# Relax, Hell isn't Real!

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/heretic-hereafter-podcast-7475240/relax-hell-isn-t-real
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/heretic-hereafter-podcast-7475240/relax-hell-isn-t-real.md
Podcast: [Heretic Hereafter Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/heretic-hereafter-podcast-7475240)
Published: 2026-06-17T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://heretichereafter.substack.com/p/relax-hell-isnt-real
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/202149307/07ae73a7f4208b8474a79f6aab80ca13.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/heretic-hereafter-podcast-7475240/episodes/relax-hell-isn-t-real
Duration seconds: 428

## Resource

Welcome new subscribers! This week, we’re continuing our series on FEAR. There’s a bit on parenting here, but if you’re looking for a more parenting-specific article, I can recommend The Extreme Weirdness of Trying to Buy a Bible for My Kids. You can also search “parenting” in the archive. Obsessing Over the Afterlife Growing up Evangelical, there were a lot of things to be afraid of, including but not limited to: * being “left behind” at the rapture * demons * tarnishing one’s purity Simultaneously, we were shamed for being afraid and told that our fear was due to a lack of faith. By far though, my biggest fear was Hell. Would I forget to confess a sin and be cast into eternal damnation? Could I “backslide” and lose my salvation? I worried about friends and loved ones and even strangers on the street. It seemed to me that no one else was taking Hell seriously enough—it was ETERNAL, after all. I wondered how my fellow churchgoers could believe in this vision of Hell and not spend every waking moment obnoxiously evangelizing every single person they met? God was love, I was often told, but God was also perfect and He demanded perfection. Trying to be perfect was the only way of ensuring I wouldn’t be condemned. God was the Big Angry Man in the Sky who was just waiting to drop the hammer on all of us. Heretic Hereafter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. A Change of Heart It took a lot of life experience, theological study, and therapy for me to admit the truth: Hell makes no sense. Penal Substitutionary Atonement (the predominant way of looking at Jesus’ crucifixion in most American churches) makes no sense, either. Once I became a parent, I could not imagine God (who is supposed to be…

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## Transcript

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