That they held their noses and voted, hoping he would advance their policy priorities and accomplish their goals.

But beneath all this, there is another explanation. One that is more raw and fundamental.

Evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly. White straight married couples with children who go to church regularly are no longer the American mainstream. An entire way of life, one in which their values were dominant, could be headed for extinction. And Mr. Trump offered to restore them to power, as though they have not been in power all along.

You are always only one generation away from losing Christianity, said Micah Schouten, who was born and raised in Sioux Center, recalling something a former pastor used to say. If you dont teach it to your children it ends. It stops right there.

Ultimately Mr. Trump recognized something, said Lisa Burg, a longtime resident of nearby Orange City. It is a reason she thinks people will still support him in November.

The one group of people that people felt like they could dis and mock and put down had become the Christian. Just the middle-class, middle-American Christians, Ms. Burg said. That was the one group left that you could just totally put down and call deplorable. And he recognized that, You know what? Yeah, its OK that we have our set of values, too. I think people finally said, Yes, we finally have somebody thats willing to say were not bad, we need to have a voice too.

Explained Jason Mulder, who runs a small design company in Sioux Center: I feel like on the coasts, in some of the cities and stuff, they look down on us in rural America. You know, we are a bunch of hicks, and dont know anything. They dont understand us the same way we dont understand them. So we dont want them telling us how to live our lives.

He added: You joke that we dont get it, well, you dont get it either. We are not speaking the same language.

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Christianity Will Have Power - The New York Times