In 1689 John Locke noted, wryly:
the Church … is for the most part more apt to be influenced by the Court than the Court by the Church. How the Church was under the vicissitude of orthodox and Arian emperors is very well known. Or if those things be too remote, our modern English history affords us fresh examples in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, how easily and smoothly the clergy changed their decrees, their articles of faith, their form of worship, everything according to the inclination of those kings and queens.*
So we must note a recent smooth change of attitude toward sexual immorality among Republican-voting Christians. Five years ago, only a minority believed that “an elected official can behave ethically even if they have committed transgressions in their personal life.”
In 2011, a Democrat was president. But in November 2016 Donald Trump was the soon-to-be elected Republican candidate for president. And a comfortable majority of Republican-voting Christians had changed their minds.
Yes, the smooth changes involve many Democrats too, whether religious or not, especially those who downplayed Bill Clinton’s sexual activities while attacking Clarence Thomas’s sexual talk, or those who excused Clinton but attacked Trump.
Politics trumps ethics — for most people, Locke’s point holds over 300 years later.
* John Locke, A Letter concerning Toleration (1689).