Yes, it’s both appropriate and important that candidates express their personal religious views and even, to a certain extent, use religious rhetoric. Why? For one very practical reason: Because they want to win.

Frankly, I wish candidates could avoid talking about religion entirely. But, even though we are a secular nation, it will still be a long time before an atheist or non-believer can get elected to any office higher than local sewer board. The United States is not only the most materialistic and consumer-driven nation on earth, we are also the most openly religious. According to the most recent survey by the University of Michigan, 53 percent of Americans say religion is important in their lives – compared to only 16 percent in Britain, 14 percent in France, and 13 percent in Germany. That means – Thomas Jefferson, forgive us – you can’t get elected in the United States today unless you show a little religion.

But there’s a more profound reason, too: A well-grounded faith can make for better political decision-making because it helps illuminate the moral imperative, too often neglected, behind many issues. Indeed, one of the failures of leaders of the religious right today is their obsession with abortion and gay marriage, while ignoring the moral dimension of raising the minimum wage, protecting the environment, not torturing prisoners, and other issues.

In the end, you can’t really separate faith from politics, because our faith doesn’t mean anything unless it influences everything we do, including our political decisions.

So, candidates either demonstrate a certain level of faith today or face certain electoral defeat. But – here comes the “but”– it must be real and it must be comfortable. As too many candidates have discovered the hard way, you can fake a lot of things in politics, but you can’t fake your faith.

Bill Press is co-host of 'The Bill Press Show' on Sirius Satellite Radio and author of 'How The Republicans Stole Religion.'