When Love Becomes Lawless: The Progressive Gospel That Cannot Save

🏳️‍🌈When Love Becomes Lawless:

Jen Hatmaker, Richard Rohr, and the Progressive Gospel That Cannot Save

Sheepfold Under Siege — Article 8

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Introduction — When Compassion Cuts the Roots of Truth

Every generation faces its own distortions of the gospel.

Some arise from ambition or power.

Some from superstition.

Some from political idolatry.

But the most seductive distortions are those that arise from compassion.

The progressive gospel presents itself as kindness.

It speaks softly of love, dignity, affirmation, healing, and inclusion.

It tells wounded souls that their pain is sacred and their identity is beautiful.

It promises a Christianity without confrontation, without repentance, without judgment, and without the sharp edge of Scripture.

But a Christianity without judgment is a Christianity without justice.

A Christianity without repentance is a Christianity without redemption.

A Christianity without holiness is a Christianity without God.

This article grieves two influential voices in this drift: Jen Hatmaker and Richard Rohr.

They are not alike in temperament or training.

Hatmaker is a popular evangelical author who drifted into full LGBTQ affirmation through emotional empathy and personal story.

Rohr is a Franciscan mystic whose panentheistic worldview rewrites the entire Christian faith from the ground up.

Yet they stand shoulder-to-shoulder as representatives of a progressive gospel that cannot save, because it offers love without the law, belonging without conversion, spirituality without Christ, and compassion without truth.

Their message is soothing.

Their influence is vast.

And their gospel is a shadow without substance.

This is not an attack on people.

It is a warning for the sheepfold.

For Christ said:

“The truth will set you free.”

Not feelings.

Not affirmation.

Not deconstruction.

Not mystical experience.

Truth.

And when love is severed from truth, it no longer leads to freedom.

It leads to bondage dressed in kindness.

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1. The Teachers and Their Appeal — When Empathy and Mystery Replace Repentance

Jen Hatmaker: The Power of Relatable Empathy

Hatmaker rose to prominence through her humor, her warmth, her relatable writing, and her disarming honesty about parenting, marriage, and Christian living.

She did not posture as a theologian. She positioned herself as the friend next door — a sister in Christ who understood life’s chaos, who carried a heart for the hurting, who longed for unity and belonging.

Her pivot toward progressive theology began with a familiar phrase: “We need to love better.”

From there came the deconstruction of doctrinal boundaries, especially around sexuality.

Hatmaker’s public shift in 2016 toward full LGBTQ affirmation was framed as obedience to Christ’s call to love.

Her later statements positioned her as a compassionate alternative to the “harm” she believed traditional sexual ethics inflict.

Her appeal is rooted in emotional resonance.

She is safe.

She is kind.

She speaks to the wounded with tenderness.

She offers Christianity without the pain of conviction.

For many raised under harsh legalism, her voice feels like water in a desert.

But water can be poisoned even if it tastes sweet.

Richard Rohr: The Allure of Mystical Experience

Rohr’s influence flows through his contemplative writings, his Center for Action and Contemplation, and the overwhelming number of evangelicals who read his books silently, privately, without ever realizing he teaches something fundamentally different from Christianity.

Rohr’s worldview is explicitly panentheistic — God in all things, all things in God.

He denies original sin as the church has historically understood it.

He rejects penal substitution.

He redefines Christ as the universal blueprint of divine consciousness.

He sees the cross not as atonement but as the “cosmic path” of surrender.

He speaks of salvation not as justification but awakening.

He calls this “non-dual” Christianity — a mystical oneness between God and creation.

Rohr’s appeal is ancient-feeling and contemplative.

He offers spiritual depth without repentance.

He offers divine mystery without doctrine.

He offers transcendence without holiness.

He offers Christ without the cross.

He calls this liberation.

Scripture calls it deception.

The Combined Appeal: A Christianity That Never Says No

Though different in form, Hatmaker and Rohr converge on one irresistible idea:

The gospel is love, and love can never say no.

It is sentimental, soothing, and deadly.

The gospel of Christ says no to sin so it can say yes to life.

The progressive gospel says yes to everything so it never has to confront sin.

Christ calls sinners to die.

Progressive teachers call sinners to blossom.

Christ calls sinners to repentance.

Progressive teachers call them to self-acceptance.

Christ offers transformation.

Progressive teachers offer affirmation.

One leads to the kingdom of God.

The other leads to a spiritualized version of the world we already have.

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2. The Drift — When Love Becomes Lawless and Holiness Becomes Harm

The heart of progressive theology is not rebellion but redefinition.

It reframes biblical categories until Scripture bows to the experience of the individual.

This is the drift we must confront.

A. Love is redefined as affirmation

The progressive gospel insists that love is the acceptance of one’s identity, desires, and story.

It treats disagreement as harm and conviction as violence.

It frames historic Christian sexual ethics as oppression and traditional doctrine as exclusion.

But Scripture teaches that love confronts sin because sin kills.

The love of Christ is not indulgent.

It is sacrificial — a love that bleeds for sinners, not blesses their rebellion.

