(CNN)The second presidential debate was overshadowed this weekend by the release of a 2005 videotape in which Donald Trump bragged about being famous enough to get away with sexual assault. Pressed by moderator Anderson Cooper during the debate, Trump said he was not proud of his words, but dismissed them as "locker room talk" before trying to pivot to a discussion of ISIS.
While many Republican Party insiders have calculated that it's too late to get off the Trump train, a line-up of so-called "Christian conservatives" -- a crucial base of support for Trump in every national poll -- stepped forward this weekend to say they can no longer support candidate Trump. "I cannot commend Trump's moral character," evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem wrote, withdrawing his endorsement of the Republican candidate.
Today's religious freedom advocates want just the opposite. An obsession with sex has compelled them to turn the very definition of religious freedom against itself. In the name of their religious convictions, they have supported candidates who promise to oppose civil marriage for gay people, to allow discrimination in business based on sexuality, and to prohibit transgender neighbors access to public accommodations. They embraced Trump because he was willing to endorse this violent imposition of their religious convictions on all Americans. These same people, however, cannot stomach the fact that Trump has talked about violently imposing his own desires on women like their wives and daughters. They are right, of course, to stand up and say Trump cannot be allowed the power of the presidency. But it is little comfort to hear them suggesting that a more "reasonable" person should stand in his place to implement policies that exert violence against poor women of color, women without access to health care, and women who happened to be born somewhere else.
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