When a non-observant person dies, the rabbi will often say something like "while not practically observant s/he had a warm heart/feelings for Judaism."
The rabbi has to say something complimentary and that is fine. But imagine a criminal dies and the rabbi says "while he didn't actually keep the law [he DID steal millions of dollars from innocent people and ruined their lives] but he had warm feelings for the law."
In our post modern world, the attitude is that whatever you do is OK. Free country. I choose to be religious, you choose not to. Either way is fine. It is superfluous to say that Hashem doesn't look at it that way.
Someone once said that there is a special room in Gan Eden with hooks on which there are hearts hanging. Those were all of the good Jewish hearts. But the rest of the person is somewhere else....
So heart is very important - but not enough.
