"God's Not Dead" actress Melissa Joan Hart has said that while Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may have the backing of many evangelical leaders, she doesn't believe he is the "Christian" choice.
"All those people who want to say he is the Christian choice, but I don't think he is for me," Hart told The Blaze. "That one is the one that really gets me because as a Christian woman, I don't think my vote lies with Trump. I think the only people who are saying that are people who are saying he's pro-life, which I don't even necessarily believe he is."
She added, "I just want to feel good about myself when I walk out of the voting place in November. I just want to feel good about myself and not like I'm holding my breath and thinking, 'did I do the wrong thing?' I want to walk out of there with my head held high."
Instead of backing Trump or Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the actress said she will cast her vote for the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson.
"To me, true conservative ideals of just less government interference in our lives, he really stood for that," Hart said of the former New Mexico governor. "He has a good record, he has good temperament and he is someone who will listen to reason and make good decisions."
Hart, who backed Republican Gov. Mitt Romney for president in 2012, also slammed the notion that voting for Johnson is a "wasted vote": "I cannot tell you how many people have said that to me," the actress continued. "And if everybody who said that to me actually voted for him, he would at least win Connecticut. So it's frustrating that everybody thinks it's a wasted vote but everyone wants that vote."
Johnson is currently registering at 6.7 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average behind Trump's 39.7 percent and Clinton's 44.7 percent.
A number of conservative and evangelical leaders have publicly backed Trump, including Dr. James Dobson, Ralph Reed, and Robert Jeffress, and others. However, in September, a coalition of evangelicals posted a petition on change.org declaring that the businessman's campaign has "given voice to a movement that affirms racist elements in white culture - both explicit and implicit."
"Mr. Trump has fueled white American nationalism with xenophobic appeals and religious intolerance at the expense of gospel values, democratic principles, and important international relationships," reads the petition, in part.
The petition also states that Trump "mocks women and the sanctity of marriage vows, disregards facts and the accountability to truth, and worships wealth and shameful materialism, while taking our weakening culture of civility to nearly unprecedented levels ..."
The petition, signed by 19,451 supporters, adds that the evangelical leaders' stance should not be interpreted as an endorsement of Clinton.
"Whether we support Mr. Trump's political opponent is not the question here. Hillary Clinton is both supported and distrusted by a variety of Christian voters," it reads.
"We, undersigned evangelicals, simply will not tolerate the racial, religious, and gender bigotry that Donald Trump has consistently and deliberately fueled, no matter how else we choose to vote or not to vote."
Notable signatories to the petition include author and preacher Tony Campolo, Red Letter Christians co-founder Shane Claiborne, Progressive National Baptist Convention General Secretary Timothy Tee Boddie, Rachel Held Evans, the Rev. Brian D. McLaren, and the Rev. Dr. Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action.
