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The strong support of evangelical "family values" conservatives was key to Donald Trump's victory, a fact that has bewildered many observers, including a number of evangelicals themselves. But white evangelical support for Trump should come as no surprise. For decades evangelicals have defined masculinity in increasingly militaristic terms, trading a faith that privileges humility and elevates the least of these for one that derides gentleness as the province of wusses. White evangelical support for Trump can be seen as the culmination of a decades-long embrace of machismo; in this way Trump does not represent the betrayal of evangelical values, but their fulfillment.

Kristin Du Mez is Professor of History at Calvin College and author of A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism (Oxford, 2015). She is currently working on two projects: Journey of Faith: Hillary Clinton and the Polarization of American Christianity, and Onward Christian Warriors: Evangelical Masculinity and the Rise of Donald Trump.

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