The new “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition will launch Friday night in Miami, and both the liberal left and the Never Trump right are reacting as though pro-Trump Christians are a contradiction. To them, it’s like joining a free-speech group for censorship or criminals for better law enforcement. They argue that evangelicals who support President Trump are “losing their moral witness” or that Christian virtue has no place in government.

This argument presumes that standing for Trump is inherently inconsistent with a real Christian witness. That premise must be rejected fully as a “straw man” argument — an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is easier to defeat than our real argument. If we allow the redefinition of “moral witness” and basic tenets of our Christian faith, we are losing the argument before we’ve even spoken.