I often pass by a house that has statues of Joseph and Mary on the front steps, a depiction of the nativity in their living room window — and a prominent Trump 2024 sticker on the back window of their vehicle.

The correspondence of the visuals makes me wonder if these fellow Christians experience the same things I hear in the news, and see on our streets.

I was exiting a store this week when a pickup with large, fluttering flags raced by. One flag read “F…. Biden” (spelled); the other was a Trump 2024 flag.

Later I learned that, at a staged rally over the weekend, the former president referred to the current one as “a dumb son of a b…”

How do thoughtful people of whatever faith (or none), square these sightings and learnings with hoped-for civility in social discourse, with continued support of a candidate for the presidency who is now under a third indictment, for various offenses to our democracy and to simple human decency — someone recently found liable of sexual abuse?

And how especially do fellow Christians compare this misbehavior of decades with the gentle Sermon on the Mount … and “do good to those who malign you, love your enemies”?

Where has he ever done so?

Our democracy will be set on a precipice toward authoritarianism if the former president is ever returned to office … and unreflective Christians with others will have placed us there.

Paul Baribault, Lewiston