Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton wouldn’t have been possible without the support of white evangelical voters. For nearly four decades, white evangelicals have been a mainstay of the Republican party, and that’s no small matter. By some estimates, one in four voters fit that demographic, meaning that white evangelicals constitute one of the GOP’s most reliable voting blocs.

This election was no exception to the rule. Exit polls suggest that four out of five white evangelicals turned out as usual and cast their lot with Trump. What seems different this time, however, is the candidate for whom they voted. Since Jerry Falwell Sr founded the “moral majority” in 1979, white evangelicalism has sought to position itself as the moral voice of the nation. For the most part, that has translated into unwavering support for socially conservative politicians and policies, undergirded by a strong sense of individual piety. Hence the designation of white evangelicals as “values voters”.

Trump, by most accounts, deviates sharply from this norm. As The Atlantic’s Jonathan Merritt has succinctly put it, “Donald Trump is immodest, arrogant, foul-mouthed, money-obsessed, thrice-married, and until recently, pro-choice,” all of which flies in the face of professed evangelical standards. Combined with his often-overt misogyny, racism, and xenophobia, Trump seems more than a far cry from the Jesus whom evangelicals claim to love and preach.

Throughout his campaign and now after, the apparent contradiction between Trump and so-called evangelical values has been the focus of much of the commentariat. Some prominent evangelicals to their credit sought all along to raise the red flag, urging their flock to think twice about lining up behind Trump. Less sympathetic observers have understandably charged white evangelicals with blatant partisan hypocrisy.

Such criticisms make some sense, but they don’t take us very far in understanding white evangelicalism as a social and political phenomenon. Evangelicals may very well consider themselves “values voters”, but the emphasis has never really been on the perceived moral uprightness or religious bona fides of the candidate in question. It’s always nice when the two appear to line up, but the heart of contemporary white evangelicalism lies in advocating for a specific, right-leaning set of social policies. More important than individual proclivities is stemming the tide of what they see as widespread cultural decay.

Trump’s nostalgia-laden promise to “Make America great again” hit the right note in this respect. For many white evangelicals, a great America is a Christian America, and a Christian America is one whose laws are socially conservative and geared towards evangelical identity.

Traditionally, much of the focus has been on anti-abortion politics and issues related to so-called family values and religious freedom, and Trump sounded all the right notes here. He also smartly solidified himself as a friend to evangelicals by choosing Mike Pence, a socially conservative, evangelical Catholic, as his running mate.

Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, racially charged rhetoric played right into the hands of white evangelicals as well. Although white evangelicals may often express a desire to love their neighbours as themselves, in reality the commandment is selectively applied. Anyone considered and deemed a threat to evangelical self-understanding, which includes a narrow vision of what America looks like, is on the other side of the fabled “culture war”. At the end of the day, that war is based in a particular conception of whiteness, filtered through the lens of religious identity and social conservatism. It’s not surprising, then, that four out of five latched on.

I’m sure most white evangelicals would balk at the charge of racial politics, but the overall motivation in backing Trump has never been much of a secret. It’s safe to say that for many evangelicals, Trump never represented any sort of ideal, and most weren’t under any illusion about the direction of his moral compass. But for white evangelicals, God works even through the imperfect, and God’s work must – and will – be done.

The “work” involved this time around is as old as the moral majority: it’s about protecting some modicum of evangelical identity and social values against a perceived onslaught of antagonistic liberalism. More specifically in regard to this election, white evangelical support for Trump was and is all about appointing conservative, evangelical-friendly judges to the supreme court. It’s also about enacting laws that they hope will put a stop to what they consider as threats to religious freedom, even if the latter border on discrimination. White evangelicals, in other words, are playing the long game, and that has nothing to do with who Trump is as an individual.

That may all sound hypocritical, but that’s just what white evangelicalism is in the US. Although laden with the rhetoric of personal piety, it is primarily a social and political phenomenon, and we would do well to view it in such terms. As this election has made clear, white evangelicals will also stop at nothing in their attempt to establish their version of a “Christian America”. That includes supporting someone like Trump, who told them exactly what they wanted to hear. It was a match made in heaven.