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Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureHistoryCriminal Justice
This well-reported story about TJ Smith, the Baltimore Police Department’s former spokesman who lost his half-brother to violence in the city (and just resigned!), is well worth reading and reflecting on: As for Smith, his failed struggle to lead Dionay […]
Matthew LoftusCultureEconomics
There are so many things to think about from this piece by Luma Simms in National Affairs: Throughout history, people have traveled from country to country, trading with one another over long distances, returning home with the goods, habits, and even […]
Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEconomicsHealth & Medicine
Wendell Berry summarizes many of our contemporary problems quite well in this excellent interview with Gracy Olmstead: Those problems could be summed up as the triumph of industrialism and industrial values over the lives of living creatures, and over the […]
Matthew LoftusCultureEconomicsHealth & Medicine
This essay about obesity, stigma, and medical practitioners by Michael Hobbes is arresting and convicting: And the medical community’s primary response to this shift has been to blame fat people for being fat. Obesity, we are told, is a personal failing […]
Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEthics
I tried not to follow the brouhaha over the Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel too closely — too much to keep up with when I felt like the original statement was a whole lot of shadowboxing and thus […]
Matthew LoftusCultureHistoryEconomicsEducation
This essay from Helen Andrews is just too enjoyable not to share: Does Currid-Halkett have anything bad to say about the new elite? She has just one complaint, which she repeats again and again whenever she senses that she is sounding too […]
Matthew LoftusCultureEconomics
I have really been appreciating Alec MacGillis’ careful reporting on the places that have been left behind in our current economy, and this ProPublica report from Dayton, Ohio (that also frequently references Baltimore, another struggling place) is no exception: In […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEthics
Localism is a necessary part of moral formation. But a faithful local community is one that will be proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed.
Matthew LoftusCultureEthics
I really appreciated this piece from Jordan Ballor and J. Daryl Charles on natural law and common grace. In particular, I liked the fact that they don’t take “natural law” further than it can go — it’s a “recognition of […]
Matthew LoftusCultureHistory
Bryan McGraw delivers a great history lesson about Christian political parties in Europe and the promise such a party might hold for us in America. I’d love to see him discuss the American Solidarity Party in a follow-up, since that’s the […]
Matthew LoftusCulture
This story by Elaina Plott about guns and the people who use them is really insightful: That the broader population has transposed the attitudes of people like Bennett onto most gun owners is understandable. Popular discourse is given to extremes. […]
Matthew LoftusCultureHistory
Melani McAlister has an incisive interview with David Swartz in Christianity Today on her new book, The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals: What do you mean when you describe Americans as “enchanted” by […]