Dear Editor,

I am a 14-year-old Christian and believe that, without God, a nation will not prosper.

This shows that involvement in the political realm as a Christian is just as necessary as involvement in any other God-ordained institution, such as the family and the church.

If righteousness exalts a nation, then it follows that the righteous must be involved in the workings of their nation. It is through the godly influence of righteous citizens that a city prospers. [Proverbs 11:11]

God gave us government politics as a means of governing us through hard times of sin.

Sin has completely overthrown our society and the government, but this does not mean Christians must avoid the government and its politics, but accept the fact that people are sinful by nature, and try to change it.

In the Bible it says: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good."

The apostle Paul, who wrote this, says that governors were sent by God to punish the evildoers, not accept some and punish others.

Jeremy Duke, Langley