Are there enough “Dummer” students? Apparently there will be no more Dummer students after the 2004-2005 school year. It's not that they are getting smarter, it’s just that there will be no more Dummer school. Over the objections of many alumni, the Governor Dummer Academy, in Newbury, MA, which opened in 1763, is planning to change its name. The school, which has always carried the name of Massachusetts governor William Dummer, has decided that the name is not good for public relations, and makes it hard to recruit students.  It seems that too many just don’t want to be known as Dummer students. Headmaster John Doggett says they are changing the name because “rightly or wrongly, first impressions make a difference.”

Although I don’t have any relationship to the school, it  seems sad that a school that has been around for almost 350 years feels like it must change its name. That is for them to decide. Names are important, however. “And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone” (John 1:42). That generous Levite from Cyprus, a great encourager, was renamed by the apostles from Joses to Barnabas [The son of consolation, or son of encouragement] (Acts 4:36-37).

Barnabas understood the importance of bringing Saul (later to be known as Paul) to the great missionary congregation at Antioch. “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

They wore that name of Christian with the understanding that it meant something. Peter said, “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1 Peter 4:16).

A young soldier that had been a coward was brought before Alexander the Great. When he learned the soldier’s name was “Alexander,” he said, “Either change your name, or change your actions!”

If we wear the name Christian, we must live a life unashamed before the world. To do anything else would simply be dumber.