Amy's Beliefnet Interview with Holly Lebowitz Rossi
Mister Rogers' Theology of 'Neighbor'
There will never be another Mister Rogers, but he continues to guide millions, even from his 'new neighborhood.'
Author Amy Hollingsworth "met" Fred Rogers on television while watching "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" on public television with her 2-year-old son. Then she had the chance to meet him in person for a rare interview about his faith. Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister who died in 2003, shared insights and life lessons with Hollingsworth during their ensuing friendship. She, in turn, talked to Beliefnet about what Mister Rogers did when he got angry, how he endured cultural criticism and cynicism, and why he felt the space between the TV set and the viewer is "holy ground."
Q: You and Mister Rogers come from different backgrounds. How did he affect your spiritual life?
A: I really thought, in my narrow-minded way, when I first met him, that I was going to impact his spirituality. In my circle at the time, he didn’t use the right words, he didn’t use the right vocabulary. He didn’t use the phrase "born again" or "saved." Whereas in my circle people might call God "Father God," he called God "the Eternal." I really thought, I’m going to get him to be bolder about using some of this terminology, and isn’t that always the way—I meet this gentle man, and he’s the one who ends up transforming my life. I think I thought I had my faith all figured out, and he reintroduced mystery. Using a term like "the Eternal" instead of "Father God" shows that sense of awe and mystery that I think I had lost. So he did very gently nudge me in a different direction. I think he made me less narrow-minded, more tolerant, and more in awe of what’s mysterious about our faith.
