SALT LAKE CITY — The top 10 Democratic candidates for president sparred in Houston Thursday night, and they talked much more about faith in government than faith in God.

Beyond one shoutout to faith-based values and a short Bible verse, candidates failed to draw upon religion as they laid out their visions for a better future. The lack of faith talk was notable in light of recent drama surrounding the Democratic Party’s relationship to God.

At a rally this week in Fayetteville, North Carolina, President Donald Trump called out Democrats for failing to serve the needs of religious Americans.

“The other side, not big believers in religion, I can tell you,” he said on Sept. 9.

Others, including a former Obama administration official, also criticized the Democratic Party this month for alienating people of faith with a resolution in support of nonreligious voters.

“There are Christians who would like to vote for Democrats and don’t want to feel like Democrats are sneering at them for their stupid, old-fashioned religiosity,” said Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University, to the Deseret News last week.

There was no sneering Thursday night, but there were also no direct appeals to religious voters. Some candidates alluded to religious concerns, but they did not address religion as openly as they have in previous debates or on the campaign trail.

During his opening remarks, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey referenced a “churchwoman” who served as a mentor soon after he began working in inner-city Newark, New Jersey, more than 20 years ago. He talked about her calls to be optimistic and recalled her saying “Without vision, the people will perish.”

Many people following the debate on Twitter noted that the quote comes from the book of Proverbs in the Bible.

Booker also referenced Bryan Stevenson, a Christian human rights activist who has fought for criminal justice reform, as he talked about systemic racism in the U.S. However, he did not talk about biblical calls to care for one another, as he has in the past.

Similarly, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, acknowledged that faith has a role to play in the immigration debate. We should let “our values, the values of faith that all argue for us to manage this humanely,” he said.

But he did not speak about what God would have to say about the Trump administration’s immigration policies, as he did during the first Democratic debate in June.

“And for a (Republican) party that associates itself with Christianity to say that it is OK, to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents ... that God would condone putting children in cages, it has lost all claim to ever use religious language again,” Buttigieg said on June 27.

Some listeners, including nonreligious Democrats, were likely relieved by the lack of God talk on Thursday night. The Democratic Party should avoid the Republican Party’s habit of bringing religion into practically every conversation, said Sarah Levin, director of governmental affairs for the Secular Coalition for America, to the Deseret News last week.

“We don’t want our politicians to position themselves as religious authorities,” she said.

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However, in a country where 90% of citizens believe in a higher power, candidates should be willing to reflect from time to time on the role of religion or spirituality in their own lives, as Prothero noted.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota did that when prompted to reflect on some of the toughest moments of their careers and lives.

Biden recalled how his faith helped him get through the death of family members and Klobuchar mentioned her father’s decision to lean on faith to overcome alcoholism.

“I feel like everyone should have that same right to be pursued by grace,” Klobuchar said.

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