Sarah is a 28-year-old veterinary tech. She grew up in a family that went to church every Sunday. They were very serious about their faith, prayed daily as a family, and ‘included’ God in all of the family decision. She remembers when she was a child feeling very positive sensations whenever she thought about Jesus. In her early 20s, Sarah saw problems with the way Christianity was being practiced in the United States and she began having questions. She joined some online groups that helped her start to realize that what she believed is actually not real. She began looking for other answers to fill what she believed was a hole that needed to be filled. Since then, she has become interested in the healing power of crystals. She now keeps crystals in her house and in her car and reports experiencing positive sensations from the crystals. She fails to see the similarities between the magical powers of the crystals and the magical power of Jesus.

Jennifer is 17 years old and lives with her mother, a practicing Southern Baptist. She has recently realized that she is gay and has been having a hard time understanding why God would give her these feelings if they are wrong. This has caused her to question her faith. She tried to talk to her mother about it, but her mother immediately told she had ‘better not be thinking about’ being gay. Her mother arranged a meeting with their pastor, which Jennifer did not want to go to but agreed so she wouldn’t further upset her mother. The pastor made her pray with him and ask God to help her overcome her sinful desires. She felt uncomfortable the entire time and did not feel like she was talking to the same God she normally prayed to. Her mother insists that the answer to her homosexual desires is more church and more prayer. Jennifer thinks that the things she has been taught do not feel real anymore, but she still feels guilty about being gay and cannot imagine a world outside of her church. She has no one she can talk to about it in her family. Her mother recently found out that she had been talking to someone about it online on a forum for former believers, and she restricted her cell phone use. Jennifer feels depressed and isolated and unsure what to do with the attraction she has towards other girls and with the doubts she has about her faith.

Jalen was born to fundamentalist Christian parents. She was born male, but from her earliest memories, she did not feel like she was a boy. She preferred playing with ‘girl’ toys and dressing up in her sister’s clothes. Her parents scolded her anytime they caught her doing this and told her she was sinning. They explained to her that right and wrong is determined by whatever the Bible says and that the Bible says that she should be happy with the gender she was born with. She began to feel badly about herself and her desire to change sexes. Despite her guilt, the biological drive she felt was very strong and very real. She tried to talk to her parents about this when she was in middle school, but they told her she was ‘just going through a phase.’ She began learning about gender dysphoria online and this immediately made sense to her. At the same time that it made sense, she could not let go of the guilt and the feeling that it was somehow wrong that she felt this way. Her parents were highly skeptical of the idea of gender dysphoria and told her it was ‘un-Biblical.’ Despite her guilt, she could not fight her biology and continued to bring the topic up with her parents and ask for permission to live as a girl. They ultimately kicked her out of the house over the issue and she has been staying with an aunt, who is not a Christian and who is very supportive of her desire to identify as female. Jalen has since had a chance to see a doctor who has started her on hormone treatments. She is finally free to present herself as female and biologically feels much more comfortable. She was unable to maintain the beliefs of her parents and no longer identifies as a believer. Despite all this, she still has a sense inside that it is in some way wrong for her to be identifying as female. She is not sure why she feels guilty, as she thought this would stop when she let go of her beliefs. This guilt gets a little worse every time she sees anything in the news that is anti-trans.