"Religion," designed to be used as a neutral term, has come to be part of a "them's-fightin'-words" debate in public. Many have noted that in the mouths of many, "spirituality" has come to mean a replacement for "religion." But a foreign visitor or a writer of encyclopedias would likely say, "That's an interesting choice of terms. In our view, spirituality is just another subcategory of or specialization in the zone of religion."

Now "faith" has come to the spotlight, for political reasons. William Safire started the new round of linguistic battles when he asked in the June 27 NEW YORK TIMES, "Why does 'religious' suddenly need a synonym?" The synonym to which Safire referred is "faith," as in "faith-based." Safire listened to George W. Bush and Al Gore talking about "faith-based" welfare initiatives and decided that "faith-based" simply camouflaged "religion." The candidates avoided using "religion" because they want to avoid controversy over church state separation. "Religion" is stigmatized; "faith" is pure.

The columnist writes: "RELIGION (probably from the Latin RELIGARE, "to restrain") is a set of beliefs; FAITH (from FIDERE, "to trust") is the unquestioning trust in the truth of those beliefs." He quotes an activist: "The language of FAITH-BASED signals to people our motivation while separating us from the institutions."

Safire seldom slips on linguistic matters, but his "religion" definition is extremely narrow. In many cultures, including parts of our own, it connotes not a set of beliefs but behaviors, practices, observances, ways of living. And "faith" has long also had other meanings than "trust." Shelves full of book titles talk about American "faiths" and mean "denominations." "Faith" sometimes means "belief in" and sometimes "belief that." So Safire solves little.

Before the argument advances, it would be useful to recognize that after thousands of tries and years of debate there will be little agreement on what "religion" and "spirituality" and "faith" mean. In all cases, the best advice is to listen to what those who use a term mean by it. Years ago Wilfred Cantwell Smith wrote a book on "the faiths of other men." He claimed that few ever said, "I have a religion." "Religion" is a word observers put on beliefs, practices, faiths, and spiritualities. "Spirituality" means many things besides the current usage, where it means "religion" that has taken out of it the things one does not like.

And, to the current point: if "faith-based" initiatives are designed to foil those who guard the line of "separation between church and state," they'll be caught and contradicted as readily as if they used the word "spirituality-based" or "religion-based." In politics, "them is ALL fightin' words." "Faith-based" initiatives can represent genuine and imaginative approaches to social problems. Or the term can be misused by exploitative politicians. We will listen with care in all cases.