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.

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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 LoftusPoliticsFeatured

Ten Theses on the Bible, Poverty, and Justice | Mere Orthodoxy

Political societies should not simply secure certain negative rights for their members, but should also make it easier for people to be good.

Matthew LoftusCriminal Justice

vulnerable children and orphanages - Doctors Without Boredom

This investigation by ProPublica into an orphanage and school in Liberia often reads like a checklist of what not to do when running an aid project overseas: Lack of oversight on the ground. Lack of trained or experienced staff running programs. […]

Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEthics

colonizing Mars won't be nearly as exciting as we think - Doctors Without Boredom

Micah Meadowcroft is in top form with this essay at The New Atlantis about the letdown that colonizing Mars could be: Consider your place in our interplanetary future. Let us speculate. Suppose that SpaceX or some similar enterprise has succeeded, […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyEthics

love in a time of really nasty politics - Doctors Without Boredom

I really appreciate everything that Judy Wu Dominick writes, and this reflection on “loving your political frenemies” is no exception: I still ache over the anguish of some and the bigotry of others, but this prayer discipline has chipped away […]

Matthew LoftusHealth & Medicine

better birth outcomes for black babies and their mothers - Doctors Without Boredom

There is more and more data coming out about the risk of death for black mothers and their babies in America, so I was really encouraged to read this article about using the Centering Pregnancy model of care for black […]

Matthew LoftusFeaturedCurrent Politics

And Who Is My Neighbor? - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

The Bible tells Christians to love their neighbors as they love themselves. But who is their neighbor? The man next door? Yes. The people who live across town? Surely. Those who live in another part of their country? Okay. People […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture

parenting, control, and obligations - Doctors Without Boredom

I very much appreciated this word from Hannah Anderson at Christ and Pop Culture about parenthood: The first thing we should do is realize that the level of control we feel is not as defined as it seems. To us, the […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEthics

holy culture and horticulture - Doctors Without Boredom

Wilfred McClay has a beautiful and much-needed essay at Comment on the tension Christians experience between our calling to be gardeners and pilgrims: We plant, tend, and nourish gardens, gather and prune them, negotiating and harmonizing the resultants of nature’s forces. We […]

Matthew LoftusBibleCultureEthics

solidarity and healing after the Tree of Life shooting - Doctors Without Boredom

My own connection to Pittsburgh is only through friends; my kids have played on the playground across the street from the Tree of Life synagogue several times. I wanted to share a few pieces about the incident, starting with this […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEthicsHealth & Medicine

how bodies matter in miscarriage - Doctors Without Boredom

Tish Harrison Warren has a moving and beautiful essay at Christianity Today about her quest to honor the body of her unborn child: Our doctor wasn’t a jerk or insensitive to our grief. He was professional; we liked him. But he worked […]

Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEducation

where Foucault and the Apostle Paul meet - Doctors Without Boredom

This interview with Alan Jacobs is full of all the things I love to think about! The new book has an “Interlude,” in which you point to “other pilgrims, other paths,” and one of the figures is Dorothy Day, an icon […]

Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics

oikonomia and economics - Doctors Without Boredom

I don’t wholly agree with everything that Oren Cass has to say here, but he has some very important observations and proposals in this essay about work, family, and political economy: Alongside stable political institutions that protect basic freedoms, family […]