The nations of the world keep changing their leaders. People hope things will be better under new leadership. What is a Christian’s responsibility toward leaders of their nation?

Rational people do not expect leaders to satisfy everyone or solve all problems, but they hope their leaders will bring resolutions to the most important issues. We all desire to have relative peace and safety through respectful enforcement of laws. We hope for economic prosperity so we and our families will have food, clothing and shelter.

The Guardian reported on a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands. According to researchers from Tasmania and the UK, “One of the world’s most remote places, an uninhabited coral atoll, is also one of its most polluted...

Iran and Saudi Arabia are waging an alarming battle of words. In response to threatening words from Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran’s defense minister stated, “If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except Mecca and Medina” (Reuters, May 7, 2017).

In South Sudan, one million children have been “internally displaced” by war and famine, and another one million children have fled the nation (EuroNews, May 9, 2017). The BBC reports that the United Nations declared a famine in South Sudan in February, the first time this declaration has been made in any country in six years (April 4, 2017).

As a student at Southern Arkansas University in 1959, I enrolled in a course in criminology—not because of any particular interest in the subject, but because it included field trips to prisons, which was more interesting than classroom work. We visited two state prisons and one federal penitentiary. At that time, “Death Row” was located at the Tucker unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Jefferson County. As we toured the facility, we came to the execution chamber—a stark, bare room with a rough-hewn, high backed, heavy oak chair known as “Old Sparky.”