After Trump, an evangelical examination of conscience?

Yet, those numbers are lower than the 79 percent who voted for 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a Mormon who had struggled to win over conservative Protestants for theological and other reasons.

A Hillary Clinton victory could draw energy away from any re-evaluation of the religious right, given her support for abortion rights and gay rights, and the opportunity she will have to shape the U.S. Supreme Court.

Yet, even if Trump proves loyal to Christian conservatives, debate would persist over whether his supporters traded integrity for influence, given sexual harassment claims against him and his attacks on Mexican immigrants, Muslims and others.

"If they can support even Donald Trump, and even after we learn more and more about him, then this has actually been a charade all along designed to raise money or to grasp for power or to build institutions or personal platforms," said Collin Hansen, a longtime Republican and editorial director of the Gospel Coalition, an interdenominational evangelical ministry.

Russell Moore, head of the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, who was an early and vocal critic of Trump, separates the candidate's evangelical supporters into two camps: those who consider Trump a morally good choice and others upset by his moral flaws but more worried about Clinton's potential impact on religious objectors to gay marriage, abortion and other laws.