Truth, Justice & Accountability
My position · Faith and character

This Land Needs Healing

By Carl N. Merkle · October 16, 2026

I believe America needs to return to God. The heart of my message is the call in 2 Chronicles 7:14: humility, prayer, seeking God, and turning from our own wicked ways. My starting point is personal responsibility before God.

Christ is King

I believe Christ is King of the universe and of the United States. I understand the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution as sacred, not secular, and see Christ as their spiritual cornerstone. The founding-document guides distinguish the documents’ actual wording from the connections I draw to Scripture, including Isaiah 33:22.

The warning and the response

I believe America is experiencing divine judgment following a breach of its covenant with God. I see parallels between America’s present troubles and ancient Israel’s covenant failures. I read 2 Chronicles 7:13 as a warning about calamity and 7:14 as the response God’s people should make. I interpret America’s troubles through that biblical pattern; the passages originally address ancient Israel.

In my reading, Deuteronomy 33:5 expresses Israel gathered under divine kingship. Judges 2:10–23 describes a later generation abandoning God and suffering oppression. Judges 17:6 and 21:25 portray people doing what seemed right to themselves when Israel had no king. I see these passages as a warning to America about the consequences of abandoning God and moral restraint.

Deuteronomy 28 also belongs in that study. Verses 43–45 connect a reversal of economic power with Israel’s disobedience. My application to America is an interpretation of the covenant pattern, rather than a claim that the passage explicitly names the modern United States.

What repentance looks like in daily life

For me, Christ’s calls in Matthew 4:17 and 6:33 supply the direction: repent and seek God’s kingdom and righteousness. First John 1:5–10 calls us to walk in the light, acknowledge our sins, and confess them to God. Christians must apply that examination to ourselves.

Second Peter 1:2–11 describes growth in faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love for everyone. Philippians 1:11 connects righteous character with Jesus Christ. Matthew 13’s good soil produces a harvest; I use that image to describe a life that becomes more fruitful as the Holy Spirit changes our character.

Pull weeds and plant seeds

While confined in 2022, I drew a chart contrasting harmful traits and habits with qualities and practices that support a Christlike life. It connects Proverbs 6:16–19, Revelation 21:8, Galatians 5:22–24, and Ephesians 6:14–19, alongside other passages.

The chart places pride, lying, anger, and covetousness beside love, patience, kindness, truth, self-control, and other examples. It uses the illustration of removing weeds and planting seeds. The original handwritten page is part of the court record; its labels include traits, habits, beliefs, and spiritual practices.

Read the original handwritten character chart · Filed March 28, 2022, Document 10, page 53 of 135, case 5:21-cv-01278-JKP; ROA.22-50216.1560.

I plan to develop clearer studies, graphics, and practical guides from this material. The original remains available so readers can examine the starting point.

Conscience and civic responsibility

No political party is perfect. My own voting standard is to compare candidates and party platforms with biblical values; I accept that the choice may be the “lesser of two evils.” I invite all readers to examine the candidates, their records, and their platforms and to act according to conscience.

I oppose socialism and Marxism, which I view as secular approaches that lead societies away from God and toward destructive concentrations of power. My broader concern is that any economic or political system can be corrupted when people abandon honesty, restraint, and responsibility.

Political participation is one responsibility. The deeper work I advocate is repentance and the growth of character through the Holy Spirit.

Liberty depends on character

In the introduction to Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that “liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.” That is the documented connection I want readers to consider. The familiar saying that America is great because it is good is not used here as a Tocqueville quotation.

Read Tocqueville’s introduction in the Henry Reeve translation.

Read the passages in context

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