Tom Brokaw of NBC Nightly News once said of the American icon Fred Rogers, “Mister Rogers was an ordained minister, but he never talked about God on his program. He didn’t need to.”
Eight years before his death, Fred Rogers met author, educator, and speaker Amy Hollingsworth. What started as a television interview turned into a wonderful friendship spanning dozens of letters detailing the driving force behind this gentle man of extraordinary influence. Educator? Philosopher? Psychologist? Minister? Here is an intimate portrait of the real Mister Rogers.
The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers focuses on Mr. Rogers’ spiritual legacy, but it is much more than that. It shows us a man who, to paraphrase the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “preached the gospel at all times; when necessary he used words.”
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Christian Book Previews is your place to read the latest Christian books, meet the authors, and decide what you like before you buy. You can also use our easy price ,The Wind Rises Contest Winners In the Wind Rises Tribute Contest, we asked you to celebrate the art of Hayao Miyazaki by creating a very special Tribute to the art of ,Examine Yourselves & Hold On! by Sandy Simpson This DVD is a message based on the articles “Examine Yourself To See If You Are In The Faith” and “Hold On!,WordPress Already Installed. You appear to have already installed WordPress. To reinstall please clear your old database tables first. Log In,Ever wondered what it would be like to be homeless? Mike Yankoski experienced the struggles of being homeless first hand. In his book Under The Overpass, he shares ,Posts about Joyce Meyer written by Discernment Ministries International,Posts about Charles Capps written by Discernment Ministries International,Novello: 10 Years of Great American Writing: An Anthology by Rogers, Amy T.; Inman, Robert; Gaillard, Frye; Novello Festival of Reading and a great selection of ,This is what faith looks like in the world today. Its different from what youve heard.”,Excerpts from a general conference address: President Thomas S. Monson. Although our journey through mortality will at times place us in harms way, may I offer you
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- Sales Rank: #8253 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-11
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Christian Book Previews
Christian Book Previews is your place to read the latest Christian books, meet the authors, and decide what you like before you buy. You can also use our easy price
- Sales Rank: #8253 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-11
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .60″ h x
5.40″ w x
7.90″ l,
.50 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 220 pages
Tom Brokaw of NBC Nightly News once said of the American icon Fred Rogers, “Mister Rogers was an ordained minister, but he never talked about God on his program. He didn’t need to.”
Eight years before his death, Fred Rogers met author, educator, and speaker Amy Hollingsworth. What started as a television interview turned into a wonderful friendship spanning dozens of letters detailing the driving force behind this gentle man of extraordinary influence. Educator? Philosopher? Psychologist? Minister? Here is an intimate portrait of the real Mister Rogers.
The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers focuses on Mr. Rogers’ spiritual legacy, but it is much more than that. It shows us a man who, to paraphrase the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “preached the gospel at all times; when necessary he used words.”
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99 of 100 people found the following review helpful.
All Things Mister Rogers
By Daniel L Edelen
Amy Hollingsworth’s “The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers” grew out of the author’s correspondence over nine years with the legendary children’s TV host. Part author memoir, part Christian devotional, and part biography of Fred Rogers, the book takes readers on a journey through the life of author and the Christian discipleship of the man behind “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”Asked in 1994 by her employer to do an interview with Fred Rogers, a man not given to interviews, Hollingsworth was able to secure that interview by sticking up for Rogers in an editorial response she wrote to a snarky article by a New York journalist that condemned Rogers as nothing more than a panderer to self-esteem and the latest pop psychology. So the author lays out the beginnings of her friendship with the gentle man whom she later credits with saving children’s television, particularly PBS’s version of it.Her stories of Rogers get to the one side of his persona that he kept very quiet, his Christian faith. In his younger days, Rogers started off as a puppeteer on a children’s show and saw the need to bring the Gospel into the way that television reached out to children. To this end, he enrolled in seminary, only to find resistance to his being ordained. The ordination board did not know what to do with a man who did not want to pastor a local church, but instead wanted to pastor every person who watched a children’s TV show he led. But Rogers’s insistence that