On a recent podcast with his girlfriend, Dana Patrick, Aaron Rodgers said: “I don’t know how you can believe in a God who wants to condemn most of the planet to a fiery hell,” as reported by PEOPLE magazine. “What type of loving, sensitive, omnipresent, omnipotent being wants to condemn his beautiful creation to a fiery hell at the end of all this?”

“Religion can be a crutch, it can be something that people have to have to make themselves feel better,” the Green Bay Packers QB continued. “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.”

The Rodgers family, who’ve reportedly been estranged from the NFL star for over five years, were displeased with harsh commentary on religion, sources told PEOPLE.

“They were dismayed,” a source close to the family told the outlet. “The family is very dedicated to their Christian faith.”

Rodgers claimed he and “most people” he knew growing up went to church because “you just had to go.”

The 36-year-old now sees himself embracing a “‘different type of spirituality’ that is more meaningful to him than what he experienced as a child,” the magazine reported.

All too often today people want to hold onto the belief in God while having it their way. This is largely the reason for the “Spirituality” movement. The movement rejects the reality of hell and embraces moral relativism. This— the greatest of sins, the sin of pride.

In his 1994 book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul II wrote that too often “preachers, catechists, teachers . . . no longer have the courage to preach the threat of hell” (p. 183). Concerning the reality of hell, the pope says, “In point of fact, the ancient councils rejected the theory . . . according to which the world would be regenerated after destruction, and every creature would be saved; a theory which abolished hell. . . . [T]he words of Christ are unequivocal. In Matthew’s Gospel, he speaks clearly of those who will go to eternal punishment (cf. Matt. 25:46). [But] who will these be? The Church has never made any pronouncement in this regard” (pp. 185–6).

Aaron should know that ultimately many choose hell by rejecting God and the teaching of his son Jesus Christ. God wishes for no one to be in hell.

In 1 Timothy 2:4, for example, St. Paul says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” But God also desires that we not sin, and yet we still do. God desires the good for all of his creatures, but because he has also given human beings and angels the gift of free will, it follows that God will allow us to enjoy or suffer the consequence of this good gift, even if it means eternal separation from him.