brethren

Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops sit across the border, helping defend the North's prosperous, democratic brethren in the South against a 1.2 million-member army, most of it arrayed within 30 miles (50 km) of the demilitarized zone.     <Time magazine, February 27, 2012> 



brethren plural

1. Fellow Christians or members of a male religious order
2. Used for humorous or rhetorical effect to refer to people belonging to a particular group
   • our brethren in the popular press