Government

Impeachment: Senators, Oaths, And Immortal Souls

Please step back and think first about an oath.

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(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

As careful readers may have noticed, I don’t like hypocrisy.

But I dislike hypocrisy even more when it will cost people their immortal souls.

All senators took an oath at the start of the impeachment trial:

I solemnly swear [or affirm] that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of [Donald John Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.

I’m not too worried here about the senators who chose merely to “affirm” that they would tell the truth, rather than to “swear” it. Although there are plenty of reasons, both moral and legal, to tell the truth after making an affirmation, the taking of an oath adds a religious reason.

After taking this oath, senators immediately started thinking and talking about the politics of this. Can the senators ignore the influence that Donald Trump has on the Republican Party? What’s politically expedient for each individual senator? Is it possible to vote to convict and get re-elected? Is it possible to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority to convict?

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Please step back and think first about an oath: With God as your witness, and at risk of eternal damnation, do you swear to do impartial judgment according to the Constitution and laws?

Maybe, when I read that oath, I overlooked the bit about ignoring the truth, following your partisan instincts, and casting the vote that might get you re-elected. If so, please point that part out to me. But, if I read correctly, remember: If you cast a dishonest vote, you’re making, almost literally, a deal with the devil. Eternity is a long, long time.

In the United States in the late eighteenth century, criminal defendants were actually forbidden from testifying in capital cases. This law was meant not to hamper, but to protect, defendants: Faced with the gallows, defendants would be tempted to lie under oath on the witness stand. This would cost defendants their immortal souls. The law was thus constructed to do defendants a favor: It prohibited their testimony, thus increasing the likelihood that they would be hanged, but perhaps saving their souls for the eternity to follow.

In “A Man For All Seasons,” Thomas More famously refused to swear an oath saying that he supported King Henry VIII’s divorce. More was a religious man and, even though he was about to lose his head on the block, he refused to sacrifice his soul to save his life. In his words, according to the film:

When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.

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So, senators, you’re holding your own selves — your souls — in your hands like water. If you open your fingers now, what then?

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].

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