What's In a Name?

GetReligion has two fine articles questioning common definitions of words we use all the time, like "Evangelical" or "Devout Muslim."

The first is a story about the growing discord among Evangelicals about environmental policy. The arch-conservatives and political activists want the environment on the back burner. The young hipsters want it to take more prominence. Amid all of this the press is losing sight of the fact that these issues are largely outside of the core beliefs of Evangelicalism in the first place.

The second is a story about an Iraqi Muslim who owned a book shop in Baghdad and, unfortunately, died in a car bomb last week. The reporter referred to him as a "devout muslim" but was he? How does the reporter know? What makes a muslim devout, etc.?

Language is a tricky thing to get right.