to save her before she succumbed to her injuries both an answer to her prayers and a miraculous occurrence.

 

Mehta also has a little to say about the anointing with oil and again he displays his lack of understanding of the Judeo-Christian traditions:

 

Well, there’s no evidence it had any effect on Lentz’s condition. The priest could just as easily have spun around in circles three times and we would’ve seen the same results. But anointing sounds religious, mysterious, and magical, so people are quick to assume it had an effect.

 

But Christians do not think of the oil or anointing therewith to be magical or mysterious. The oil is thought of as a symbol of the Holy Spirit of God, the force through which God acts in His creation. That is why the Christian Epistle of James says:

 

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. (James 5:14,15 - NIV)  

 

Thus it is the faith signified by this ritual that is the means of healing, not some magic or mystery.

 

So as I pointed in a comment on my original post, this story is going to be interpreted according to the biases of the reader. It is either a "miracle" or a just one of life's odd coincidences. Just as the Cosmos we are all a part of is either a happy little natural accident or a purposeful creation.

 

Looking at things through the eyes of faith might (or might not) be a wrong way of looking at things, but it is certainly a broader scope than those who lack faith have. There, I suppose, is where a quote left yesterday anonymously in the comments section of my original post fits in:

 

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. (Thomas Aquinas)

Mystery Priest

Odd story. The victim of a head-on car crash, nineteen year old Katie Lentz, was rescued from the wreckage after a mysterious Catholic priest seemingly appeared out of nowhere, armed with a bottle of anointing oil, and said a prayer for the victim. Now what is interesting is that rescuers had apparently been struggling for an hour trying to extricate Lentz when this happened. After the prayer - and after another fire department showed up - the rescue was finally successful.

The story is here in this Yahoo news item, and a fire chief involved explained it this way:

He came up and approached the patient, and offered a prayer, New London Fire Chief Raymond Reed told KHQA-TV. It was a Catholic priest who had anointing oil with him. A sense of calmness came over her, and it did us as well...I can't be for certain how it was said, but myself and another firefighter, we very plainly heard that we should remain calm, that our tools would now work and that we would get her out of that vehicle.

The strangeness continued when rescuers turned to thank the priest and found he had apparently returned to the nowhere from which he came. As happens with people of a religious turn of mind, soon speculation began that this mystery priest might have been an angel instead of a priest.

USA Today also reported the story and also quotes Reed:

I think it's a miracle...I would say whether it was an angel that was sent to us in the form of a priest or a priest that became our angel, I don't know. Either way, I'm good with it.

Additional details were given, such as that the Lentz, the crash victim, asked for someone to pray with her. That was when the mysterious priest appeared. No one recognized the priest as being one of the locals. And then there is this, Chief Reed added: "I have 69 photographs that were taken from minutes after that accident happened — bystanders, the extrication, our final cleanup — and he's not in them."
  

The good news is that Katie Lentz is well on the road to recovery. Everyone involved in her rescue are reporting that she never screamed or cried, but just asked that she be prayed for and out loud.

Time was - and rather recently at that - that I would have picked this account apart and poked a little fun at it. But even if prayer is no more than a placebo, I think that isn't a small thing.

I suspect there is a more "natural" explanation than that the priest was really an angel. But to those involved in the rescue, and I'm sure to Katie's family, this was a brush with the divine. Had I been in Katie's shoes, I would have prayed, too.