The Lord's Name on a Street Sign?

“Should the Lord’s name be used on a street sign?” I wondered, after I saw a newspaper article about a strip of road in Fayetteville, N.C., that was recently named “Jesus Christ Way.”

“Drive down Dudley Road, deep into rural Cumberland County, and there it is: a brand new, bright green street sign proclaiming a short stretch of sandy road as Jesus Christ Way,” wrote Chick Jacobs of The Fayetteville Observer newspaper (July 22, 2011).

Jacobs said that Jesus Christ Way is simply a sparse, sandy strip running from the pavement of Dudley Road to Bethel Elelohe Israel Missionary Baptist Church, a small, brown wooden structure. Warnette Patterson pastors the church, and her husband Samuel is co-pastor.

“When I was ordained, the Lord gave me a vision,” Warnette Patterson, 67, said. “He told me to put his name before men.”

Jacobs wrote, “Of the 8,000-plus named streets in Cumberland County – and of the hundreds of thousands across North Carolina – none were named for Jesus Christ.”

Warnette Patterson said she called the Cumberland County Courthouse. The name wasn’t used on a street in N.C., so Jesus Christ Way was approved, Jacobs wrote.

Warnette said she wants to make Jesus’ name known, because of what he did for her.

“I’m not proud of my earlier life,” she said. “I did a lot of things. The Sunday I was saved, I was out drinking the Friday before.”

Jacobs wrote, “Her husband was serving in the military and stationed in Korea. Patterson says she was living on Fort Bragg, hiding from bill collectors and creditors.”

“They couldn’t get to me there,” Warnette said. “But the Holy Spirit could. I began feeling worse and worse, like I was going to die right then. I had to get to a church. Any church. I didn’t think I’d last long enough to get off base, so I ended up at the chapel on Smoke Bomb Hill and fell down and started praying.”

Warnette came forward a few weeks later at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on Raeford Road in Fayetteville. She became the first woman pastor ordained by that church. She organized a church called Bethel Elelohe Israel. The name means “the house of the Lord of Israel.”

I’m glad Warnette promotes Jesus, but I wonder about putting his name on a street sign. Folk from other religions may want their leaders’ names on street signs, too. What about religious names on street signs paid for by the government?

We often think of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” as hearing someone curse and use God’s name. Using Jesus’ name in a funny or offhand way might also be “taking the Lord’s name in vain.” If a person does something “in vain,” that means it “amounts to nothing.” Is having Jesus’ name on a street sign an example of “taking the Lord’s name in vain”?

The third Commandment states, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7 KJV).

The New English Bible translates that: “You shall not make wrong use of the name of the LORD your God; the LORD will not leave unpunished the man who misuses his name.”

Doug Knigthon, a retired military chaplain, says misusing the Lord’s name has more to do with how we live than what we say. In comparing “taking the Lord’s name in vain” with marriage, he says, “If you take the name of God, at a ceremony, and tell the world that you are now part of the ‘bride of Christ’ as the church is called, yet you do not live like a ‘bride of Christ,’ you have taken His name in vain, and you will not be considered guiltless.”

Beth Scotch, a kindergarten teacher, shared with me a story that goes like this: Beth’s daughter was in elementary school and got into trouble. Her teacher wrote the daughter’s name on the board. Beth’s husband Dave learned about his daughter’s misbehavior. He asked his daughter, “Did you get my name put on the board?”

“No,” the daughter said, “I got my name put on the board.”

“But your last name is the same as my last name,” her father said. “When you get your name put on the board, you get my name put on the board.”

Perhaps having a Fayetteville street named “Jesus Christ Way” is not a problem. Maybe I should stop worrying about that street sign and spend more time thinking about how to avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain by the way I live. I don’t want my name and His Name “put on the board.”