It’s safe to say that even before presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s recent “hot mic” controversy, the billionaire was about as disliked as a major party presidential candidate can get. Even a large percentage of his supporters fell lock-step behind him, not because of any overflow of love for the candidate, but more for their rather strong dislike of his opponent Hillary Clinton. A late August Quinnipiac poll found this to be the case, with 64% of respondents saying that their primary reason for supporting Trump was to take down Hillary Clinton. In comparison, only 41% of Clinton supporters said the reverse about Trump.

Still, many of Trump’s evangelical supporters placed their hopes in the candidate for very tangible and personal reasons, although in the process likely compromising no small amount of their integrity. Trump’s evangelical supporters are mostly betting on the statistically small chance that Trump will have the opportunity to stack the court with conservative judges who may be able to end abortion. But this hope rests in a confluence of events occurring, such as judge retirements or deaths, Trump’s judge picks getting through the confirmation process in Congress, a Congressional election that results in a majority of conservatives in both the House and the Senate, and at least one relevant abortion case actually making it before the Supreme Court.

For many of the conservative leaders and other longtime conservatives who dutifully took up the Trump mantle and who only barely clung to the idea of a Trump presidency anyway, when the “hot mic” recording dropped, so, too, did their support. America’s evangelicals have always had a hard time compromising their beliefs when mixing it up in the overwhelmingly secular world of politics. Even at his best, Trump represents the worst candidate that evangelicals could have conceivably supported. Yet the latest stink of Trump’s bout with ill repute is perhaps going to be the hardest to wash off, and the most difficult to justify, especially to non-Christians.

Against All Odds

In July, the Pew Research Center found that four-fifths of evangelicals had already thrown their support behind Donald Trump. Based on other research from Pew, that accounts for 36% of all registered voters, and even includes a fair number of registered Democrats as well as Republicans. Although only slightly higher, more evangelicals support Trump than supported Mitt Romney in 2012. That number was high but stood at 73%.

For a candidate who many believed could never become the Republican nominee, Donald Trump defied all odds to get to this point and to win the evangelical vote. Political statistician Nate Silver distinctly pooh-poohed Trump’s chances again and again in 2015 and in the earlier parts of 2016 leading up to the presidential primaries. In his November 2015 article, “Dear Media, Stop Freaking Out About Donald Trump’s Polls”, Silver wrote:

So, could Trump win? We confront two stubborn facts: first, that nobody remotely like Trump has won a major-party nomination in the modern era. And second, as is always a problem in the analysis of presidential campaigns, we don’t have all that many data points, so unprecedented events can occur with some regularity. For my money, that adds up to Trump’s chances being higher than 0 but (considerably) less than 20 percent. Your mileage may vary. But you probably shouldn’t rely solely on the polls to make your case; it’s still too soon for that.

In typical Nate Silver fashion, and in what is generally good statistical analysis anyway, Silver avoided going so far as to saying that Trump couldn’t win. Just that it was highly unlikely. After all, why would anyone believe that a man known for his open misogyny, his many failed and often vice-centric businesses, his multiple children by multiple wives, and his complete and utter lack of any substantial Biblical knowledge would actually garner the support of group that supported him so little only a year ago? Indeed, around this time in 2015, Trump had garnered only about 20% of the white evangelical vote.

Similarly, a September 2015 survey from World magazine of 100 evangelical pastors found that Trump was far from their top choice. In fact, he gained only 1 vote of those 100 pastors. Above him were Marco Rubio (37 votes), Ted Cruz (18 votes), Carly Fiorina (17 votes), Jeb Bush (7 votes), Ben Carson (3 votes), John Kasich (3 votes), and Mike Huckabee (2 votes). Even former Democratic governor Jim Webb had more votes than Trump, with 2. For these pastors, Trump was on even ground with Hillary Clinton, Lindsay Graham, and Scott Walker, all of whom received 1 vote as well.

Yet one year later, Donald Trump has not only secured the Republican nomination but somewhat miraculously turned the evangelical vote in his favor. And one must ask, how? How is it that a man of Trump’s known character, who has so little in common with American evangelicals, and for whom a vast majority of evangelicals outright despised during the presidential primary, managed to pull in so many?

There are only a few logical answers for this, one of which was mentioned already. First, and most understandably, are the single-issue voters placing their hopes in a candidate who has espoused a belief in the right to life for unborn children. The percent of Americans who support the right to life has grown 10 percent since 1995, from 33% to 44% of the American population. Many liken abortion to other such tragedies as slavery and Hitler’s mass genocide of the Jews during World War II. If science does indeed determine when life truly begins or decides on an answer to that question at some point in the future, it will likely increase that percentage of people who see abortion, at least in some part, as not only abhorrent but a national stain on our society.

For those voters, the right to life has become not just an important issue, but the only issue which concerns them for a candidate. This has never been truer this year, as Hillary Clinton, a known pro-choice supporter, is the primary candidate for the Democratic party. As such, many pro-life voters who likely hoped they would never have to support Trump still do anyway.

Yet the website Prolife Profiles, which provides somewhat detailed rankings on public officials and politicians in relation to their pro-life stance, puts Trump at dismal Tier 4. It certainly doesn’t help that prior to running for the Republican ticket, Trump described himself as “very pro-choice”. Admittedly, he also stated, “I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for, I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject.” Nevertheless, he finished that statement by explaining, “…but still I just believe in choice.”

Alternatively, there are many voters for whom the vote is clear. Trump is running under the Republican ticket, and he’s not Clinton. The conservative dislike of the Clintons runs deeper than and more strongly than what may seem logical at times. And many conservatives see keeping Clinton out of the office as the real moral imperative, with little regard to who they’re voting to see that outcome realized. The only real qualification many require is that the candidate have an “R” by their name and espouse the bare minimum of party platform. On that end, Trump satisfies the most basic requirements for a large swath of Republican voters.

Trump is the Evangelical Crisis of Conscience

In many ways, Trump represents the crisis of conscience many evangelicals feared when they were presented with the option of voting for a Mormon, or a potential Democratic candidate who may or may not have been a secret Muslim. At the time, most, but not as many, held their nose and voted for Romney. Yet even more were willing to do the same to side with Trump, a man of much more questionable character and far fewer instances of remorse or repentance for those character flaws.

Trump’s “hot mic” controversy has many evangelicals re-evaluating their support, and with good reason. That support was tenuous at best, and more likely more driven by anti-Clinton sentiments than a pro-Trump sentiment. The slow bleed of Trump’s support has likely only begun, although there will still be many hangers-on among evangelicals still wistfully hoping a man mostly defined by his penchant for telling falsehoods will somehow live up to his word and reverse an over 40-year-old piece of legislation. And given the stark differences between Trump and his evangelical supporters, one must wonder: If Satan himself promised to end abortion or keep Clinton out of office, would he, too, garner just as much support?