Love Your Neighbor
"'Won't you be my neighbor?' Well, I suppose it's an invitation. It's an invitation for somebody to be close to you." — Fred Rogers
As Christians, one of our core values is to love our neighbors — a value that Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, held dear.
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As Republican Opinion Columnist David Brooks points out, "The power is in Rogers's radical kindness at a time when public kindness is scarce."
But this doesn’t need to be a time when kindness is scarce. We can all start changing that—in our personal and virtual circles. One simple way to start is to share some of the images and inspiring quotes from Mr. Rogers below with your friends on Facebook.
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Then if you want to read something that makes you feel good, take some time to read the powerful personal story of the reporter who spent years getting to know the real Fred Rogers. As Fred’s mother once told him when he was scared by what he saw in the world, “you will always find people who are helping.”
Kindness in Action
Mr. Rogers on Soviet television is an example of what is possible when you enter into a tense situation with a kind heart.
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Mr. Rogers was one of the only Americans to travel to the USSR during the Cold War. He was almost denied entry by Soviet negotiators who thought it too risky to allow an American on state-sponsored TV.
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It seemed unlikely that he would be allowed entry until Mr. Rogers brought out Daniel Striped Tiger from his sweater.
The little puppet popped out and whispered, “Zdravstvuitye,” or “Hello!” in English.
The Soviet negotiators didn’t stand a chance against Mr. Rogers’ good-natured spirit. They gave in and Mr. Rogers was hosted on the USSR’s children’s television show called “Goodnight, kiddies.”
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Because of his willingness to extend kindness to others even when they offered him none, Mr. Rogers was able to represent the United States with patience and humility on Soviet TV years before the Cold War ended.
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You can watch Mr. Rogers on set in the USSR in the video to the right.