In an intimate conversation with girlfriendDanica Patrick, Green Bay Packers quarterbackAaron Rodgersis discussing his Christian upbringing and how he first began to question his faith.
In a video posted to Patrick’sYouTube pagefor her Pretty Intense podcast in late December, Rodgers — who was raised as aChristian from a young age— said he had trouble connecting with his religious community as a child.
“Most people that I knew, church was just … you just had to go,” the Super Bowl XLV champion recalled.
It was his time with the youth group,Young Life, that he felt the most sense of community — which he said he didn’t experience during typical Sunday mass.
“We went to Mexico during two spring breaks and built houses,” he said of volunteering with the program. “We put together homes for these folks who were living [with] garage door sides thrown together and stuff, that was meaningful. That was really meaningful work.”
But it wasn’t until Rodgers was exposed to other religions as a young adult that he began to question his own.
“I had some good friendships along the way that helped me to figure out exactly what I wanted to believe in,” he added. “Ultimately, it was that rules and regulations and binary systems don’t really resonate with me.”
This realization eventually led Rodgers down a path to a “different type of spirituality,” he explained.
“I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell,” he said. “What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?”
Though Rodgers did not specifically refer to himself as an atheist — someone who does not believe in the existence of God or gods — his statements seem to echo those of a growing contingent of people in the United States. According toPew Research, the number of Americans who identify with being an atheist has increased over the last decade (from 2 percent to 4 percent).
Danica Patrick/Instagram
For the two-time NFL MVP, it was the “us against them” attitude he observed that ultimately changed his views on organized religion.
“Religion can be a crutch, it can be something that people have to have to make themselves feel better,” Rodgers continued. “Because it’s set up binary, it’susandthem,savedandunsaved,heavenandhell, it’senlightenedandheathen, it’sholyandrighteous… that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves.”
Patrickconfirmed to the Associated Pressthat shewas in a relationship with the NFL starin January 2018. Rodgers and Patrickmade their red carpet debutat the ESPYs in July 2018 — when Patrickwas the show’s first female host.
source: people.com
