Of course, I don’t mean that Sanders subscribes to Christian ideas about faith and salvation, or even believes that Jesus of Nazareth was anything more than a famous itinerant preacher. In that sense, he is clearly less Christian than any of his rivals. Hillary Clinton is a Methodist, Donald Trump a Presbyterian, and John Kasich an American Anglican who grew up Catholic. Ted Cruz is a Southern Baptist.

But when it comes to the Christian imperative of helping the poor and the sick and the needy — all fundamental elements of Jesus’ preaching — Sanders, more than anyone in the race, speaks about government having a moral obligation to help those in need. In promoting the deeply Christian principles that are actually germane to governing a country, Sanders is talking the Jesus talk better than his Christian rivals.

Indeed, if the proudly greedy Donald Trump is the Gordon Gekko in the 2016 race, Bernie Sanders might just be the Pope Francis candidate.