Sophie is 8 years old. Her parents take her to church every Sunday, and she has been learning about Hell in Sunday school. She knows that her grandparents are not ‘saved,’ and she is worried about them going to Hell. She tries to talk to them about it whenever she sees them, but they always smile and tell her that Hell is not real. They quickly change the subject each time, as Sophie’s parents have made it clear that they do not want her grandparents talking to her about their own ideas that go against her faith. Sophie has recently been unable to stop thinking about the future suffering of her grandparents and often cries herself to sleep at night. She is frustrated that she cannot change the minds of her grandparents no matter how much she prays, but she is convinced that if she keeps praying, God will change their minds. When her grandfather dies the next year, she becomes deeply distressed. She does not understand the idea of eternal punishment for someone that was not a bad person.

Tony was born to parents who had a fundamental Baptist worldview. He is 12 years old. He has been going to church at least twice per week since he was a small child, where he has been indoctrinated by Sunday school teachers and the pastor of his church. He discovered masturbation recently and has been struggling with the strong urge to pleasure himself when he is alone. His mother caught him once and scolded him. She told his father who regularly embarrasses him by bringing it up. He finds himself unable to control the urge and masturbates at least once a week but then feels extremely guilty. He has been spending an increasing amount of time praying to God for forgiveness. He often wonders why there is no actual response, and why he feels no different after he prays. When he asked his Sunday school teacher about this, he was told that he is simply not ‘listening’ hard enough. Since that conversation he is worried that he has angered God in some way. He lies awake every night anxious and praying, worried that God is no longer able to love him since he started masturbating.

Darius, a 15-year-old son of a Christian pastor, has been homeschooled all his life. Rather than being taught appropriate sexual education, including how to use protection in order to avoid impregnating someone and decrease risk of catching an STD, he has only been taught to avoid sex until marriage. He was also discouraged from masturbating. His parents relied on the power of his belief to protect him against his own biological drives. He avoided masturbation as his parents taught him, but his teenage hormones and sexual urges were ultimately stronger than his religious education, and he had sex with a girl in his neighborhood. He knew very little about condoms and it did not even occur to him to use protection. He felt very guilty afterward and immediately prayed and promised God never again to have sex until after he was married. This one time was enough for nature, though, and his girlfriend became pregnant. He is now faced with being a father while still in high school and having to tell his parents what he did.