Discernment in Christianity: Learning from Jen Hatmaker’s Fall
By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
I discuss the decline of Jen Hatmaker’s faith, comparing it to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Hatmaker’s shift towards affirming same-sex relationships and her promotion of faith deconstruction have led to her obvious departure from Christianity. I urge discernment and warns against false teachers who undermine true faith.
You know the Leaning Tower of Pisa, right? It began leaning at its construction in 1172 as the 2nd floor was completed. Unstable soil was the culprit. Over time, the lean worsened until it reached it maximum of 5 degrees. It has since been stabilized back to 3.97 degrees.
Everyone has discernment, and everyone should be training themselves up in it. Some Christians have been given an extra dose of discernment as a gift, which exists in the Christian in bulk without having trained. Training in discernment hones it even sharper. Christians with the gift of discernment can see at half a degree that the tower is tilting, when most others don’t see the tilt yet. We sound the alarm early, we see ‘something is off -kilter’ about this’.
In 2013 I and others sounded the alarm about Jen Hatmaker. She was an evangelical who wrote an influential book called “7: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess“. I reviewed it below. Part 1 reviews the book and part 2 reviews the movement that was obviously influencing Hatmaker- which was Works Faith and also Christian Mysticism.
2013:
Jen’s ‘Leaning Tower of Faith” tilted even more a few years later when she changed her view of sexuality and marriage, claiming that homosexual marriage is OK and even holy. She affirmed same-sex relationships, which led to LifeWay Christian Resources pulling her books from its stores. Her tilt went from 2 degrees to 10 degrees. I and others sounded the alarm again-
2016: Discerning Jen Hatmaker: New stance on affirming homosexual marriage causes Lifeway to pull her books
Nick Eicher is host of World Radio podcast. Last week he hosted Denny Burk and the topic was Jen Hatmaker. She has by now fully departed the faith (“religion”) and loudly ‘celebrates’ that fact with her new course on how to leave the faith.
2025: The Fall of Jen Hatmaker World podcast with Denny Burk, who said-
Her website now celebrates the “deconstruction” of her former faith. She sells online courses coaxing others to do the same. For only $69 dollars, Jen Hatmaker will show you exactly how to abandon Christ and His word. … Her conversation was immodest, ugly, and sad. It is as complete and thorough an apostasy as I have ever seen.
In the Parable of the Soils, Jesus said of some, after they receive the seed of the Gospel,
Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and they sprang up immediately, because they had no depth of soil. But after the sun rose, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. (Matthew 13:5).
Jen Hatmaker is an example of that kind of seed- early professed love for Jesus, then because she has no root in Him, withers away.
It is such a heartbreaking tragedy when someone who formerly claimed to love Jesus departs from the faith. I am sure Paul was upset and grieved over Demas leaving the faith for the world. Jen Hatmaker leaving the faith is both mournful and angering. Anyone who is apart from Christ and on a trajectory to stay that way is cause for grief. Souls are precious. But sadly, she is using the faith to make money and drawing away disciples after her to do the same. She says we can skip church and still love Jesus. She is against ‘organized religion,’ which just means she is recreating a god in her own image and urging the unwary to do the same. This should make us righteously angry.
Here is a description of her “Me Course”-
Faith Deconstruction and Reconstruction
Navigate your spiritual journey with grace and understanding, creating a framework for faith that feels authentic and aligned with your values.
Here’s the thing about discernment. When the verses advise us to mark and avoid such a one, not to even let them into your house, have nothing to do with them… and so on? THIS is why. Because ‘deconstructing’ from the faith is not a private activity. Because false teachers are not involved with their own faith- they are involved with YOURS. Their goal is to get you to stray. It’s their whole point, their reason for being, and their cause. Galatians 2:4 explains,
Yet it was a concern because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy on our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us.
In 2 Corinthians 11:26 one of the many dangers Paul experienced was from “false brothers.” Their heresies are “destructive” says 2 Peter 2:1. 2 Corinthians 11:13 says they are “deceitful workers.” They work, and their work is against you.
Jen Hatmaker’s Leaning Tower- her tower is not Pisa but Siloam- and it has fallen and is taking out others who were unwary enough to sit with her under it.
In 1951 poet Dylan Thomas wrote a poem called Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, a poem about resisting death. The opening stanza says,
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
False teachers are like this, except the opposite, they rage, rage against the illuminating light. They rage against life in Christ, twist and writhe against the second death they know is coming. And they want to take you with them into that gaping mouth of Hades where there is no light and they will have an eternity to rave and rage against that hellish night.
Avoid Jen Hatmaker, and avoid false teachers. If you have been warned about such a one, heed the warning. It is for your soul’s good and to the glory of Jesus.
