A vote for Trump is a vote for the Right, but not for God.

It disturbs me that the terms Republican, Evangelical and godly are now all but synonymous. So much so, God-fearing Christians will vote for a Republican nominee whose lifestyle resembles Haman more closely than it does Mordecai.

What people really mean by this is, “I’m not voting Democrat.”

It is disturbing that Christians (myself included, historically) take this reasoning when it flies wholly in the face of Scripture.

The call to Christian discipleship is personal, communal, and radical. It should imbue our public and private lives with applied holiness. Yet Jesus was abundantly clear that his call — and Christianity’s mission — was to discipline people’s hearts, not to gerrymander their electorates.

The Apostles were unswerving in the character requirements of anyone who sought to lead in church and community life. The husband of but one wife, not given to much wine, takes care of their parents, and so on. In short, they are a person of character and substance. Nowhere is their political inclination even mentioned. The whole canon of scripture is devoted to the concept of relationship with God, service to man, and growth in character.

The amount of hatred upended on Hillary Clinton by Evangelicals is breathtaking. They openly call her a bitch. Given they eschew hate speech of women, why?

Is the issue she’s not a Republican? Say what you will about her alleged complicity in any one of her husband’s indiscretions, you can say the same about Trump (and much, much more).

Is Hillary corrupt? Maybe. But Trump is brazenly, unrepentantly, repeatedly corrupt.

Have the Clintons shown poor judgement? Probably. Has Trump? Seriously? The question is hysterical.

On every measure of character, Trump fails so appallingly that any mention of the Clintons (or even Nixon) by comparison is philosophically and rationally repugnant. To say Trump has character is to misunderstood the word completely. If Trump is not unfit for office, no-one is. This is self-evident.

Yet Evangelicals still back the man, pussy-grabbing notwithstanding.

At what point, people? At what point do we look at this and go, “I may not vote for Hillary, but I simply can’t hold my Bible open and say I’m voting for Trump on family values.” These are words Trump has the plainest disdain for: it would be a disservice to him to suggest otherwise. The man is an out-and-out liar, con, and cheat. The idea that Trump as Commander in Chief will be a boon for faithfulness in marriage, sound fiscal policy or adroit foreign affairs management is a delusion. Like…really?

American Evangelicals aren’t voting for character, they’re voting Republican.

Which is fine.

But Jesus didn’t die so we could vote Republican. He died so we could know God.

Wesley said we should refrain from becoming sharp in our spirit about people who vote differently to us. His comments were never more timely.

That said, this election, Evangelicals who vote for Trump should have the self-knowledge to no longer say, “we vote Christian.”

They should say, “we vote Republican.”