|PIC1|Presidential candidates were urged to resist divisive religious rhetoric and respect religious freedom while on the campaign trail by a group of Christian leaders Tuesday.

More than two dozen Evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic leaders signed the statement titled, "Keeping Faith: Principles to Protect Religion on the Campaign Trail", which affirmed three principles to protect religion during the presidential race.

The principles tell the presidential hopefuls to avoid using religious or doctrinal differences to marginalise or disparage each other, to acknowledge that no single faith has an exclusive claim to moral values, and recognise that policy positions should reflect the best interests of all citizens regardless of religious belief.

"In this year's presidential campaign, we are troubled to see candidates pressed to pronounce the nature of their religious beliefs," wrote leaders in the statement, "asked if they believe every word of the Bible, forced to fend off warnings by a few religious authorities about reception of sacraments, compelled to confront derogatory and false allegations of radical Muslim childhood education, and faced with prejudicial analyses of their denominational doctrines."

In the race so far, arguably the two candidates whose faiths have been scrutinised the most are former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a former ordained Baptist preacher. The former has been criticised for not explaining his Mormon faith and the influence it will have on his presidency, while the latter has been criticised for talking too much about his faith.

On the Democratic side, religious talk has been unusually high with frontrunners citing Bible verses and Senator Barack Obama even throwing a star-studded gospel concert in South Carolina.

But with all the religious talk, there has also been judgment of candidates' faith in both parties.

In response, the Christian leaders denounced "exclusionary religious rhetoric" by candidates as well as "constant scrutiny" of the contenders' faiths for undermining religion's role in public life.

Signatories of the statement include Brian McLaren, author and founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church; the Rev Dr Paul de Vries, president of New York Divinity School and board member of the National Association of Evangelicals; and Dr Glen Stassen, Lewis B Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Religious voters will play a key factor in the South Carolina primaries in the Republican Party, January 19, as well as the Democratic Party, January 26.