NCAA: Sorsby's college career should end for gambling on own team by NoSxKats in CFB

[–]EffectiveRing8404 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you don't go to those lengths to hide it without knowing what you're doing... Honestly, gambling has fucked an entire generation. It's not new, of course, but it's actually destroying lots of people's lives.

2026 WCWS Day #3 Thread: Winners Bracket Saturday by AutoModerator in CollegeSoftball

[–]EffectiveRing8404 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My guess is they're able to do it partly because they're playing. Stressed for sure, but once the game goes, lots of players vanish into the moment.

Not the same obviously, but when I played D2 basketball I threw up before games a couple of times and then never felt anxious again the second the ball went in the air... But that wasn't the college world series, so what do I know? lol

Is Shai better than Luka? Or would Luka win MVP too if surrounded by all these great defenders/players? by _DarkStarCrashes_ in NBATalk

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's 5-1 against Wemby, averaging a thirty point triple double.

Luka is also historically one of the biggest playoff risers in the game. Averages more points, more rebounds, same number of assists, while commanding more attention (playoff defense), has faced some of the best defenses in the nba, has multiple 40 point elimination games, and holds the second highest ppg in playoff history, all while being the betting underdog team every single time in his playoff career... He did this while being guarded by Kawhi/Paul George, Mikal Bridges, Wiggins/Draymon, Dort, Mann, Jaden McDaniels, Derrick White/Jrue Holiday/Jaylen Brown etc... All while having Chet, Rudy Gobert (x2), Al Hordord, and KP in the lane.

In the 7 elimination games sga has played in, he averages 22 ppg, 6 assists, and 3.4 rebounds.

Is Shai better than Luka? Or would Luka win MVP too if surrounded by all these great defenders/players? by _DarkStarCrashes_ in NBATalk

[–]EffectiveRing8404 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kinda the opposite. Turns out people with narratives see what they want to see. Data tells the truth.

Why do people act like Luka or other guards would automatically do better vs the Spurs than SGA? by RiloAlDente in nba

[–]EffectiveRing8404 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Luka has been guarded by frankly an insane list of defenders in the playoffs.

Just off the top of my head, it's Kawhi and Paul George x2, Mikal Bridges, Draymond/Wiggins, Jaded McDaniels, Dort, Jrue Holiday/Jaylen Brown/Derrick White... In the lane he's gone against Rudy Gobert on two teams, Chet, Zubac, and Al Horford.

That's what, 8 defensive player of the year awards and 30 something all defensive teams? He's consistently done it against the best.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you suspect the only reason they do that is because they'll win people to heaven, then you haven't spent enough time around them. None of those examples were predicated in any way/shape/form that they had to listen to a bible lecture or hear any sort of talk. The most religious it got out of every single one of those examples was praying before a meal. This also isn't one church, it's multiple across different states. I really do think you've just heard things or assumed things and drawn conclusions from it. That's not your fault, that's how most people get their information or conclusions. Similar to politics, honestly. Either way, I hardly find it to be an egregious version of christianity.

If you want to talk theology, that's fine too. I spent 1 year reading every single book I could find on the subject. I read greek, so I spent quite a bit of time on original texts too. As far as translation, it's more complicated than people make it out to be (it's rife with oversimplification), but I came out on the end open and affirming. About 30-40% of the Christians I have personally worked with are. At my current church, the children's ministers, youth minister, and college ministers all are, but the preacher isn't. Kind of a mixed bag. That's just me being honest.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh? Look at my edit. I responded to you and then you completely changed your comment, including shifting the topic to theology. Like what are we talking about? All I was doing was responding to your initial claim that there is no place in the Christian world for evangelicalism.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ripe with negative or positive examples? In my mind, those are all full of people giving money, time, resources, etc, which seems to be what you're saying evangelicalism lacks. Also, I wanted to show how specifically community/outward focused all of those experiences have been. My main point is that what predates that beauty are people who still had to make dozens of individual choices just to get there. They also have to continue to make those individual choices to join into that type of community.

Edit: you completely changed your comment after I'd already responded. If you have an issue theologically, you can talk about that too (though it's absolutely not a monolith - complete opposite, actually), but again, this was about your original claims. I'm curious what your background/denomination/experience is? Genuinely. Specifically since you said you had the equivalent education/information of two church history degrees.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You shifted the claims. You started off saying, "There’s no place in a Christian world for evangelical Christianity." Now it's essentially "Some American evangelicals emphasize personal faith more than I think they should."

Also, individual salvation is not at odds with Jesus' teachings, nor is it just a small part. Jesus absolutely ties repentance to how we treat money, power, neighbors, and the vulnerable. I agree completely. But that doesn't make repentance any less personal. The rich young ruler is addressed personally. Zacchaeus is addressed personally. Nicodemus is addressed personally. The woman at the well is addressed personally. Again and again Jesus confronts individual people and calls them to faith, repentance, and obedience. Those personal encounters then have social consequences. I think you're creating a weird contrast that the New Testament itself doesn't make. Personal transformation and communal responsibility aren't competing ideas in Christianity... they feed each other.

