In an historic editorial the senior editors of The Christian Post -- which they describe as "the most popular evangelical news website in the United States and the world" - declared that "Trump does not represent the interests of evangelicals and would be a dangerous leader for our country."

The CP editorial called Trump "a misogynist and philanderer," an admirer of dictators, and a man who refused to quickly "disavow" the racism of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. He has a history of "untruthfulness, questionable business practices, reported association with organized crime, and abrupt changes in fundamental positions." Take that Jerry Falwell Jr., one of the few evangelical leaders who have endorsed Trump!

To the surprise of many, Trump continues to pull a darn good percentage of evangelical voters. To Randall Balmer, it appears that evangelical leaders are reaping what they've been sowing for nearly four decades.

Writing an Op-Ed for the Los Angeles Times, a not-so-surprised Randall Balmer pointed out that: "Over the last several decades, they have devolved from theological guardians to political operatives." Thanks to the likes of the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, evangelicals were encouraged to get involved with politics.

"When evangelicals organized in the 1970s to defend the tax-exempt status of racially segregated schools, they cast their lot with the far-right fringes of the Republican Party, and thus began a series of theological and cultural compromises that led them first to a film star and lately to a reality TV star," maintained Balmer, the John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College and the author of more than a dozen books, including "Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter."

Evangelicals voting for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election indicated that they could overlook his divorce, lack of church attendance, and his Hollywood background. Sounding eerily similar to the blathering of thrice-married Trump, Reagan insisted he was opposed to abortion despite the fact that "as governor of California, he had signed the most liberal abortion bill in the nation," Balmer noted.

"He also wooed religious conservatives by ridiculing evolution and declaring that if he were stranded on an island, the one book he'd want was the Bible," Balmer wrote.

"As the religious right gained influence, evangelicals became the Republican Party's most reliable constituency.... By the time George W. Bush took office, they had indisputably lost their prophetic voice. Although the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan failed to meet even the barest criteria for a just war, evangelicals supported these actions, and they raised no objections to the use of torture or the implementation of economic policies that overwhelmingly favored the affluent."

In a recent column for The New York Daily News, Shaun King maintained that the "vulgar, offensive, and dangerous" Trump "has won over the majority of evangelical voters not because he is authentically Christian, but because Christianity for millions of white evangelicals in America is simply white supremacy in disguise."

At this point, I am not sure it matters that Pope Francis called Trump "not Christian" over his anti-immigrant stance, or that numerous evangelicals leaders are supporting either Texas Senator Ted Cruz, or Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

As King pointed out, "in a recent NY Times Op-Ed, Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian expert in ethics who has worked in the past three Republican administrations, wrote: "Part of the explanation is that many evangelicals feel increasingly powerless, beaten down, aggrieved and under attack. A sense of resentment, or a `narrative of injury,' is leading them to look for scapegoats to explain their growing impotence. People filled with anger and grievances are easily exploited. As the great Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote, `We must picture hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement and where everyone has a grievance.' Enter Donald Trump, alpha male.'"

To rank and file evangelicals, it appears that Donald Trump represents the muscular type of Christianity that evangelical leaders have been calling for over the past several decades. These leaders, however, had no idea that their flocks would be flexing their muscles and moving in a totally different direction.