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?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?
... 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
Hi TreeTiger,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.
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.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 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...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...
Speak for yourself.I agree, we're all too ready to jump on our high-horses
Are they sure it's not spam?
Good example!!Speak for yourself.
a suitable but somewhat diplomatic response.
Any ideas?
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".I imagine this is just the standard greeting that this person uses.
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