“An incredible amount of evangelical Christians said this was a bridge too far.”

This is how Albert Mohler explained to CNN, live at 1 a.m., the unexpected loss of Roy Moore to Doug Jones in Alabama’s special election for US Senate. “It’s nothing less than stunning.”

As expected, the state’s white evangelicals mostly voted for the Republican candidate—by a wide 4–1 margin (80% Moore vs. 19% Jones). However, enough of the Heart of Dixie’s pro-life contingent voted instead for the Democratic candidate—1 in 4 (26% Jones vs. 72% Moore)—to help hand the pro-choice politician the surprising victory by a narrow 1.5 percentage points.

According to exit polls, 44 percent of Alabama voters Tuesday were white born-again or evangelical Christians (self-identified). In the last two elections with state-level exit polling, 2008 and 2012, their share was 47 percent—making them “the only group showing slight signs of slippage,” ...

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