One of the first things my mother-in-law impressed upon me after joining their very Catholic family was the difference in their perception of hell from the image I was raised with.

My family are southern-Baptist. The image I was raised in was a fiery place of torment where souls are sent for punishment.

My in-laws version of hell resembles an image of Dante's Inferno where souls choose to go when faced with the magnificence of God. In her mind, and from what I get from mass, we- not St. Peter- come to see the errors from our humanity and decide that we're not worthy to enter God's kingdom. In that moment, we turn away to enter hell which is to be a place of penance until we can rise into Heaven.

According my Rev Port, hell is a locked plane with no exit, and no chance for redemption. Catholic mass paints a different picture.

Honestly, I'm not really sure which to believe or lean toward. I choose to live my life without fixated fear and focus on this particular subject.