Religious salutations in business emails

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TreeTiger

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An agnostic friend mentioned to me today that they are getting emails in work from someone who is addressing them as "Dear ____ in Christ," My friend does not find this appropriate, and would like to find a suitable but somewhat diplomatic response.
Any ideas?
 
Hi TreeTiger
It's be a bit delicate, asking someone to change the salutations they use in a letter I would think, whether your friend is agnostic or not.
Does the person actually write 'in Christ' at the end of the letter as the closing line, in lieu of 'regard'/'yours sincerely' etc?
I have never come across this before, it seems an unusual way to end a letter, especially if it is a business related one.
I have to be honest though, if I were your friend, I'd just leave this go.
Alternatively they could drop a line stating that as they are an agnostic, they would prefer if religious reference were not used in letters addressed to them.
I would think that this might cause offence though, and possibly is a bit over the top to comment on it to the sender.
What do you think yourself?
Nicola
 
Holy good Jeebus - are you serious? There is a real business person mailing someone in such a fashion?

I dealt with a fairly religious business organisation from Holland in a previous life, but they never ever actually brought religion into any dealings we had with them. What's the background on the company your friend is dealing with?

If your buddy is selling Holy Water (or something else of significant value) to the Vatican, I'd suck it up (the address that is, not the holy water)...

I've never heard the like!

Sprite

P.s. if it's a customer, I would also probably let it go as Nicola M suggests. If a co-worker, I'd have a word.
 
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TreeTiger said:
An agnostic friend mentioned to me today that they are getting emails in work from someone who is addressing them as "Dear ____ in Christ," My friend does not find this appropriate, and would like to find a suitable but somewhat diplomatic response.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Are they sure it's not spam? If not then what is the relationship between the sender and recipient? What is the context of the communication?
 
NicolaM said:
... Does the person actually write 'in Christ' at the end of the letter as the closing line, in lieu of 'regard'/'yours sincerely' etc?
...
Alternatively they could drop a line stating that as they are an agnostic, they would prefer if religious reference were not used in letters addressed to them.
I would think that this might cause offence though, and possibly is a bit over the top to comment on it to the sender.
What do you think yourself?
Nicola
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response Nicola, basically the person is starting, not finishing with the in Christ bit, in your case the email would start "Dear Nicola in Christ".

As to causing offence by asking for religious reference not to be used, I think this works both ways really, as the person emailing has no clue if my friend is Christian, Jewish, Muslim or whatever. And if it were me I'm afraid I wouldn't be very diplomatic, I'm quite happy for people to enjoy their own religion but not for them to bring it to me in my workplace.

ClubMan, not too sure of the specifics but my friend is an administrator in a (non-denominational) place that deals with foreign students, and the religious emailer works in some sort of educational establishment, and is emailing my friend in relation to some of the students.
 
I don't know but maybe it is from a direct translation of a language that the e-mailer speaks, like our Dia dhuit and Dia is Muire dhuit.
 
If your buddy does want to do something about it, perhaps a mail saying that "in Ireland, we don't generally use religious terms as an address; in some cases, people may find it inappropriate" - the mailer may be presuming that everyone in Ireland is a practising Catholic/Christian and may not realise that it's a little off to be adding religious references to emails in this manner. I think it can be done with sensitivity as a sort of "heads up, this may offend people" in a general sense, as opposed to your friend pointing out that they are offended/annoyed/uncomfortable (or whatever!)

Sprite
 
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TreeTiger said:
As to causing offence by asking for religious reference not to be used, I think this works both ways really, as the person emailing has no clue if my friend is Christian, Jewish, Muslim or whatever.
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Hi TreeTiger,
I didn't mean your colleague causing offence by remarking on the religious reference, rather causing offence by taking someone to task over what salutation they were using , if that makes sense?
That is truly odd though, what a strange way to address someone!
Nicola
 
TreeTiger said:
ClubMan, not too sure of the specifics but my friend is an administrator in a (non-denominational) place that deals with foreign students, and the religious emailer works in some sort of educational establishment, and is emailing my friend in relation to some of the students.
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Seems very vague. As mentioned earlier I would imagine that the precise relationship between the two parties would be very pertinent to what, if any, action might be taken to address the issue. Does it really cause your friend that much of a problem? As an atheist myself it doesn't really bother me in everyday verbal interactions when people say things like "god bless [you]", "god willing", "god help us", "please god" etc. They are normally just turns of phrase but even if they mean something more to the speaker - so what? I don't think it would be different if they put the same stuff in writing/email although I've never been faced with that.
 
Or perhaps your friend could just ignore it? If that's all your friend has to worry about, I'd love to be in their shoes... :rolleyes:
 
Colblimp said:
Or perhaps your friend could just ignore it? If that's all your friend has to worry about, I'd love to be in their shoes... :rolleyes:
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I agree, we're all too ready to jump on our high-horses, at the end of the day what does it matter...I wouldn't care if someone sent to me Dear Wishbone in Christ/Jehovah or any other - surely the email isn't asking you to sign up?? to which you can refuse anyway...
 
I suspect DavyJones may have it right and it's a literal translation of a Salutation.

Many years ago, I was somewhat taken aback at being called "Lady Kildrought" in a spanish speaking country, until I (eventually!) realised that they were directly translating the respectful address of Senora.
 
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If the email content is ok, just ignore it.

Anyway, I think most people get more offended if the 'Dear ___' salutation mis-spelt the name or used the wrong name.
 
I imagine this is just the standard greeting that this person uses. I have seen the expression Dear brothers/sisters in Christ before.

My advice would be to chill out. If that is what bothers them about their work then they are lucky and should be Thanking God. :D
 
Bonafide said:
I imagine this is just the standard greeting that this person uses.
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Heard a bit more today but can't give much detail for reasons of anonymity. My friend's job is to organise events of some sort for the other person's business (which is in Ireland), and there are several deadlines to be met in the course of arranging an event. This person hasn't been meeting their deadlines. Also he/she has not been using the religious greeting until the last couple of days. My friend emailed the other day that the deadline issue was causing difficulty. Next thing the other person started addressing emails to "Dear ____ in Christ".

The person who used to do my friend's job said this happened them too, that the religious person used "Dear ____" in emails until the fact was pointed out that he/she wasn't meeting deadlines and therefore causing problems in my friend's office, and then the religious element entered the emails.

So my friend is just cranky that this person, who is already making life difficult, has changed their way of greeting but not their way of working!

I was just curious had anyone else come across a problem like this and what, if anything, they had done about it. I've had to receive business emails from a couple of priests and they never put any religious greetings into their communications, although in that situation I personally would certainly have no problem with it!
 
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