Scot Loyd
Scot Loyd
What to watch for during the presidential debates
Those who enjoy pancakes for breakfast will quickly understand that arguments, like pancakes, are never so thin as to not have another side. The wise man of Proverbs understood this when he wrote in Proverbs 18:17, “The one who states his case first seems right, until another comes and examines him.” This wisdom is important […]
End the Whitewashing
There is a palatable tension in the air. Do you feel it? This is the feeling of Black people standing up to our Nation’s racist systems. Another unarmed Black man is shot. This time it’s Jacob Blake and he is shot by police seven times in the back. His children were watching. Collectively we mourn […]
The person my mother thinks I am
My mother is fond of telling me, “Scot you’re David!” The David she has in mind is the biblical one. And when she conflates me and King David, I’m positive she is thinking of the David who is described as being a “man after God’s own heart” and not David the murderer and womanizer. After […]
If we are what we eat, perhaps we should change our diet.
It may be argued there is something in the water we are all drinking, and perhaps something also in the food we are eating. Something is different. This year has unleashed changes that may prove to be revolutionary. A pandemic continues to plague the world, and in the United States, thousands have taken to the […]
White America’s Complicity in the Murder of George Floyd
When I was in Junior High School, I had a history teacher tell me during a class lecture on the Civil War era, that black slaves were “cared for and treated as family.” I raised my hand and protested, “but they were still slaves, right?” I was then asked to go sit in the […]
We were never in this together
The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought our collective worlds to a screeching halt, and now the world that is emerging looks very different as all of us learn to navigate new realities. While many clamor for a return to normalcy, others caution it is better to be safe than sorry. It is interesting to observe the […]
Video killed the radio star, don’t let it victimize your relationships
In September of 1979 the British new wave/synth-pop group The Buggles released the single Video Killed the Radio Star; nearly two years later, the song would become a self-fulfilling prophecy when the single became the first-ever video to be shown on MTV airing one minute after midnight on August 1, 1981. The musical landscape was […]
White privilege in the White House
If the Presidency of Donald J. Trump has one overarching theme thus far, it would have to be the attempt to undo everything the Obama administration accomplished. In fact, the Trump presidency “brand” could simply be captioned “Anti-Obama”— a label that both appeals to Trump supporters while simultaneously angering his opponents. Yet no matter where […]
The Religious White
Some of my earliest memories are filled with images of Pentecostal worship—from both above and beneath the pews, as I often slept under them during worship services. For most of my life, I’ve enjoyed preferred seating at local expressions of a world-wide spiritual movement known as Pentecostalism. My religious devotion first developed in Northeast Arkansas, […]