Editors’ Favorites 2024

Sam Hine: “A Lion in Phnom Penh” This piece breaks the rules: it’s in-depth firsthand reporting – about corruption in Cambodia and the moral dilemmas facing foreign organizations fighting slavery and human trafficking there – but also honest personal reflection. It was several years in the making, and the writer had to count the cost: already forced to leave the country due to death threats, he would also have to forfeit a leadership position in an NGO.

Susannah Black Roberts: “Computers Can’t Do Math” In this fascinating and funny piece, David Schaengold – himself no luddite – debunks the claims made not just of artificial intelligence but also of ordinary computer programs. To think that computers can “do math” as we can is simply to misunderstand what it is that computers are, and what humans are.

Alan Koppschall: “Recovering from Heroin and Fiction” It’s rare to receive a submission as personal, raw, and intellectually serious as Jordan Castro’s piece about his conversion. His journey from heroin addiction to Christ is not a common path, but in Castro’s telling, the life-changing effect of imitating Christ is self-evident.

Leah Sargeant: "Voice Exploitation" I love the exploration of singing and the instrument none of us can be fully alienated from. Becoming a trained singer is a difficult task of stewardship – learning to develop our talents but not treating our body as mere tool.

Dori Moody: “Taming Tech in Community” Like most Plough readers, members of the Bruderhof try to be intentional about their use of personal technology. My fellow community member Andrew Zimmerman writes about some of the life hacks our church community has tried to help us stay within the beloved community rather than drift into virtual worlds.

Photograph by Ju_see / Adobe Stock.

Joe Hine: “So, a Chatbot Did Your Homework” The Academic Integrity Director at a university is deluged with reports of students cheating on their assignments with chatbots. He muses on the value of serious reading, serious dialogue, serious thinking, and serious interpreting, even if machines advance to the point where one can offload the work and not get caught.

Shana Goodwin: “The Family Is Not a Church” I found M. Çiftçi’s piece an excellent challenge to keep family and church distinct so that the political implications of the gospel remain clear.

Coretta Thomson: “In Defense of Human Doctors” Years ago, my nursing instructor advised me to greet each patient with a handshake at the beginning of a shift – not just to set them at ease and check their wristbands, but to estimate their levels of consciousness, muscle tone, and circulation. Similarly, this article shows how human presence and deep listening will never be made irrelevant through technological advancement.

Rosalind Stevenson: “Hunger” This short story spoke to me in its uncomplicated language and through the lives of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary hardship. The final sentences have stayed with me since: “Ask Aleksan what the purpose of human life is, and he’ll say without hesitation: caring for others. His wife doesn’t disagree – what’s the point of arguing if he is completely right: life only has meaning if you have someone to live for.”

Caitrin Keiper: “Paraguayans Don’t Read” The author tracks down the bookseller who used to sell books to his father on the black market, when most reading material was restricted. Now, in a free society, the culture of the written word faces entirely different challenges. A hunt for a lost book begs the question of what else has been lost along the way.

Maria Hine: “When Our Walls Fall” A shambolic house collapses, revealing its contents. Witnessing this, college professor Dwight Lindley reflects on the remorse he feels at having crossed to the other side of the road, rather than meeting the resident, a man who may have needed him. This excellent piece is a poignant reminder to show compassion when we have the chance.

Ian Barth: “Left Behind in Grimsby” Simon Cross writes about the experience of moving out of an impoverished community after over a decade of working with the people in it. I’m shamelessly plugging a piece by a personal friend only because it’s so good: beautifully written with a sort of East Wind element of hope in there somewhere.

Alina Meier: “An Irreplaceable Cog in the Wheel” This was my late mother’s life mantra: Don’t be irreplaceable, be a conduit for the gifts God gives you. As a parent and a member of an intergenerational community, I appreciate Hickman’s reminder to pass on one’s vision and practical skills. “Only then can our loves outlast the individual self. Only then will our community continue to dance and host picnics well after we are gone.” (Mom, we’re still dancing.)