Joyful Jeb has gone negative once again, telling ABC News following a campaign rally in Iowa that he doubted the sincerity of Donald Trump’s faith.

“I don’t think he has the kind of relationship he says he has if he can’t explain it any way that shows he is serious about it,” Bush said.

“He’s playing this for political purposes,” he continued. “I’d rather have him actually at least accept the fact that we’re all imperfect under God’s watchful eye, and that we should accept forgiveness.”

But Bush went even further when asked directly if Trump is a Christian.

“No, I don’t know what he is,” he replied.

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This, of course, came from the man who in November stated, “(t)oday, we begin a three-day trip across Florida, South Carolina, and New Hampshire to tell the Florida story … Lifting people up, not tearing them down.”

But tearing down Trump seems to be precisely what Bush did. His campaign denied this, however.

“Bush’s response of ‘no’ indicated his disagreement with the premise of the question and was not in response to the question as to whether he believes Donald Trump is a Christian,” claimed the Jeb campaign.

Out of context, that excuse might be believable. But in the context of his wider comments it seems inescapable that his “no” was indeed in direct response to the question of Trump’s Christian faith.

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But no one can truly speak to the sincerity of Trump’s faith other than himself and God. And while some might question his faith, his grasp of the threat posed to Christians worldwide — and of the notion of liberty inherent to the Christian message — cannot be called into doubt.

“A week doesn’t go by where there’s not some negative ruling on something having to do with Christianity,” Trump said in an August radio interview. “I’ll be fighting on the other side much stronger than anybody else that you have up there fighting, because I think it’s really outrageous.”

“Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” he recently told the students of Liberty University, quoting 2 Corinthians 3:17.

The daily church-going Bush has yet to make any statement in defense of Christianity as strong and convincing as the ones Trump has made.