Religious Conservatives and Donald Trump — the Cheapest Date in Politics?

David French:

Hillary Clinton’s nomination speech at the Democratic National Convention put a capstone on perhaps the worst political week for religious conservatives in living memory. It began a week ago at Republican convention, where one featured speaker mocked the “fake culture wars” and the thrice-married GOP nominee didn’t even deign to mention abortion and confined his support of religious liberty to the right of pastors to politic from the pulpit — hardly the most burning issue of our time.

The hits kept coming as the Libertarian party’s Gary Johnson foreclosed the possibility of a meaningful protest vote by breaking with decades of libertarian orthodoxy to declare that religious freedom “as a category” is a “black hole.” His extended remarks are, in fact, mind-boggling:

I mean under the guise of religious freedom, anybody can do anything. Back to Mormonism. Why shouldn’t somebody be able to shoot somebody else because their freedom of religion says that God has spoken to them and that they can shoot somebody dead?

There’s a word for this — idiotic. That’s the kind of reasoning one hears from freshman campus radicals, not from two-term former governors, and it betrays not only a complete history of centuries of religious-liberty jurisprudence but also a hostility to people of faith that’s simply breathtaking.

So, no, Gary Johnson isn’t a viable choice, religious conservatives.

Then, of course, came the Democratic Convention and Hillary Clinton. While Hillary certainly made a play for voters who are terrified of Donald Trump, her message to religious conservatives was clear — the culture war continues. She supports taxpayer-funded abortion on demand and will doubtless double down on the LGBT social revolution. The liberty and autonomy of churches, religious schools, and religious individuals is in grave peril.

In other words, when it comes to the culture war, the Democrats’ message is “charge!” The Republican message is “retreat!” And the Libertarian nominee quite simply seems to hate Christians.

It’s time to consider the long game. A vote for Hillary is lunacy. She’ll take Christians’ votes, use them to build a mandate, and then use that mandate to undermine religious liberty and advance a culture of death. A vote for Trump is a declaration that people of faith are the cheapest date in the history of American politics.

A political movement built through decades of argument that faith, family, and respect for life are the cornerstones of our culture can’t throw away its political capital on the altar of a man who — best case — simply doesn’t care and — worst case — will wreck the Christian political witness by tying their support to a dangerous, race-baiting pathological liar.

There is an alternative. Christians can preserve their witness — and maintain their political capital — by voting only for those candidates who demonstrate sincere commitment to life and religious liberty. That means fighting to preserve conservative congressional majorities and using their platforms to elevate politicians of sincere conviction to prepare for the next campaign season. The message should be clear — if you’re not with us, you’re not winning.

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