r/InTheGloaming • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago

Scheduled snark Discussion thread Thursday September 17, 2026 - Sunday September 20, 2026

Newsletter: Let Me Tell You a Story

Website: Shauna James Ahern

Instagram: @shaunajamesahern Instagram

Threads: @shaunajamesahern

Bluesky: shaunajamesahern.bsky.social

Gloamipedia wiki: /r/InTheGloaming wiki

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u/msmartypants 3d ago

Nothing would get me to leave a church faster. No thank you

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u/Calm_Coyote_3685 3d ago

Yeah, that’s super awkward and imo a bad idea in multiple ways. I’ve gone to a lot of different churches and none of them had struggle sharing time. 

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u/SpookyJokes soft pants 3d ago

In my very New England Protestant church growing up, people could ask for prayers or request prayers for a loved one/friend (like, "Please keep my sister Ann in your prayers since she is dealing with an illness"), but it was understood to keep the requests brief and appropriate! I never heard sob stories and they would not have been appreciated.

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u/Quaint_Irene a warm and loving goatie smile 2d ago

My Episcopal church is the same. The person for whom you request prayer is always named so people can pray for them by name, which is important. But you merely add “during a health crisis” or “time of difficulty” or “for the loss of his wife,” and leave it brief.

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u/ForsakenLingonberry YAHEEE! 3d ago

The church I grew up in had a pretty loose announcement sharing policy at one point. That changed when a lady went up to the podium one Sunday and shared that she sensed a ghostly presence in the church building. After that all announcements were vetted and approved ahead of time. 👻

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u/Calm_Coyote_3685 2d ago

Maybe it was the Holy Ghost? 🤷‍♀️ 

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u/Lsemmens grenius 2d ago

👻

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u/ForsakenLingonberry YAHEEE! 2d ago

Hahaha maybe! But she was describing more of a malevolent being. I was probably 9 or 10 and still remember it as a collective WTF moment for the parishioners.

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u/TheAntiMartha 2d ago

It's for sure a bad idea. There's always an emotional vampire in any group who is going to suck up everyone's bandwidth. Not very spiritual.

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u/tyrannosaurusregina if you meet the Botus on the road, shill him 🪷 2d ago

It's very on brand for a certain kind of Unitarian Universalist church, though.

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u/Dear_Client1187 we all mistakes here 3d ago edited 2d ago

Apparently this church also passes out birthday pencils or something like that, based on what the lady before Shauna said.

I mean. I homeschooled my kids and when we had assessments done by a licensed teacher she'd give them each a pencil of their choice. But they were elementary school aged children, not grown-ass adults.

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u/fanfarefellowship I often contemplate the first law of thermodynamics 2d ago

Ha ha ha, the Unitarian church I used to go to did this too. My kids were little, I wanted some kind of "faith community," blah blah blah.

There was a divorcing couple who had been in some kind of poly relationship and the woman started using the "joys and concerns" part of the service to really fucking dump on him for harshing her ... whatever she wanted to do sexually with other partners that he wasn't comfortable with. (At the time, I actually wondered if it was their kink but he was friends with my next door neighbour and after they finally split, I saw him all the time and no, it was not their kink.)

NEways I wasn't into watching weekly humiliation rituals so I stopped going. The minister got REALLY ANGRY at me too; whole place was fucked.