Zwielicht
Legendary Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Founding Member
Fourth Star
Third Star
Second Star
First Star
Occasionally, I get asked as to how I got my doctor title.
I slap it on everything, and the few times I've been asked for proof of it, I've been able to provide that so that I can get it added to other stuff. This was the case with my Amex card in the image above as they asked me for proof of the title before adding it to my card. I sent them the degree and they accepted it.
When I'm asked about it, I am up front with everyone about this: it's not an academic title.
So what is it?
You see, over here in the United States at least, you can legally use the title "Dr." with an ecclesiastical degree. I found out about this because there was some teenager going around calling himself "Dr. Love" in Florida who managed to set up an entire holistic medical clinic using an ecclesiastical doctor title.
Sounds Fun. How Do I Get One?
It's actually really easy to get an ecclesiastical degree: you can just pay a small fee to an institution like Universal Life Church and they'll give you a fancy-looking degree in the mail.
The degree will have your name on it, a stamp, and your new title, along with the usual information you'd expect on a degree.
What's The Catch?
The only caveat of this is that you cannot pretend to be a medical doctor or lie about the degree being academic in any sort of way. In other words, don't do what Dr. Love did.
Some countries also have an issue if you do this and try to call yourself Dr. _______, so check the laws in your locality to see if you can do it.
I've always meant to share this information, but I never got around to it. I hope to see more ecclesiastical doctors at there who want to have fun with this. Black hat everything that will give you an advantage as this has been a conversation piece that others have been interested in whenever they notice it. If anything, just do this to have a bit of fun.
For the record, I'm a "Doctor of Metaphysics" and a "Doctor of Divinity"
