"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
English playwright William Congreve (1670-1729), the author of this famous quote, could very well utter those words in the face of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Not known to have strong support among women voters even earlier in the campaign, Trump could find it even harder to convince American women to vote for him less than a month from now after his lewd comments on women, made during a recording in 2005, leaked out last week.
In the video recording released by the Washington Post last weekend, which Trump was apparently not aware of, he bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women, saying that "when you're a star, they let you do it."
Evangelical women were particularly disgusted and appalled by Trump's attitude towards women as revealed in the video, according to CBN News.
Trump apologised for uttering those "foolish" words, admitting that he was wrong. At the same time, he tried to blunt the criticism against him by saying that what he said was "just locker room talk" between two men.
However, author Karen Swallow Prior said there is "no such thing as 'just locker room talk.'"
"The problem is that what happens in the locker room doesn't stay in the locker room. Scripture tells us that as a man thinks within himself, so he is," Prior told Christianity Today. "Therefore, we must take even 'talk' seriously."
The evangelical women are also angry at other evangelicals who have been quick to dismiss Trump's verbal gaffe.
Breaking her silence on this year's presidential race, popular Bible teacher Beth Moore tweeted, "I'm one of many sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn't. We're tired of it."
Moore also slammed other evangelicals for downplaying the recording.
"Trying to absorb how acceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don't think it's that big a deal," she tweeted.
Thousands of Moore's followers have liked and re-tweeted her tweets.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Katelyn Beaty, former managing editor of Christianity Today, said, "When Christian women like Beth Moore choose to publicly speak about their own experience with sexual assault, it signals to me that they do not feel heard or understood by fellow Christian leaders who continue to support Trump."
Julie Roys, a talk show host of Moody Radio, urged evangelicals to stop defending and promoting Trump, given his "moral depravity," according to CBN News.
"Rather than waving a party flag, every honest person of faith should be mourning the truly pathetic state of our union," she said.
Trillia Newbell, the director of Community Outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who fell victim to sexual assault, wrote on Facebook, "Trump isn't just an entertainer. It's no longer funny. It's unacceptable. It's grievous. A man went to jail for the very things he is bragging about."
Author Dannah Gresh also vented her disgust on Facebook, saying both Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump "are so embroiled in their own moral failures that they cannot even get around to discussing the administrative needs of our people."
