One of the most puzzling aspects of Donald Trump’s presidency has been the persistent devotional support of conservative Christians, including evangelicals.

Given his personal lifestyle, which by any measure is the antithesis of Christian principles and practices, one would expect wholesale condemnation of Trump. Instead, evangelicals act as if Trump is a modern St. Paul.

As one evangelical told the Washington Post, Trump is like St. Paul who, though he “murdered Christians . . . went on to minister to many, many people. I think he’s being molded by God for the role. I think he’s the right man for the right time. It’s about the survival of the Christian nation.”

Translated, that means evangelicals are willing to sell their Christian birthright for a mess of . . . well, Trump’s mess. Forget religious principles when one can get a conservative U.S. Supreme Court and a congregation of top judicial appointments with the hope of overturning Roe vs Wade, same-sex marriage and other liberal offenses to the evangelical mind.

Although Trump has shown no inclination to hit the road to Damascus, because he plays to their racial, social and religious anxieties, he seems incapable of offending evangelicals. How is this possible when Trump is guilty of violating so many of the seven cardinal sins, to say nothing of Moses’ and Jesus’ commandments?

For many evangelicals, Trump’s lies, adultery, sleazy business practices, sexual abuse and deceptions are not enough for them to abandon him. Nor would they leave him if Trump were found guilty of collusion with the Russians. None of this—nor all of it together—persuades evangelicals to abandon Trump. To the contrary, they celebrate him as one of their own.

This was no more evident than at the love fest between Trump and evangelical pastors and leaders held at the White House on Aug. 27 in which they paid tribute to Trump. As one reported, they rose “to speak love to power (Trump).”

As Baptist pastor Jack Graham said, “It was very similar to a meeting that you would have at a church. … We believe the spirit of God was very present. Scripture was shared, verses were given to the president. The truth was delivered, and love was delivered.”

For Jesus, few if any sins were as great as hypocrisy, and yet evangelical support of Trump is laden with it. As Jonathan Merritt wrote in The Atlantic in 2016: “Since the late 1970s, conservative Christian leaders have claimed their political engagement is about morality, … character and … values. They have claimed it is about biblical principles. Pious preachers, thunderous televangelists, and moralizing activists have sold America a bill of goods about their pure motivation for decades. But evidence indicates that evangelical political engagement is really about cultural influence, social dominance, and power.”

Evangelicals, like many other conservative Christians, seem open to a loose observance of their ethical standards to accommodate behavior in the president they would not tolerate in others. According to religious historian Randall Balmer, “The religious right’s wholesale embrace of the Republican party and of Donald J. Trump, both as candidate and as president, has necessitated a rewriting of evangelical ethics.”

Evangelicals seem willing to turn two blind eyes to the whited sepulcher in the White House in exchange for their version and vision of America, even if it is at the expense of other freedoms for other Americans. They seem willing to claim that the slough of despond surrounding the Trump presidency is their shining city set on a hill.

Robert Rees teaches religion at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Clifton Jolley is a writer and communications consultant living in Ogden, Utah.