Filed under
Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomicsarchitecture
This essay by D.L. Mayfield in Comment is very relevant to my interests: The suburban neighbourhood where I currently live was not built for community. This was done by design—the suburbs were meant to be bastions of happy isolation, with […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomicsCriminal JusticeEducation
I reviewed Jamil Jivani’s new book, Why Young Men?, for Comment magazine. It’s a fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) book that explores the very important question of why young men are radicalized and embrace violence. It is a bit tricky to nail down […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture
This story by Jonathan Parks-Ramage about his encounter with an evangelical church in LA is moving and beautiful: Treat presents a ready-made identity, perfect for those who feel lost. In the months leading up to this service, I spoke with […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics
Alec MacGillis has been doing stellar work about some of America’s neglected places, and this piece about a town in Ohio grappling with the imminent closure of a coal-fired power plant is no different: Lee Anderson, director of governmental affairs […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCulture
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 LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics
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
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 LoftusCultureHistoryEconomics
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 LoftusCulture
When we talk about "values" but not character, we cut ourselves off from the things we want.
Matthew LoftusCulture
There is so much here in this long essay about the controversial Pentecostal preachers of Haiti and the traditional Vodou practices: I asked [the pastor] whether he had founded Shalom to combat Vodou in the country, and he shook his […]
Matthew LoftusFamilyCultureEconomics
I love it when Eve Tushnet gets on her soapbox about poverty and virtue, and this great piece about the much-touted “success sequence” is no exception: The people I speak with believe they have a responsibility—there’s that word again—to achieve […]
Matthew LoftusCulture
Alan Jacobs doesn’t want kids to learn to code. But he does think they should learn to build their own websites: To teach children how to own their own domains and make their own websites might seem a small thing. […]