B. Sin is reframed as pain, not guilt

Hatmaker speaks of sin as “wounding” and “trauma,” rarely as transgression or rebellion.

Rohr denies original sin entirely, calling it a “negative starting point” invented by the Western Church.

But Scripture speaks plainly:

“Sin is lawlessness.”

“Sin is darkness.”

“Sin is rebellion.”

“Sin is death.”

If sin becomes merely pain, then healing replaces repentance.

Therapy replaces conversion.

Affirmation replaces sanctification.

And the cross becomes unnecessary.

C. Jesus becomes an example, not a substitute

In Hatmaker’s progressive framing, Jesus primarily models love and community.

In Rohr’s mystical system, Jesus reveals the universal Christ-consciousness in all things.

But Scripture says:

He bore our sins.

He was wounded for our transgressions.

He drank the cup of wrath.

He reconciled us by His blood.

He died as a substitute.

Any gospel that turns Jesus into inspiration instead of propitiation is not the gospel.

D. Scripture becomes a storybook, not a standard

Hatmaker speaks often of the Bible as a “conversation” and “sacred journey,” which allows her to sidestep the clarity of God’s commands.

Rohr teaches that Scripture is the “first half of life,” and contemplative mysticism is the “second half,” effectively making personal experience the final authority.

But Scripture is not a conversation.

It is revelation.

It is the clear, sufficient Word of God.

It does not bow to cultural narratives or personal stories.

When Scripture loses its authority, Christ loses His voice.

E. The Church becomes a support group, not a holy people

Under progressive influence, the Church transforms from a pillar of truth into a therapeutic community.

Hatmaker elevates belonging over belief.

Rohr elevates consciousness over doctrine.

The result is a community centered on emotional safety rather than holiness.

Christ calls His people to be “a holy nation.”

Progressive ideology calls them to be “an affirming community.”

One is the people of God.

The other is a well-organized group therapy session.

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3. The Fruit — A Gospel That Heals Feelings but Cannot Heal Souls

Ideas shape lives, and progressive theology has produced predictable fruit.

Not bitterness or anger, but confusion, shipwrecked faith, and spiritual exhaustion.

A. Believers become more compassionate but less holy

Compassion is good.

Holiness is necessary.

Progressive theology keeps the former and erases the latter.

Christ becomes a comforting friend instead of a commanding King.

B. Churches fracture under the weight of affirmation

Hatmaker’s shift split congregations, families, and ministries.

Rohr’s mysticism has emptied churches of doctrine while filling them with vague spirituality.

Affirmation builds short-term unity and long-term collapse.

C. People deconstruct because there is no anchor for conviction

When doctrine becomes fluid, faith becomes unstable.

People drift because they have no truth to hold them.

D. Sexual ethics crumble, and with them the authority of Scripture

Progressive Christianity always begins with empathy and ends with sexual revisionism.

This is not accidental.

It is inevitable.

Once feelings become hermeneutics, the Bible becomes negotiable.

E. Christ becomes less necessary, not more

Hatmaker’s gospel needs a kind Jesus, not a crucified one.

Rohr’s gospel needs a cosmic Christ, not a personal one.

Neither needs a Savior.

Because neither believes sin is damnation.

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4. The Pastoral Call — Recover a Fierce, Tender, Biblical Love

The answer to progressive theology is not cruelty.

It is not harshness or posture or cold dogmatism.

The answer is the love of Christ rooted in the holiness of Christ.

A. Recover the truth that love requires repentance

Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.”

Hatmaker says, “Sin is how you heal.”

Rohr says, “Sin is an illusion.”

Only one voice leads to life.

B. Recover the truth that Scripture stands above story

We honor people’s experiences, but we submit them to God’s Word.

We do not let experience rewrite Scripture.

C. Recover the truth that holiness is freedom, not oppression

Holiness is not bigotry.

Holiness is beauty.

Holiness is joy.

Holiness is the fire of God’s presence.

Without holiness, there is no heaven.

D. Recover the truth that the cross is the center

Not trauma.

Not affirmation.

Not mysticism.

Not belonging.

The cross—Christ crucified for sinners—is the heart of the gospel.

E. Recover the truth that compassion must have a spine

True compassion tells the truth even when it hurts.

True compassion calls sinners to repentance because sin destroys them.

True compassion loves people more than their feelings.

Christ’s compassion bled.

Progressive compassion blurs.

One saves.

One deceives.

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Conclusion — When Shepherds Lead Sheep Into Fog

Hatmaker and Rohr are not monsters.

They are sincere, wounded, articulate people who want to bring healing to others.

But they have embraced a dangerous belief:

Love must never confront.

This belief has produced a gospel that affirms sinners but does not save them.

It promises belonging but removes the cross.

It offers kindness without conviction and spirituality without Christ.

This is not Christianity.

It is moral comfort wrapped in religious language.

The sheepfold is under siege not only by wolves who devour, but by shepherds who soothe.

And soothing is deadly when the wound is mortal.

Christ calls His Church to love fiercely and truthfully.

May we hold the line with tears and clarity.

May we speak the truth without apology.

And may we remember that the only love worth offering is the love that leads sinners to the Savior.

✒️ The Pilgrim’s Post