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Aaron Rodgers’ Biography Reveals NFL Star’s Thoughts on Religion: Find Out What It Says
Coming from a strict religious upbringing, here is what Aaron Rodgers’ thinks about religion and God.
“No tattoos, no long hair, and no skipping church,” these were the non-negotiables for Aaron Rodgers when growing up in a Christian house. Ed and Darla Rodgers, the parents of the QB, taught every Christian value to their children: Aaron, Luke, and Jordan, when raising a family in Chicago.
While that contributed its fair share in shaping up Aaron Rodgers’ beliefs today, his biography ‘Out of The Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers’ gave the fans a detailed sneak peek at the before and now of religion in the Rodgers house.
Does Aaron Rodgers believe in God?
To answer the question, O’Connor resorted to a 2017 interview of Aaron Rodgers with ESPN’s Mina Kimes. In the interview, the QB openly confessed to not identifying as a Christian anymore, giving up on blacks and whites of the religion.
While it is public knowledge that Rodgers is now walking down the spiritual approach road, it was in his 20es that he started questioning the religious beliefs his parents passed onto him. However, the instances referenced by O’Connor of A-Rod rebelling against his parents’ religious decision started back in his junior high school.
Coming from a strict Christian upbringing, the first incident of Rodgers disagreeing to his parents in a religious matter, as O’Connor reports, was not supporting their decision of moving back to Chicago from Oregon despite it being a religiously inspired shift.
“God would not have this be the will of your father’s life without it also being the will of your life. We’re supposed to return to California,” Darla told a young Aaron, per the biography.
Yet, the QB didn’t feel the belongingness in the Neighbourhood Church that his parents felt so strongly. So, instead, he found a way out: the Young Life, a ministry group.
Aaron Rodgers would often go to trips when in high school, a couple of which were in Mexico, as O’Connor reports in his work. There, Rodgers would aid the ministry group to build houses for the underprivileged.
Then came a point when Rodgers had to choose between his trip and football practice: Rodgers choose football. “I went from going to church on Sundays, knowing how important that was to my parents, to a desire to grow deeper in the Lord,” Aaron Rodgers said about the choice he had to make and about his connection to Young Life.
Rodgers continued to identify himself as a Christian all though his teenage years, even referencing God the first thing after he was drafted by the Packers back in 2005 NFL draft.
The Lord has been teaching me a lot about humility and patience,” Rodgers said on draft night, per O’Connor, “and He kind of threw both of those in my face today.”
But then, what went wrong? For that, let’s first understand Rodgers’ upbringing.
Rodgers' religious upbringing
Although raised Presbyterian and Catholic, Darla and Ed found their home in the nearby Christian Neighbourhood Church, per Ian O’Connor’s book. It shaped how the family functioned, with Darla Rodgers confessing of being a stay at home mom because of her religious beliefs of being a “primary caregiver” before everything else.
While the family was in complete support of the dreams of each of their children, supporting A-Rod’s dream to make it in the NFL wholeheartedly, they just wanted one thing, which was “at least an expectation, if not an outright mandate’ per O’Connor: a commitment to Christianity.
Now Rodgers’ estrangement from his family is a known affair but no one really knows the reason behind it. However, O’Connor’s book claims that it largely stemmed from Ed and Darla not feeling comfortable with the bold expressions of Olivia Munn, the then girlfriend of Aaron Rodgers, about their relationships in front of the media. The book even reported that Rodgers’ parents got into a very heated argument with Munn, resulting into more tension between them and his son.
While Rodgers avoids talking to his parents anymore and also avoids their religious beliefs, he is exploring the realms of spirituality. The QB has not shied away from the use of psychedelic teas to boost his performance, and to keep him ‘grounded’.
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