According to People Magazine, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers expounded on his religious views last month during an interview on the Pretty Intense podcast with his girlfriend Danica Patrick. Rodgers told Patrick that he has gone down a path to a “different type of spirituality” that is more meaningful to him than what he experienced as a child.
What was he talking about?
Raised in a Christian home, Rodgers once said he trusted Christ as his Savior when he was a teenager, active in ministries such as Young Life and Athletes in Action. But he no longer holds those views. He told Patrick, “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell. What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?” He also renounced what he perceives as the unloving nature of Christianity.
“Religion can be a crutch, it can be something that people have to have to make themselves feel better,” he said. “Because it’s set up binary, it’s us and them, saved and unsaved, heaven and hell, it’s enlightened and heathen, it’s holy and righteous … that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves.”
So how did Rodgers get from an active, explicit faith to renouncing biblical Christianity? In 2017, ESPN published an extensive article on Rodgers (unfortunately, the article was inaccessible the day I wrote this, but is widely quoted and referenced online). That article opens the window to Rodgers’ defection from Christianity and his disconnection from his parent’s faith. In short, he bought into the postmodern, “progressive Christian” teachings of his friend, author and popular Oprah guest, Rob Bell. Channeling Bell, Rodgers told ESPN, “I think organized religion can have a mind-debilitating effect, because there is an exclusivity that can shut you out from being open to the world, to people, and energy, and love and acceptance.”
In this two-part blog, I want to do two things. In this first installment, I want to explain “progressive Christianity” and how it impacts people like Rodgers through false teachers like Rob Bell. I hope this will clear up some confusion, as well as help you avoid false teaching. Then, in Part 2, I’ll respond to Aaron Rodgers’ comments about biblical Christianity and the church.
So first, what is “progressive Christianity” and why does it matter?
“Progressive Christianity” is the term embraced by postmodernists who identify as Christians, and in many cases, suddenly renounce biblical Christianity. It is, simply, the integration of postmodernism into Christianity, resulting in the abandonment of absolute truth and the distorting of historical, biblical Christianity. Using postmodern terminology, they advocate “deconstructing” the Christian faith and looking for new ways to define their faith. It’s the reason many high-profile people have recently changed their minds about their faith, such as Christian author Joshua Harris, or sought to redefine Christianity, such as bloggers Rachel Held Evans and John Williamson.
Let’s break it down. What do we mean by “postmodernism” and “progressivism”?
Postmodernism is the cultural shift toward the rejection of absolute truth, and all that goes with it. Gens X, Y and Z are truly postmodern generations, taught in classrooms and culture that truth is not absolute, but can be decided according to preference, and no one can lay claim to anything as “true.” And postmodernism fuels radical progressivism.
Progressivism simply exalts anything new as better than anything past. Progressives shun the past and loosen historical moorings, believing that new things are better just because they are new. In past generations, progressives were often innovators and pioneers. But when we mix postmodernism with progressivism, we end up with a hazardous, truth-less, aggressive promotion of a perspective that disdains any claim to truth. Progressives today not only want to try new things or improve the future. They want to jettison the past just because it is the past (this, by the way, is the reason progressives in government despise US history and want to dismantle the Constitution).
That brings us back to Rob Bell. Along the way, Aaron Rodgers was befriended by Rob Bell. Once a popular pastor in a megachurch for postmodern people, Bell drifted away from biblical Christianity to postmodernism and progressivism and is now the poster boy for progressive Christianity. His bestselling book Love Wins was something of a manifesto for progressives, a version of Christianity that was completely untethered from historical doctrine and void of any content regarding truth.
And Bell’s influence on Aaron Rodgers and others like him brings us back to my response.
At this point, we need to nail down three things:
- Christianity without absolute truth is not biblical Christianity.
When Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6), He meant that He was and is both the arbiter of truth and the measure of truth. To know Him is to know truth—absolute and unchanging. We do not get to decide what is true, and truth is not “truthy” or based on how we feel. Truth is universal and transcendent.
And the Bible reveals God’s truth. Because of His truth, we recognize lies. Biblical truth does not shackle us to religion or imprison us in the past. Embracing Christ and His truth sets us free (John 8:32). Furthermore, it is impossible to fully know God and worship Him without acknowledging that He is true and His word is true (John 4:24).
- No other “gospel” is the biblical Gospel.
Rob Bell and those like him are what the Bible means by “false teachers.” They distort the truth, encourage you to rely on yourself rather than God, and muddy the water with vapid distortions of biblical Christianity. Their objective is to be liked and to please people, rather than God (Gal. 1:8-10.)
- So, abandoning absolute truth always ends in despair, division, and confusion
False teachers cause division in the church and confusion in the heart. The Truth of the Bible and of Christ does not do that. When false teachers teach anything other than biblical truth, it always results in confusion and division (Rom. 16:17).
But God does not foster confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). His truth never changes, He never lies, and you can rely on what He says (John 3:33, 2 Tim. 1:7, Titus 1:3).
So, progressive Christianity is not the same thing as biblical Christianity. With that groundwork, in Part 2 I’ll respond directly to Aaron Rodger’s statements from the interviews I quoted. Look for that later this week.