EDGE's Top Five Most Outrageous Roy Moore Supporter Rationalizations

With support like this, why would Roy Moore want to step down?

Amid mounting allegations and calls from fellow Republicans to bow out of his race for Alabama's open seat in the US Senate, anti-gay former state supreme court chief justice Roy Moore looks like he's in the race for the long haul.

Given his ardent opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights, religious conservatives are standing by Moore. These are largely the same people who twice elected him as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, a position he was twice removed from because of stands against gay marriage and for the display of the Ten Commandments in a public building. So why would they allow multiple credible allegations of child molestation get in the way of furthering his political career?

EDGE compiled a list of Moore's supporters' most outrageous rationalizations for his behavior. Here they are in no particular order.

In The Bible, Jesus' Parents Had An Age Difference

Perhaps the most bizarre rationalization of Moore's alleged actions with teenage girls came from Alabama's State Auditor Jim Ziegler, who, in an interview with the conservative Washington Examiner, turned to "The Bible" to defend his actions.

"The allegations are that a man in his early 30s dated teenage girls. Even the Washington Post report says that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the girls and never attempted sexual intercourse," Ziegler argued. "Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus."

Jesus Was Accused Too

Sandy Rios, government affairs director for the anti-LGBTQ hate group American Family Association went so far in her support of Moore that she claimed that the accusations of serial child predatory behavior and calls for the anti-gay jurist to step down were attacks on all Christians. After all, according to Rios, Moore is just like Jesus.

"Remember that Jesus himself was accused, but he was completely innocent," Rios said. "Remember that they paid guards to come and lie about whether the stone was rolled away and the body was not there. This is not new."

The Biblical 'Standard of Proof' Has Not Been Met

Hate group radio blowhard Bryan Fischer performed logical backflips in support of the GOP candidate, and told listeners to "unapologetically defend Moore whenever and wherever we can." Following Monday's news conference with fifth Moore accuser, Beverly Young, Fischer insisted that despite multiple allegations, listeners "must withhold judgment until the "biblical standard of proof" had been met.

"The Bible is very, very clear that you never condemn anybody on the testimony of one witness," Fischer said. "If there is a crime that has been committed and you only have one witness, you do not convict on that basis."

"Until there is a second witness, then we have to say that, biblically, the standard of proof has not yet been met," he added. "If the standard is innocent until proven guilty, then Roy Moore has to be considered, conceived of in our minds, as somebody who is being falsely accused."

Men Aren't Pigs and Women Lie
Religious anti-choice extremist Matt Trewhella took to his Facebook page to blame the women who Moore allegedly pursued as teens and the media, claiming that "The press in this country hate good men - namely, those who love Christ.

"I know you live in a nation that wants you to believe all men are pigs and women never lie - but here's a little insight I have learned over the years - all men are not pigs and yes, women lie," Trewhella wrote.

Some of Those Teenagers Could Have Passed for 20
Perhaps the creepiest excuse for Moore's alleged history of sexually pursuing teens came from rabid Trump sycophant and conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root, who said the girls could have passed for older.

"They were beautiful young girls and they could have passed for 20." Raw Story noted that in reality, one of Moore's accusers says that he tried to force her to touch his genitals when she was only 14 years old. Additionally, Moore knew that at least some of the women he was pursuing were still teenagers because he sought some of their parents' permission to date their daughters.