Columnist Emma Green of The Atlantic is perplexed with the latest addition of 200 religious terms in The Associated Press' style guide, specifically spelling "God" with a capital "G" or a lowercase "g."

The Atlantic's "house rules" fall on the side of the capital "G" variety and that worries Green because it implies confessing belief in the Deity. Yet, as she states, her boss does not see it as testimony and offers this simile: "capitalizing the protagonist's name from The Big Lebowski [does not] entail belief in the existence of the Dude. So we capitalize God."

But that does little to ease her nerves as the AP is distinguishing between the worshipped God of Judaism, Christianity and Muslims (as she lists) and false gods -- be it money or golden calves: "The Associated Press has declared that there are false gods. I can't wait to see what happens when they have to cover a story about a strangely gold-tinted calf who shows up in the desert in Egypt." Her nerves are fine spelling "hell" with a lowercase "h" while capitalizing "Hades."

Despite twenty years of "Jewish education," Green admits to having always struggled with the spelling of "Hanukkah" and appreciates the help of the AP to include it in the guide. She also notes that the guide drops the "pesky 'h'" at the end of "Rosh Hashana."

Dangerous territory for Green comes with the entry "Zionism." It's "tricky," she states, but not as tricky as the entry for "Jesus." For "the central figure of Christianity," it is all in the pronouns -- the AP green lights "Son of God" or "Redeemer" but with pronouns referencing Jesus, it is the lowercase "he" -- "just like any mortal man," says Green.

One enlightened commenter, Geenius_at_Wrok, asks the million dollar question missing from Green's story:

I'm curious: What does the AP have to say about the term shari‘a?