Former cult member explains Trump's terrifying appeal to evangelical white women

Although President Donald Trump's overall approval rating among women is in the dumps, his approval among white evangelical Christian women has remained resilient.

Cyndy Etler, a professional life coach who was indoctrinated into a cult as a teenage girl, has written an op-ed for the UK's Independent newspaper in which she explains why so many evangelical women have continued to stand by Trump, even as he has routinely made sexist comments about women's appearances.

"The rational mind assumes that any woman, assaulted or not, would reject a man who says he would date his own daughter; would be repulsed by men who are repeatedly accused of violating women," she writes. "But then, who’s to say Donald Trump’s supporters are rational?"

Etler goes on to detail how she's seen many evangelical women act as "enforcers" for abusive men to intimidate other women in their communities who might rebel.

She says that once you understand that evangelical doctrine demands that wives submit themselves to their husbands, their ability to overlook Trump's crude comments about grabbing women's genitals makes much more sense.

"Of course Trump can 'grab them by the pussy,' because that’s what God created women for: to submit to men," she writes. "In the words of the Baptist '19 kids and counting' Duggar family’s matriarch, women should be 'joyfully available' for sex at all times."

Read the whole editorial here.