When God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26), He was establishing something radical: every human life has intrinsic worth, purpose, and responsibility. We’re not accidents of evolution — we’re image-bearers of God.

That’s why Christians defend life from conception to natural death. But the Imago Dei doesn’t just speak to abortion or euthanasia. It also speaks to the way we treat human dignity in everyday life — including how we deal with poverty, work, and welfare.

The Cruelty of “Compassion”

For decades, the U.S. government has built an entire industry around dependency. SNAP, EBT, and countless welfare programs were supposed to be safety nets, not hammocks. But when “temporary help” becomes a permanent lifestyle, it robs people of the very thing that makes them human: agency.

Work was never a punishment — it was God’s design. Adam wasn’t lounging in Eden collecting fruit stamps. He was tending a garden, naming animals, exercising dominion. Work is how human beings imitate their Creator.

That’s why Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Not as a threat, but as a correction. A culture that subsidizes idleness is not compassionate — it’s complicit in spiritual decay.

Mercy Isn’t Maintenance

 Brazil: When the State Loses the Streets

I’ve worked in Rio with a special operations anti-gang unit (BOPE). I’ve walked the favelas with locals who risk their lives just to get in and out of their own neighborhoods. When the government “takes a hard stance,” it means armored vehicles rolling into some of the most densely packed urban terrain on earth—with families caught in the crossfire.

What you need to know

• Red Command (Comando Vermelho) began in Brazil’s prisons in the late ’70s with Marxist roots, and evolved into one of the most powerful criminal factions on the planet.

• They run cocaine and marijuana retail/wholesale, weapons trafficking, carjackings, armored-car robberies, and extortion.

• They impose “parallel governance”: if you live in their turf, they are the government.

• The terrain is a nightmare for police: alleyways too tight for vehicles, multi-story concrete warrens, countless blind corners. Even with BOPE, operations are high-risk and civilian casualties mount.

“In Rio’s favelas, the state doesn’t always rule. Whoever controls the corner rules.”

Why Americans should care: Red Command is transnational. A lot of their product goes to Europe, but some flows toward the U.S. via routes that snake Brazil → Venezuela or Brazil → Bolivia → Ecuador → Colombia → north. When state power erodes, cartels fill the vacuum—and the poison travels.

 A Hemisphere Pushing Back

Say what you will, but a tougher U.S. stance on cartels has emboldened several Latin American governments:

• Ecuador (Jan): Declared internal armed conflict; designated 22 gangs as terrorists; later the U.S. added two to our own lists.

• Guatemala (Oct 21): Congress passed an anti-gang law, formally branding MS-13 and Barrio 18 as terror organizations with stiffer penalties.

• Honduras: Reframed parts of narco-trafficking as terrorism in the penal code.

• Nicaragua: Cracking down—not on cartels—but on churches and religious NGOs. Backwards priorities, and they’re proud of it.

Bottom line: The El Salvador model (mass gang arrests, unapologetic enforcement) is contagious. Some countries are finally acting like cartels are terrorists. Because they are.

Yesterday marked two years since the invasion of Gaza. A lot of you found my work right after October 7, 2023, when I started doing daily live hits—first for CBN, then YouTube. In that time, Israel has changed the battlefield—and itself.

What’s changed on the ground (as I see it):

• Hostages: Of the original 251, the bodies of 13 are still in Hamas hands. Israel expects to recover most—but maybe not all—of those remains.

• Territory: The IDF currently controls over 50% of Gaza (they’d pushed above 80% before resetting to the “yellow line”).

• Destruction: Roughly 80% of Gaza’s buildings are destroyed—clearing that rubble alone will take years.

• Hamas losses: ~20,000 militants have “shuffled off this mortal coil,” as the Bard would say.

• Force experience: 120–180k IDF troops have now cycled through combat—experience Israel didn’t have in 2023.

“Twelve IDF soldiers died to avoid endangering living Israeli hostages. That tells you how Israel values life.”

Israel has carved Gaza into northern/central/southern zones with new security corridors (think “walls” that let them clear-and-hold faster). They’ve also kept aid flowing by sea, land, and air—and yes, it’s messy, costly, and controversial. From a strictly military standpoint, Israel has met many objectives; the strategic cost is global: a generation that’s been taught to see Israelis as the bad guys. That image will take time—and truth—to rebuild.