Court officials say a Birmingham woman who changed her name to Jesus Christ didn't live up to it when she reported for jury duty.

The woman, previously named Dorothy Lola Killingworth, was sent to Judge Clyde Jones's courtroom for a criminal case.

Court officials told The Birmingham News that the 59-year-old was excused because she was disruptive and kept asking questions instead of answering them.

Efforts to reach Christ for comment were unsuccessful.

Court administrator Sandra Turner said people there were shocked when the woman insisted her name was Jesus Christ and some potential jurors laughed out loud when her name was called.

But Turner said unlike some Jefferson County residents, Christ didn't try to get out of jury duty and was "perfectly happy to serve.

Source: The Birmingham News, http://www.al.com/birminghamnews

When I recently got a summons to report for jury duty, I kept thinking of ways to get out of it. As always, I felt I was too busy at work and really could not afford to spend time in court that could be going towards other projects that had pressing deadlines.

Changing my name and being inquisitive on the stand was, fortunately, not an idea that crossed my mind. Apparently, for the "prophet" formally known as Dorothy Lola Killingworth, it worked.

I would think that if you're going to change your name to something like Jesus Christ, that you would at least pronounce it differently like "HEY-zeus Creest," but I'm not convinced that would make it any less sacrilegious.

Then I thought that jury duty is probably the highest honor (besides voting) a citizen could do for the community, and that maybe it should not be something you try to avoid but should actually be something to look forward to, regardless to how busy your life may seem at the time. As proud Americans we should all be "perfectly happy to serve" when asked to do so.

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