Their faith is not influencing who they vote for.

There are many reasons to hate Donald Trump. He’s a bigot. He’s obnoxious. He’s endangering our country. However, I would be remiss to ignore perhaps the largest and most historic gift he has given this country: He proved in the most spectacular way possible that most Christians are complete bullshitters.

Many of us have known for some time that most Christians are bullshitters, and it has never been too hard to find examples of Christian hypocrisy or what have you. However, Donald Trump tested the Christian population like it’s never been tested before, and it failed miserably. He flagrantly presented himself as the polar opposite of what Christians claim to aspire to be, what they think our leaders should be like, and many Christian voters lined up to kiss his ring.

Let’s look at the numbers. When the election results came in, we learned that roughly 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump. Now, you could theoretically write that off as wishful thinking. You could say these voters were simply trying to ignore the Trump that was displayed during the election, because maybe they hoped he would be a better man once he was actually in charge and not simply trying to get votes. That theory falls apart when you look at the number of Christians who still support him months into his presidency. A Pew Poll from the end of April found around 78 percent approve of Trump.

What does this prove? As others have noted, it proves that these Christian voters care more about political issues they personally support than the Christian values they claim influence their politics. These people love to say that they feel a certain way about an issue because of their faith, but when push comes to shove, faith has nothing to do with who they support in the ballot box. They use faith as a shield while they vote immorally.

It should be obvious why Trump does not exemplify (alleged) Christian values, but let’s look at some examples. Trump has divorced multiple women. That’s a sin. Trump tried to sleep with a married woman and once pleaded the Fifth 97 times during a divorce trial when asked if he had been adulterous. He surely has, and that’s a sin. Trump has built an empire by stealing from people. That’s a sin. For Christ’s sake (writing that was a sin), Trump is basically the embodiment of the seven deadly sins. He’s envious, gluttonous, greedy, lustful, proud, lazy and wrathful. Yet, somehow, so many Christians love him.

You can’t even argue Christians would vote for Trump because he seems to be a devoted Christian. He could not name a verse from the Bible when asked which one was his favorite during the election, and he almost never goes to church. As an atheist, it’s almost rewarding for me to imagine that he secretly doesn’t believe in God, but I just can’t seem to get too excited about that thought.

One obvious reason these Christians might have bit their tongues and voted for Trump is the Supreme Court. Trump promised to appoint a Supreme Court justice who was anti-abortion during the campaign, and he certainly did that by appointing Gorsuch, but pretty much any Republican would have gone that direction. Furthermore, ignoring all of Trump’s sinful ways just to get a judge who hates abortion doesn’t seem very Christian. Perhaps it is a very Christian thing to do these days, based on what’s happened.

Even Pope Francis — the fucking Pope — said he didn’t think Trump was actually a Christian. Trump didn’t respond to this claim by being a humble and loyal Christian; He attacked the Pope as if he was just another one of his many enemies. Most Christians watched this happened and continued to support him.

I haven’t read the Bible in a while, but I don’t remember Jesus saying that you should refuse to help innocent refugees who are dying abroad. I don’t remember the Bible saying being “really rich” makes you a good Christian. In fact, it says the opposite. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” Jesus allegedly once said. Perhaps that question needs to be answered.

It’s not hard to show that Trump is not what Christians claim to admire. He’s the exact opposite of what they say a man should be. Yet they support him in droves, and it’s clear that their religion has very little to do with it. They support him because they’re afraid of immigrants or want taxes lowered or whatever other reason they’ve come up with. All of this is not to say people should be making political decisions based on their faith, because I don’t think they should, but if you’re going to cite your faith every time you make a political statement, you better actually follow what your faith preaches.