When Fear Feels Like Faith: Mistaking Dysregulation for the Conviction of Sin

Evenings at camp followed a predictable rhythm. After a full day of activities, we’d gather in the chapel for the nightly service. The speaker, typically passionate and persuasive, delivered sermons heavy with shame and condemnation. The messages fixated on sin, our teenage behavior, fear of hell, and how unworthy we were—how much we had failed and how desperately we needed to make things right with God. Vivid depictions of hell, dire warnings about unconfessed sin, and graphic descriptions of Jesus' bloody death meant to take our place were common. I remember being terrified of dying in a car crash and not being "right with God," haunted by the stories the speakers shared.