It's Monday, August 14, 2023.

I'm Albert Moeller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from

a Christian worldview.

The horrible fire that largely destroyed the city of Lahaina there on the island of Maui

and the Hawaii and islands, it is now the worst human disaster since Hawaii became a state.

They're looking at the biggest death toll of any natural disaster there in Hawaii during

the years that it has been a part of the American Union.

The only rival would go back to 1960 when 61 people were killed in a tsunami.

And even as the fire began, it became very clear that it certainly was not as had been

claimed, controlled, and out of control in Ferno destroyed a town that has, of course,

an incredibly historic role to play in the history of Hawaii.

And furthermore, the bigger issue just has to be always kept in mind.

We are talking about a human tragedy, human lives lost.

We're talking about families grieving an entire community basically decimated in terms

of much of the population there in the innermost part of the city.

We're talking about a death toll that's approaching 100.

Every single human life is of infinite value, regardless of what the insurance carriers

may eventually put on a human life, regardless of what some kind of court in terms of liability

claims and tort law may assign to one human life, we understand that every single human

life is the result of God's design and God's gift.

And thus every single image bear is of immeasurable worth.

It's one of the sad facts of living in a finite fallen world that sometimes there has to be

...