My family has teased me for years about my affection for Mr. Rogers. I've never channel-surfed without stopping to watch him if he was on a TV station. "Why do you like him?" one of my kids asked me once. "Because he likes me just the way I am!" I jokingly responded. Although I was joking, I will admit that there has always been something about Fred Rogers that I've found appealing. I learned many years ago that he was both a Christian and an ordained minister. After reading The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers, (a Christmas gift) I better understand why I and so many others found him to be so compelling a personality despite his gentle, quiet mannerisms.
Fred Rogers saw his television neighborhood as his pulpit and saw his TV neighbors as his congregation. He said that he considered the space between the TV and the viewer to be "sacred space" where the Holy Spirit translated to the viewers what they needed to hear. I think he was a good example of a person expressing Christ's love in a non-religious way.
You may not like Mr. Rogers, but you'd better not trash-talk him to me. :) I've always liked him and, after reading this book about his life, I better understand why I did.
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