When a president is impeached, what should a Christian do?

Only three presidents have been impeached, and none of them have been removed from office, so there will be little precedent to guide the Senate when it convenes to consider the case of President Donald Trump. 

Impeachment is such a rare occurrence that historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said that the American public needs a “giant civics lesson” about it. 

My Faith Votes, a nonpartisan group that calls Christians to “pray, think and vote,” issued a four-page guide to the impeachment process, saying that “Christians must be informed and committed to faithfully praying for our nation during this process (1 Timothy 2:1–2).” 

So that we might be better informed Christians, let’s discuss why the Founding Fathers included impeachment in the Constitution, what merits removal from presidential office, the Christian foundation for the impeachment process, and what Christians can do during the impeachment process.

Then we can use our knowledge as the basis for our prayers, remembering that prayer for all of our nation’s leaders is a biblical mandate (1 Timothy 2:2).

What is impeachment?

Our lesson today will begin with the key passage in the Constitution that deals with impeachment and removal from office: “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” 

The use of impeachment as a way to remove corrupt officials from office dates in British history to as early as the fourteenth century. Although treason and bribery are familiar concepts, constitutional lawyers disagree about the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and some think that the Framers of the Constitution intended it to be vague, leaving room for Congress to interpret it. 

In Impeachment: An American History,  Dr. Jeffrey A. Engel wrote that the word “high” indicated crimes against…