Keep politicians out of the pulpit

It is a staple of election campaigns today–particularly closely-fought contests. The candidates go to church. And not just for a Clinton-esque Bible-in-hand photo-op, but they actually take to the pulpit and make speeches.
And so it is hardly unexpected that now that Ned Lamont has taken a 51-47 lead over Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary and picked up the endorsement of the New York Times (less an endorsement of Lamont than a repudiation of Lieberman, which is typical of the way this primary battle has gone), both candidates made appearances in Connecticut churches yesterday to kick off their last full week of campaigning.
I always find this strongly distasteful. While it is the right–even the duty–of a pastor or priest to speak out on moral issues at the center of political battles–abortion, civil rights, gay marriage (pro or con)–to cede the pulpit to a candidate making a campaign speech (and to welcome the news media into the church for the event) is to abandon the purpose of the church. Furthermore, I question whether such appearances are actually helpful for the candidates, or if the majority of swing voters interpret the church visits as shameless attention-grabbing.
Speaking of the Connecticut primary, I wonder whether the Lieberman camp ever considered trying to get Republicans to switch their registration to Democrat to vote for Lieberman–as Ed Rendell did in the 2002 Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial primary?