In recent sermon, I chose to write a letter to my name in order to express to the congregation how in our society something as small as our name can be used by some people to discriminate. I further illustrated my point by giving them a list of famous people who changed their names because they thought it would increase their chances of getting accepted in the entertainment industry.  Here is a short list.

Real Name: Krishna Pandit Bhanji aka Ben Kingsley

Real Name: Caryn Johnson aka Whoopi Goldberg

Real Name: Issur Danielovitch Demsky aka Kirk Douglas

Real Name: Ramon Antonio Gerard Estevez aka Martin Sheen

Real Name: Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko aka Natalie Wood

These people new the power that names have over their lives in our society. It is hard to deny that the name change affected their lives in some way. In these peoples’ cases, the new names…