Contributor

Matthew Loftus

Matthew grew up in a family of 15 children and completed his medical training in Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2015, he and his family have lived in East Africa, where he currently teaches and practices Family Medicine at a mission hospital. His work has appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Atlantis, and Mere Orthodoxy and his first book is forthcoming from InterVarsity Press.

Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture

"we don't speak a language, we speak normal!"

Our family lived down the road from Shelvis and Nancy Smith-Mather when I worked in South Sudan, and we were enormously blessed to be their neighbors and friends. They, like us, have had to relocate and are now doing peacebuilding […]

Matthew Loftus

song post: Sara Groves, "This Cup"

A song that I have thought about a lot in the last few months as I’m trying to get right side up on using the Internet is Sara Groves’ This Cup: Thank God for our dependence Here’s to our chasm […]

Matthew LoftusCriminal Justice

a betrayal: how do we help young people escape violence?

This deeply-reported story about a young man who tried to cooperate with law enforcement and escape MS-13 is both moving and unsettling: Henry did his part to aid the federal crackdown on MS-13. In addition to the gang members he […]

Matthew Loftus

Coptic churches in America on mission

I enjoyed this story by Shira Telushkin about the Coptic Church in America adapting culturally. Growing up in the church and working overseas, debates about how to adapt to “the culture” are usually about European or Western traditions either trying […]

Matthew LoftusHealth & Medicine

the public health promise of vaping

Smoking is very, very bad. It’s in everyone’s interest to cut it back. And it looks like e-cigarettes might be helpful as smokers try to quit! And then the kids started doing it… and then the kids found the juul. Cigarette […]

Matthew LoftusFamily

friendship, families, and the celibate

I am a bit biased because Wes Hill is a dear friend, but man! This essay of his in Comment about breaking up with a friend and choosing to build deep, intimate friendships with families is so good: I spent my […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics

sex robots: not just about sex anymore... or ever!

Everyone loves a good read about the history of sex robots, right? “Sex robots,” therefore, have always been about more than sex. They’ve been a cultural repository for wider uncertainties in times of social change: a literalization of the fear […]

Matthew LoftusCultureCriminal Justice

it's all about governance and trust

Shadi Hamid, Vanda Felbab-Brown, and Harold Trinkunas share an excerpt from their new book on governance and trust, a subject that I’ve been banging on about for quite a while now: The Taliban claims to adhere to a strict interpretation of […]

Matthew LoftusHealth & Medicine

what kind of diet should we eat?

I’ve never seen a better, more succinct Q&A on what a good diet means, so I’m sharing this one: I feel smarter, but what happens when new information comes out, like, tomorrow? How can I stay up to date? It seems […]

Matthew LoftusCriminal Justice

racism in, racism out

This article about Palantir is something else: “The world changed when it became clear everyone could be targeted using Palantir,” says a former JPMorgan cyber expert who worked with Cavicchia at one point on the insider threat team. “Nefarious ideas […]

Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEconomics

the history of capitalism and the glory of man

Note: I am sorry for the inconsistent posting schedule. Our family moved two weeks ago to our new field of service and the internet here is so inconsistent that I have been unable to connect every time that I sat […]

Matthew Loftus

when churches commodify diversity

What happens when urban churches try to commodify diversity? It gets ugly.