In a moving tribute to Fred Rogers, Jonathon Merritt recounts how Rogers chose to reform society through his gentle and persistent influence on a children's television show.
In 1965, a thin, soft-spoken man sauntered into Pittsburgh's WQED, the nation's first public television station, to pitch a show targeting young children. The concept was simple enough: convey life lessons to young children with the help of puppets, songs and frank conversations. It doesn't sound like much. That is, until you realize that the man was Fred Rogers, and the program was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
But Rogers was more than a great neighbor or good host; he was a restorer. According to Gabe Lyons in The Next Christians, a "restorer" is someone who views the world as it "ought to be."
Faced with the world's brokenness, restorers are "provoked, not offended." They work to make the world a better place by "creating, not criticizing" and by "being countercultural, not relevant."
Using this definition, Rogers may be one of the greatest American restorers of the 20th century.
Rogers got into television because he "hated" the medium. During spring break of his senior year in seminary, he encountered television for the first time and what he witnessed repulsed him. "I got into television," he recounted, "because I saw people throwing pies at each other's faces, and that to me was such demeaning behavior. And if there's anything that bothers me, it's one person demeaning another. That really makes me
mad!"
In the wake of WWII ...., [Fred Rogers] worried that the type of programming that was becoming normative would create a generation of emotionally-bankrupt Americans.
Faced with the decision to either sour on television itself or work to restore the medium, he chose the latter. He dropped out of seminary and began pursuing a career in broadcasting.
Fourteen years later, he would create one of the most beloved American television shows of all time, and one that would shape entire generations of children.
Rogers was a devout Christian that almost never explicitly talked about his faith on the air, but the way his show infused society with beauty and grace was near-biblical .... "You've made this day a special day by just your being you," he'd famously sign off. "There is no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are."
In many ways, the lasting legacy of Fred Rogers will not be the greater emotional stability of generations of children or even a re-invigoration of imagination. It will be his example of how to restore the world through impassioned creativity and craftsmanship.
For nearly four decades, Rogers entered our homes and entered our hearts. And each day without fail, he left our collective neighborhoods better and made our days a little bit more beautiful.
"But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Hebrews 13:16
