The obvious example these days is, of course, the now-notorious reverend Wright. Obama, a member of Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ for the past 20 years, had to recently disavow his relationship with the often fiery minister lest his bid for the White House become sabotaged.

Since Wright's statements were made several weeks ago, he has since retired from the church. Had he not retired, Obama told CNN reporters he would have left the congregation.

But this isn't the only example of how a candidate's religion ­– or views on other religions – can shape a campaign.

Last September (months before the pundits were predicting that John McCain would effectively clench the Republican presidential nomination) the Arizona Senator told a reporter from BeliefNet.com that he would feel more comfortable electing a Christian president over an Islamic one.

A few months later, when Mitt Romney was still vying for the nomination, a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor asked him whether he would consider appointing a Muslim to a cabinet position were he to win the general election.

Romney answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."

A few weeks ago, a small church in Jonesville, S.C. put up a sign that read, "Obama Osama Humm Are They Brothers?"

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America, says all of these examples are extremely offensive to the Muslim American community.

Mattson, who spoke at the St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. on Wednesday night for a New Hampshire Humanities Council event, said she has been watching the campaign season closely and, on the whole, has been disappointed.

"When Barack Obama was accused of being a secret Muslim and it's characterized as an insult and as a smear on his character, well what does that mean for people who are Muslim?  So what, what if he were? What does that say about us? Could you say that about any other religious group? Replace the word Jew with Muslim and it's so offensive."

Furthermore, Mattson (the first woman and the first Islamic convert to lead the ISNA) said that examples like these send a derogatory message to rest of the Muslim world, too.

"So it's been really disheartening and of course Muslims throughout the world are watching thispresidential primary season and the campaigns very closely and they're paying attention to all of this language and we have to understand what it does. It not only alienates Muslim Americans and makes them feel strange in our country but it also sends a very bad message to the rest of the world. And it'd be great to see some more leadership on this issue."

Several weeks ago, when I interviewed Ray Buckley, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, he told me that most of the population is "emotional" when it comes to voting. In other words, they base their decisions on one of these hot-bed issues (abortion rights, gay marriage, religion) when often, these issues never come into play while the politician is in office.

It makes you think: for a country that separates its government and its religious preferences, how important is a candidate's faith?

If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more, here's a great Web site with tons of information: www.pewforum.org/religion08/