"Vodou" is the commonly used term for the religion among scholars and in official Haitian Creole orthography, although some scholars prefer the spellings "Vodoun" or "Vodun", and in French the spellings "vaudou" or "le vaudoux" are also used. The spelling "Voodoo", once common, is now generally avoided by practitioners and scholars when referring to the Haitian religion. This is both to avoid confusion with Louisiana Voodoo, a related but distinct set of religious practices, and to distinguish the tradition from the highly negative and (in some views) offensive connotations that the term "Voodoo" has in Western popular culture. Many practitioners instead use the term "Ginen" to describe the broader framework of their beliefs; this term refers particularly to a moral philosophy and ethical code regarding how to live and to serve the spirits.