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As a politician who cherishes religious conviction in his personal sphere, but regards politics as a domain belonging outside religion, I believe that this view is seriously flawed.

It's important to ask candidates about their beliefs, in part because politicians frequently exploit religious faith - often with the idea that voters will be more likely to unthinkingly accept certain political positions so long as they arise from religious belief.

Our government should be entirely and purely secular. The religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of sight.

Politicians use religion, and they get their troops riled up with religion.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

Politicians don't really bring up religion in England.

Politicians read the polls that show 85 or 90 percent of the voters profess a belief in God, so they identify themselves with religion, often only to the degree necessary to reach the constituency they are targeting.

The question is not whether personal spiritual beliefs shape a politician's values and policies, but what spiritual beliefs mold those values and policies.

Among politicians the esteem of religion is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome.

For Ben Carson, Donald Trump, or any other Republican politician to suggest that someone of any faith is unfit for office is out of touch with who we are as a people.