1 Peter 3:14 - But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled . . .
Franklin Graham announced on Twitter that he was partnering with 250+ Christian leaders (including Jerry Falwell jr and Michele Bachmann) to pray for Trump on June 2nd. Why are Evangelicals supporting Trump?
I think the epigraph quote gives some reason. Christians are blessed for suffering for righteousness' sake. Anything negative about Trump is tolerable as long as he gets to pick Supreme Court justices who are anti-choice and anti-gay. Not to mention they're ok with Trump's racism and sexism.
Religion puts the believer's life in the context of a story with a happy ending. People are better at comprehending stories than logic. Christians threatened by scientific knowledge have gotten increasingly detailed about the story they have to follow. There have been experiments which demonstrate that the image of a loved one (a romantic partner or a religious figure) increases pain tolerance. I have a hypothesis that images or the presence of people who do not follow the same story as you decrease pain tolerance. So, if you're racist against Hispanic people you feel more pain when you see them. It's not the fault of the people seen, it's your conditioning. Other experiments have shown that people separated into arbitrary groups see their own group more positively than the other group. Racism is to some extent natural as we evolved to favor our own in-group.
I think rational compassion is the answer to xenophobia. Our emotions shape our decisions, but with practice our rational minds can override our emotions and allow us to choose to treat well people we have little in common with. Empathy only goes so far, requiring us to see ourselves in the other. Logic is harder to comprehend than story, but it would lead to a fairer, more humane society.