Either Aaron Rogers is Right or He's Wrong (Spoiler Alert: He's Wrong)

You probably didn't know that Danica Patrick is a Zen Buddhist, self-help guru, motivational speaker, and prosperity preacher, did you? Maybe you knew Danica Patrick as a race car driver, or a (seldom dressed) spokesperson for GoDaddy.com, or Aaron Rogers' girlfriend. But as Danica says at the start of her podcast:

I believe that each and every one us has the power within ourselves to create the life that we really want, and I want to help give you the tools to make that happen. I'm Danica Patrick, and I'm pretty intense.

That's not the kind of intro you might expect on the podcast of a racer, but Danica seems to have summed up the parlance of a "If you can see it, you can be it" generation.

Recently, Danica sat down for an interview with aforementioned boyfriend Aaron Rogers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, who lost this past Sunday in the NFC Championship Game against the San Fransisco 49ers. This interview is just beginning to stir widespread interest because among the many topics Danica and Aaron talk about, one of them is religion.

The interview itself, however, was posted the day after Christmas, weeks before the Packers knew they were going to be in the NFC Championship game. That makes the intro to Danica's podcast all the more humorous. Her philosophy is devastated in the first minute. Before her opening spiel, there's a 45-second teaser of the interview with Aaron saying the following:

If you take out the esoteric nature of the words we're using, it's really about belief and confidence. It's about a confidence that we're going to do it, and the belief on everybody who is contributing that we will achieve the result we want to. I think there's power in it. If you look at the history of our 2-minute drill over the history of my 12 years starting, it's not like we score every single time. But there's almost a thought now out there, and really most importantly on our squad that we're definitely scoring. And it's not like that's 100% of the time, but when the thought is there, and you feel like it's for sure going to happen, then that belief is very powerful.

In case you don't know, Aaron's last pass of the game was an interception, right in the middle of one of those 2-minute scoring drills as Green Bay was trying to come from behind and win the game. So... what happened? Did Aaron not believe hard enough? Was the thought just not there? Which person on the team didn't want it? Who doubted? Someone's at fault for this!

No, the Packers got out-played. So much for "the power within ourselves" to get what we really want.

Danica and Aaron's worldview explodes in the introduction to their interview, making the next one hour and forty-five minutes awkward to listen to—and not just because their philosophy is wonky. This was a sleepy conversation, as if Danica and Aaron were fighting the effects of a double-dose of NyQuil while chatting quietly in a nursery of napping babies. For athletes who get paid to entertain, move fast, and talk over noise, they are really..... slow..... and, um..... uh..... boring.

Let's skip straight to the part that had people talking this week—Aaron Rogers' thoughts about Christianity. Aaron and I have a similar upbringing: we both grew up in church, wanted to be "cool" Christians, asked a lot of skeptical questions, and eventually came into a following of Rob Bell. That's right, once upon a time, I, like Aaron Rogers, was once taken by Bell's false teaching. But some sound brothers in the Lord came along side me and showed me my errors, and by God's grace I repented. Either Aaron didn't know such sound men of faith, or he didn't listen to them.

In August of 2017, ESPN did a cover story on Aaron called The Search for Aaron Rogers, and his relationship with Bell was prominent in the piece. In fact, Bell's words concluded the article, quoting Aaron: "I've been to the bottom and been to the top, and peace will come from somewhere else." After Aaron's season that year ended early due to injuries, I wrote an open letter to share what I've learned since my Bell days. I was going to post it on my blog, but I never did. (After doing a search, it appears I didn't keep what I'd written.)

As apostasy stories often go, Aaron is even deeper down the rabbit hole now than he was in 2017. His skeptical questioning of orthodox Christianity has turned into outright making fun of it, and he's seeking out other spiritual gurus like the Dalai Lama and finding cosmic significance in Ancient Aliens (no kidding). He discloses all of this in a conversation with the woman he's fornicating with—Danica Patrick, who believes God is merely "the highest level of vibration." Ick. Why does Aaron Rogers scorn his former faith? Because he's in love with his sin and suppresses the truth in his unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).

But Aaron claims his rejection of Christianity runs deeper than that. "Rules and regulations and binary systems don't really resonate with me," he said. "It's us and them. It's saved and unsaved. It's heaven and hell. It's enlightened and heathen. It's holy and righteous and sinner and filthy. And I think that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves. 'Oh, I've got Jesus, and I'm going to heaven, and there's only 144,000 of us going when there's 7 billion people on the planet." Uh, what? Was Aaron raised a pack of Jehovah's Witnesses?

Aaron goes on: "I don't know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell. Like what type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn most of His beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?"

He even weighs in on God's sovereign election: "There's this whole predestination within the sects of organized religion who believe that free will does not exist the way we think it does. People are predestined to go to heaven or hell."

Remember, these criticisms are coming from the guy who thinks he can will himself to win the NFC Championship game. He told his football team, "Speak s--- to life," which means, "talking things into existence, creating an organizational zeitgeist that is constantly manifesting positive things to happen. I think there's power in that." No, there isn't—not even a trip to the Superbowl.

Aaron is certainly not the first to criticize "binary systems." The whole war on genderism and sexual identity is a conflict with God and His created order of male and female. Ultimately, arguing against binary is self-defeating. Either it's binary, or it isn't. It's impossible for Aaron to operate under any other kind of system. Either Aaron is right, or he's wrong. Either he wins the game, or he doesn't. Either Green Bay is going to the Superbowl, or San Fransisco is.

To further the point and expound on the irony, Aaron and Danica's podcast was recorded on a digital recorder, shared through a podcast hosting site, and transmitted to the ears of many—how? By way of the 1's and 0's that make up binary computer code.

Either God is just, or He's not. Either you go to heaven, or you go to hell. Either Jesus is the only way to get to the Father, or He isn't. Either Aaron worships the Creator or the created. At the heart of Aaron's problem, he thinks he's better than God, and his ways are higher than God's ways. As Dr. Owen Strachan commented, "Rob Bell has trained Aaron Rogers in a Christianity that is not Christianity. Rejecting divine justice, it gives us a god who looks a lot like... us."

Aaron says, "It's been a fun path to a different kind of spirituality which to me has been more meaningful." Boy, he sure has a way of making fun and meaningful sound tired and dull. Aaron thinks his life is fuller outside an either/or world. But life is rich beyond comprehension when we know, according to God's word, that our eternity is secure in Christ alone. As 1 John 5:13 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."

Aaron Rogers follows the religion of Aaronrogersanism, in which he seeks the Dalai Lama, finds purpose in Ancient Aliens, and sleeps with Danica Patrick. But either this will save him on judgment day, or it won't. (Spoiler alert: it won't.) Said Bell, quoting Rogers, "I've been to the bottom and been to the top, and peace will come from somewhere else." Two years later, Aaron is still trying to find peace in the world while rejecting the peace of God.

I pray for Aaron Rogers (and Danica, too, of course) as I did in 2017, that he "will know the truth, and the truth will set him free" (John 8:32).