"Father Brown"

[Joanne M. Despres]

On 19 Mar 2003, at 16:25, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> At 03:28 PM 3/19/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >>At 02:32 PM 3/19/2003 -0500, you wrote:
> >>>In a message dated 3/19/2003 1:50:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> >>>flanigan at OHIOU.EDU writes:
> >>>
> >>>>  >And indeed, this is what my cousin-in-law Merrie has been called:
> >>>>  >Father (she has served as a chaplin in hospitals and prisons).
> >>>>  >
> >>>>  >Barbara
> >>>>
> >>>>  Might she also be called Pastor Brown?  It's simple, neutral, and
> >>>> used as a
> >>>>  generic lower-case job label by many religious communities, including
> >>>>  Catholics.  I'm surprised that Merrie would accept "Father," even if
> >>>> it is
> >>>>  "proper"!
> >>>
> >>>No more surprising than that a Jewish chaplain would accept being addressed
> >>>as "Padre", that being the usual form of address from a soldier to a
> >>>chaplain.  And now that the Armed Forces have Muslim chaplains, we have
> >>>quite
> >>>a bit of religious job labels to mullah over.
> >>
> >>I don't mind either Father or Padre or Papa or Pop for a male religious
> >>figure, whatever the religion--but my feminist hackles rise when a female
> >>is addressed by one of these terms!  Mother or Madre won't do either. We
> >>will indeed need a gender-neutral address form, as Joanne suggests.
> >
> >Parent?
>
> Actually, I'd prefer Mr. or Ms.--but that's my non-pa/maternalistic bent.

I'd happily dispense with the parental metaphors, too.  Something
like "Doctor" (in the original Latin sense) would probably get my
vote -- especially if they actually WERE doctors, which would be
even better!

Joanne