BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Former President Bill Clinton this week urged candidates to put aside what he called the politics of division and personal destruction in order to create a better society for all people. Clinton spoke in Washington at Georgetown University, his alma mater:

President BILL CLINTON: Ideological, divisive, demonizing, distracting politics -- they may be very good for an election, particularly when people feel unsettled and insecure, but they don't do much to advance the common good.

BOB ABERNETHY: That term "common good" comes from Catholic social teaching, and it has become a major theme for Democrats this campaign season. Party strategists believe talking about the common good will resonate with people of faith but not offend secular supporters. Overall, Democrats have not fared well with religious voters in recent elections. Surveys have shown the more often people attended religious services, the more likely they were to vote Republican. As Kim Lawton reports, the Democrats have begun a wide-ranging new effort to change that.

Rep. SHERROD BROWN (Senate Candidate, OH, during speech): As a Lutheran, I do not claim to know God's perfect will, but as a public servant I've tried to do what is right.

KIM LAWTON: There's been a lot of God talk on the campaign trail this year, but in a major shifting of gears much of it is now coming from Democrats.

ROBERT CASEY, Jr. (Senate Candidate, PA, during speech): There is a beautiful definition of faith in the book of Hebrews…

Senator BARACK OBAMA (D-IL): My Bible tells me that if we train a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not turn from it.

LAWTON: In recent years, the Democratic Party has struggled over how to deal with religion. Many Democratic leaders rarely spoke about faith and appeared uncomfortable whenever they did. And while Republicans actively mobilized inside churches, Democratic campaigns were often reluctant to reach out to people of faith.

Professor Clyde Wilcox teaches government at Georgetown University in Washington.

Prof. CLYDE WILCOX (Georgetown University): As the Christian right began to dominate the Republican Party discourse at some level, the Democrats then began to pull back on the religious rhetoric and began to use it less effectively.

LAWTON: Democrats continue to have a big perception problem when it comes to religion. According to a recent Pew Forum survey, while almost half of all Americans think the Republican Party is friendly toward religion, only 26 percent say the Democratic Party is. That's a sharp decline from just three years ago. And even among Democrats themselves, only about 40 percent think their party is friendly toward religion.

Prof. WILCOX: They fully understand this is a problem, and there's a couple of efforts now in town for think tanks to begin to study the problem -- do surveys, do focus groups to try to figure out how they can frame authentically religious issues in ways that are appealing to Democrats but also don't turn off some other Democratic voters.

LAWTON: Illinois Senator Barack Obama has been one of the most high-profile Democrats to do this, and he is actively urging his fellow Democrats not to run away from faith.

Sen. OBAMA (during speech): Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square.

LAWTON: Eric Sapp is a senior partner at Common Good Strategies, a new consulting firm that tries to help Democrats improve their outreach to religious communities across the spectrum.

ERIC SAPP (Senior Partner, Common Good Strategies): We are trying to create relationships, let people know authentically who we are, let them know that the Democratic Party is open to people of faith.

LAWTON: Some Democratic candidates, such as Maryland gubernatorial hopeful Martin O'Malley, have been holding listening meetings with local clergy.

Mr. SAPP: Earlier on in the campaign, many of them just sat down with people of faith saying, "I want to hear what is important to you. I'm not going to preach to you. I'm not going to try to campaign to you. I just want to listen."

LAWTON: And in addition to talking about their personal faith, more and more Democrats are openly tying their political positions to their beliefs. Congressman Sherrod Brown is running for the Senate in Ohio.

Rep. BROWN: It's no leap of faith for me to get from the New Testament and the Old Testament to progressive social justice issues and concerns. It's why I fight for fair trade; it's why I fight for minimum wage; it's why I want to figure out a way, as quickly as possible, to get us out of Iraq.

Prof. WILCOX: I think one of the things the Democrats are trying to say is that their faith leads them to important values also. Faith leads to more than just attitudes on abortion and same-sex marriage.

LAWTON: Senator John Kerry admits many Democrats have not always done this well, including himself.

Senator JOHN KERRY (D-MA): There are people of extraordinary range of faith on both sides of the political aisle in America. But on our side there's been a greater reluctance to push that in a religious context in the public sector. I think we have to make clear how we are in fact translating our faith into the moral choices that we make.

LAWTON: In a September speech at Pepperdine, a Christian university in California, Kerry laid out his vision of how faith can -- and should -- play a role in public life. It was much more detailed than what he discussed during his run for the presidency.

Prof. WILCOX: There were a lot of people who were urging him to talk much more early in the campaign about his faith, which was real, and to talk about how his faith intersected with politics. His advisors told him this was risky because of the abortion issue and maybe he should just not talk about it at all. I think that was a mistake.

Sen. KERRY: When someone asked me are you sorry that you didn't give this speech during the campaign, I said no, because during a campaign it's not sort of the appropriate moment at least to begin that conversation.