Why do evangelicals keep supporting Roy Moore?

Roy Moore is losing support among Republican members of Congress by the hour.

The Alabama GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate is falling in public opinion polls. The former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice has been tossed out of that office twice for failing to do the job he swore he would do.

Now he’s in real trouble. Several women have accused him of engaging in improper sexual behavior with them when they were underage girls.

Moore stands accused of pedophilia.

Here is the utterly astonishing aspect of this story: Moore’s base of voters comprising evangelical Christians is standing with him. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are saying the women’s accusations are more credible than Moore’s denials; one of the woman has said she’ll testify “under oath” and has urged Moore to do the same. Yet the candidate’s voting base stands by its man.

These are the same Americans who oppose gay marriage; they oppose a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions; they want to allow public educators to promote Christianity in public schools. These also are Americans who bellowed “Lock he up!” as unproven allegations dogged Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.

Yet they’re standing foursquare in support of someone who might have committed a felony by sexually abusing girls?

Go figure, man.