Controversial preachers at Jerusalem event symbolise the Christian right’s pact with a president who has sinned, but also delivered

It was a historic and bloody day for Israel but also a deeply revealing moment in US domestic politics. At the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, a prayer and a benediction were given by two Christian evangelicals from Texas notorious for insulting other religions.

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The selection of pastors Robert Jeffress and John Hagee was a sign of how for some Christians, the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is consistent with the biblical prophecy of the second coming of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Rapture, or end times.

For others on the Christian right, it was an important show of solidarity with the hardline Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

But it was also illustrative of how central the evangelical constituency has become to Donald Trump’s support. And the daily barrage of scandals around the US president – including an alleged affair with the pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels – has done nothing to shake their faith.

Indeed, a survey last month by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that white evangelical support for Trump is at an all-time high, with three in four holding a favourable view of the president. This level of support was well above support in the general population, where Trump’s favourability is at 42%.

Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and pollster, said: “They acknowledge there are issues with him but it’s his willingness to fight against their enemies that makes them so supportive.”

Such voters typically back Republicans because of their conservative views on social issues such as abortion rights and homosexuality.

During the 2016 Republican primary campaign, many initially flocked to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a diehard conservative. According to the PRRI, Trump’s favourability among white evangelicals never reached 50% during the primary season.

But as Cruz’s candidacy collapsed in the face of Trump’s populist onslaught, many rallied to the New York businessman and TV celebrity’s side. By early autumn 2016, his favourability had jumped to 61%.

Not even the release of the Access Hollywood tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s private parts, cost him support among voters who regarded him as preferable to Hillary Clinton.

Unlike Cruz, Trump was able to build a coalition of aggrieved white working-class voters in the midwest – resentful of trade deals and so-called coastal elites – with white Christian evangelicals anxious about religion’s place in society. Luntz added: “It comes from a fear of where the culture’s headed and an inability to stop it. These are not angry voters. This is not driven by economics; this is driven by values.”

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Trump, 71, attended church as a boy but seems to lack deep religious convictions. A Slate article last month reckoned that he has violated at least three of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Yet Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, ignored his father’s advice to become one of his most outspoken defenders.

The paradox was writ large at a recent national day of prayer commemoration in the White House rose garden. After the president signed an executive order to establish a faith-based office and the ceremony wrapped up, a journalist shouted: “Why are you changing your story on Stormy Daniels?”

A member of the audience rebuked: “Shame on you!”

Some evangelicals explain the situation in terms of God having often recruited imperfect people to fulfil his perfect will. Jerry Falwell Jr, president of evangelical college Liberty University, said: “God called King David a man after God’s own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer,” adding, “I think evangelicals have found their dream president.”

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Another explanation is offered by Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and father of the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders.

“We also don’t hold people to unreasonable standards of perfection because we realize there was only one perfect person among us, and that was 2,000 years ago,” he wrote in an email newsletter.

“We tend to judge people more by their current actions, and there’s no question that Trump has been the best President at protecting religious liberties since … well, possibly ever. Many Presidents have paid lip service to protecting religious freedom but not taken much action. Trump didn’t just make campaign promises, he’s keeping and surpassing them.”

From this point of view, Jerusalem is just the latest promise kept.