I am not a member of a "church of nice," FWIW. I do attend church with zero R establishment types or liberals - many of us are active in the Tea Party.
But we do understand wanting our candidates to behave in a dignified manner. We also understand a difference between attacking the personal and the policy.
I have teens. They are rock-ribbed conservatives, but on an emotional level, Donald Trump embarrasses them, and it's not because of his policies.
You are basically saying that it is necessary to attack Ben Carson's life story in order to bring him to heel, in order to save the country from illegal aliens. So - it's ok to bash a few Christians in order to get the job done. Mocking Ben Carson's life story isn't the same thing as mocking his policy positions. It just makes for bad politics among the base, and I think it's a mistake.
I don't consider Donald Trump to be my only choice in the matter, thankfully.
I'd be the first to agree it was an unfortunate overreach; I wish he had worded it differently; but I've long ago stopped letting human imperfections ruin the big picture -- DT is still the best candidate for what we need now, IMO. Glad to hear you are a Tea Partier, and a homeschooler as well. It takes time to get to know one another's "nuances" here online. I wish for your children and mine that this were still a Christian culture; I remember when it was and how different it was and I miss it all the time. We only appear to differ on the best way to get some of it back in our lifetimes.