For the first time in several election cycles, and certainly in my lifetime, there is no clear choice for evangelical voters in the upcoming presidential election.

I’m going to lay all my cards on the table and say what I think has been going on, and what will happen in November if Trump and Clinton are the nominees.

To this point I think there has been a deliberate effort to prop Trump up as the presumptive nominee for Republicans. The media has done a fantastic job of propping Trump up by giving him far more coverage than any other candidate; when there were more candidates in the race. When you look at some of the outlandish things Trump has said it is hard to believe he is still in the race. That is, unless that was the plan all along.

What if this was the goal: to make Trump the nominee over all the other serious candidates. Standing next to Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, Trump is a caricature that is hard to take seriously. And somehow, he ended up as the last man standing. And while some would have us believe that Trump can beat Clinton, I think that is a serious error in judgment.

Why would the media pay so much attention to a caricature like Trump? The media gave Trump twice as much coverage as any other candidate despite the fact that he had nothing of substance to say and no real policy positions to speak of. Outside of name-calling and insults few people would be able to clearly articulate a single policy position for Trump. And the fact that he has flipped-flopped on several critical issues (abortion, taxes) doesn’t instill confidence. So why did he get so much attention?

I believe the outcome of November’s election is the purpose for propping Trump up.

If Clinton and Trump are the nominees come November, you can be sure that the majority of evangelical voters in America will refuse to vote for either. I think we will see more write-in voters for third party candidates than any other election. And I think that is exactly what the plan has been all along. Clinton (with a complicit media) knew that if they could get Trump the nomination that it would splinter the Republican Party vote so badly that she would win. With Republicans voting for Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, and others, she would be left with a majority of Democratic voters giving her the win.

So all along the plan has been to get Trump nominated and then sit back and wait to be elected president by a country that refuses to vote for a caricature and would rather cut an eye out than vote for Clinton. And, I must say, the plan is working perfectly.

A recent article shared the results of several polls among likely voters should Clinton and Trump be the nominees in November. The outcome supports the idea that most evangelical voters will not vote for Trump:

“Donald Trump is viewed unfavorably by 67 percent of registered evangelical voters, while Hillary Clinton is viewed unfavorably by 81 percent, according to a new survey by Barna Group.

“By comparison, in World magazine’s latest poll of ‘evangelical insiders,’ 51 percent of the 77 respondents said they would never vote for Trump, while 21 percent said they would vote for him. Only 1 percent said they would vote for Clinton.

“Instead, 46 percent told World that they would vote for a third-party candidate, regardless of that candidate’s chance of winning.

“A plurality of self-identified white evangelicals voted for Trump (40%), while the majority split their votes between Ted Cruz (34%), Marco Rubio (11%), and John Kasich (10%).”

Aside from splitting the Republican vote, Trump will also ensure that many Americans simply don’t vote. The polling data suggests that many evangelical Christians will stay home and not vote instead of voting for Trump or a third party candidate:

“Without a clear horse in the race, many churchgoing evangelicals might join their fellow Americans in staying home. Polling just ahead of Cruz’s concession showed that anywhere from 16 percent to 24 percent of voters said that if faced with a Trump vs. Clinton matchup, they would choose to stay home or vote for a third-party candidate. According to Reuters, 20 percent of self-identified ‘born again Christians’ now say they would abstain from voting, down from a high of 28 percent in early April. And 26 percent of Americans who worship weekly or more now say they would abstain, down from 33 percent in early April. Among born-again Christians who worship weekly or more, 23 percent say they would abstain from voting for Trump or Clinton, down from 31 percent in early April.”

Refusing to vote is, in my opinion, never an option. Not only have we (Americans) been given the extraordinary gift of taking part in deciding who governs our country, but there is many local and state elections happening at the same time. Not voting is simply an act of apathy for which Christians in general need to be shaken from. Furthermore, refusing to vote because you don’t like the nominees signals a lack of understanding of the process. If you don’t like the nominees, write in a candidate’s name. Just because you assume that person has no chance of winning doesn’t mean it isn’t the responsible and right thing to do.

As we can see, if Trump is the nominee, it will likely mean defeat in November. While I have no intention of voting for Trump due to his lack of character, history of immorality, life-long liberal policy positions, and many other factors, I am not excited about losing this presidential election to Hillary Clinton.

And by the way, voting for “the lesser of two evils,” is still a vote for evil. Not an option for Christ-followers.

So, in the end it appears that we will see someone I can only describe as evil assume command of our country. Mrs. Clinton is sadly deficient in character, integrity, and morals. She will irreversibly alter the landscape of America in ways we can’t even imagine.

In the end though, how we vote matters. How we vote signals where we place our trust. How we vote signals how faithful we are to biblical principles and how deeply our faith has impacted our lives. Voting for the “lesser of two evils” says we have a nominal faith that doesn’t inform our daily lives. Voting for a candidate that reflects our biblical values – even if that candidate loses – shows we are more concerned with God’s opinion of us than anything else. Truly this election will be a test for evangelical voters.