The editor-in-chief of Christianity Today posted a provocative editorial that concludes “Christian faith” was the clear loser in the Alabama special election.

“No matter the outcome of today’s special election in Alabama for a coveted US Senate seat, there is already one loser: Christian faith. When it comes to either matters of life and death or personal commitments of the human heart, no one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation,” the editorial explained. “Christianity’s integrity is severely tarnished.”

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Democrat Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore in the special election.

The editorial noted the Alabama special election, “put an exclamation point on a problem that has been festering for a year and a half—ever since a core of strident conservative Christians began to cheer for Donald Trump without qualification and a chorus of other believers decried that support as immoral.”

“The Christian leaders who have excused, ignored, or justified his unscrupulous behavior and his indecent rhetoric have only given credence to their critics who accuse them of hypocrisy,” the editorial continued.

“When a public Christian is accused of some immorality, the honorable and moral thing to do has been to take a leave of absence until the matter of settled,” Christianity Today noted. “This is precisely what Moore, who sees himself as a godly and moral candidate, has refused to do.”

The Republicanism of some evangelical Christians harms the gospel of Jesus, the editorial argued.

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“When combative conservative Christians refuse to suffer patiently in the public square, retaliate when insults are hurled at them, and do not refrain from the appearance of evil, they sabotage not only their political cause but the cause they care about the most: the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Christianity Today concluded.

Read the powerful editorial.