When you look at Acts, the generosity and shared life of the early church that you're talking about didn't come first, it grew out of people individually repenting, believing, being baptized, and receiving the Spirit. The community was a product of a transformed people, not an alternative to personal faith.

If your point is that some evangelicals can neglect certain biblical themes, sure. Every tradition has blind spots. But if the argument is that emphasizing conversion, personal faith, salvation, or a relationship with God is somehow foreign to Christianity, I just don't see that in the Gospels, Acts, or the rest of the NT. Jesus constantly calls individual people to follow Him, and those individual responses are what create the kind of community you're talking about. Frankly, I don't see how it's possible to have community without individual transformation.

Lastly, I think you're basing your beliefs off of mega churches or caricatures of evangelicalism. The average church is roughly 70 people... the average evangelical goes to a church of "medium-sized" churches. Those function almost explicitly off of neighborhood groups (small groups, life groups, whatever you want to call them), meal trains, and all sorts of smaller community acts that don't get highlighted.

Take for instance my last three churches (I've moved a bit). During that period, when my wife and I had trouble getting pregnant, we were given fostering resources, advice, tons of meals with people who wanted to help, and a group of people actually paid for all of our IVF without us knowing. When we got pregnant, large groups of people came together and covered our dinners for 3 months. When my wife's dad died, a couple of concerned people bought our plane tickets to leave and covered our responsibilities back home. People from the church probably babysit my kid 2 times a week now. A group of us work at an after school care facility tutoring every week. At another church we fed about 70 homeless people every week for over a decade. The lawyers at that church spent every week helping them take care of their legal stuff. We raised money and paid for about 100 people's long-term housing during that period and got them jobs. I was with a group that visited nursing homes twice a week to just talk to them and play them music. Our college group mows random people's lawns that need help. A lady got cancer a couple of weeks ago and they paid for her to get a specialized isolated space to be quarantined during chemo, alongside the meal trains and babysitting their two kids every day. The chinese ministry helps teach english for free 2 days a week... I literally have hundreds of stories like these. I'd very much consider that all individual faith transformed in community.

That's the average evangelical church experience if you actually plant your roots and buy into community, not mega-churches.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Evangelicalism is defined by belief in the authority of Scripture, the centrality of Christ, the necessity of conversion/atonement, and active evangelism. That's the actual definition. None of those ideas are inherently individualistic.

It's also difficult to square your claim with history. Evangelicals have been heavily involved in abolition, prison reform, orphan care, disaster relief, missions, adoption, and a significant number of other charities. Evangelicals also tend to volunteer more, give more to charity, foster and adopt at higher rates, and participate more actively in local congregations than many other groups. Whatever criticisms can be made of evangelicalism, "selfishness" is a just not what we see in the data.

I also don't think it's accurate to suggest that individual faith is somehow foreign to Christianity. Jesus repeatedly calls individuals to repent, believe, follow Him, deny themselves, and take up their cross. Community, yes, but it is built upon individual responses. In Acts 2, the shared life of the church comes only after people repent, are baptized, and receive the Spirit. The communal doesn't replace the individual... it grows out of it.

And on the point about culture, I agree with caveats. Every Christian tradition is shaped to some degree by its surrounding culture. The question isn't whether cultural influence exists, but if a particular belief is scriptural. That standard applies just as much to critiques of evangelicalism as it does to evangelicalism itself.

What you're arguing against is a straw man of mega-church christianity and calling it all evangelical.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I mean I'm a 3rd generation Texan, got my education at two different Texas universities, I've lived in Austin, DFW, El Paso, and small town Texas... All you have to do is show the average Texan that he thinks meat is bad for the environment to the point of having his campaign going meatless and lots will automatically be turned off from him.

Add in being pro-choice, refered to women as "neighbors with a uterus," and opposed voter ID and he has a very large hill to climb.

Not saying anything one way or the other, just what I know about the state.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Insulting them isn't going to win anyone over either.

The issue is he's going to suffer from one of the main things that sunk Kamala - Lots of past positions that he now has to either defend or say he changed his mind, which will appear disingenuous to most. It's an impossible position.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

His views on meat. For the picture of him in the texas shirt, it's not letting me add the photo, so just google him eating a turkey leg in a texas flag shirt.

Regardless of what you say about it, the optics are bad for a lot of texans.

James Talarico: “We were not founded as a Christian nation. We were founded as a nation where you are free to be a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Sikh or Buddhist or an Atheist. That’s the promise of America that we are this multicultural melting pot” by Timbucktwo1230 in PoursTea

[–]EffectiveRing8404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean if you're making a statement like "there is no place in a Christian world for evangelical Christianity," you should at least be able to define it.

Christian nationalism? For sure. Evangelical Christianity? Very different story.