the Holy Spirit was able to speak truth even through the airwaves convinced the seminary board; he was ordained in the United Presbyterian Church.The show he became famous for first debuted in Canada, then came to PBS via WQED in Pittsburgh. Rogers lived right down the street and walked to the studio every day. And that was the kind of person Rogers was. He was always given to the simple, the quiet, and the vulnerable even as a child. From the people in the neighborhood he grew up in, he learned that the small things matter. Hollingsworth relates Rogers’s encounter with an elderly woman who taught young Freddie how to make his favorite breakfast, toast sticks, using this encounter as a backbone of the book.The best parts of this book are the little revelations. Hollingsworth tells of Rogers and his seminary buddies going on a road trip to hear a famous pastor speak, only to find a substitute preacher–and a boring one at that–putting the congregation to sleep. Rogers was incensed by this, only to turn to the woman seated next to him and notice her crying because the message spoke to the deepest part of her need. Rogers decided at that point that it was unwise to be judgmental because he could never know how the Holy Spirit was touching someone. Hollingsworth also tells stories that viewers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” relate concerning how the show changed their lives. Some of these stories, particularly the teenager who was horribly abused by his parents throughout his early years, are worthy of five hankies. Another revelation is that Rogers cultivated deep friendships with many famous people. Of particular note to me was that Rogers was close friends with Henri Nouwen, the Catholic priest and author of classic books like “The Wounded Healer” and “The Return of the Prodigal Son.”One of the other truths that comes out of this book is that God blessed Fred Rogers with an enormous creative gift. He wrote 900 episodes of his show, penned over 200 songs, performed the classic background piano music, and was the voice behind most of the puppets in the Land of Make Believe. Hollingsworth does an excellent job showing how that creative bent allowed Rogers to draw children to him and share the Gospel of Jesus in the same way that the Lord blessed the little children who were presented to Him. Knowing that Rogers got up every day at 5AM to read the Bible and pray only reinforces the reality that he brought that time before God into every show he made.If there are any complaints against “The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers” they lie in the brevity of the book and the lightness of the entire narrative. Fred Rogers is about as teflon a personality as ever walked the earth (the author even discusses the urban legend that thieves stole Rogers’s car, only to return it the next day when they learned it was his), but more discussion of the man’s flaws and how he used his faith to overcome them would have been appreciated. This book is as close to fawning as any biographical work you’ll ever read.That said, I met Fred Rogers when I was at Carnegie Mellon University. See, I literally lived in Mister Rogers’s neighborhood of Shadyside in the Pittsburgh suburbs. I’d see Rogers walk to work at WQED almost every day since my dorm room was right next to the PBS station’s studio where he taped his show. Getting to talk with him from time to time proved to me that he was everything we saw on TV and more–an example for all the people who ever watched “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and grew up to be better people because of the simple faith of Fred Rogers.A very good book about a very good man. Definitely worthy of your time.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Get more depth behind the person
By Michael Johnson
I have a connection to Mister Rogers because he answered my sister’s letter to him with a personal letter back. This book describes the spiritual dimension behind his incredible kindness. The author carried on a friendship and correspondence with Fred over the years. Thankfully she documented all the correspondence and organized them into a beautiful remembrance of the man. It is not just full of platitudes but gives Mr. Rogers some real depth. My admiration for him grows everytime I add some more knowledge of his life. You find out the real strength behind his patience and kindness was Jesus.The author organizes each chapter methodically with a series of lessons she learned from Mr. Rogers. She has done a nice job documenting the human inspirations for Fred as well. Who knew of his friendship with Henri Nouwen?I didn’t want the book to end. I found a lot more spiritual depth than you might expect from a children’s televsion host.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
An insightful, touching view of a humble and spiritual man
By FaithfulReader.com
When Amy Hollingsworth scored a rare interview with Fred Rogers in 1994, it began a relationship of letters and phone calls between the two that spanned eight years, lasting until three weeks before his death in 2003. It culminates in this compelling inspirational book, THE SIMPLE FAITH OF MISTER ROGERS: Spiritual Insights from the World’s Most Beloved Neighbor.Using the analogy of “toast sticks,” a treat Rogers cited as a milestone in his childhood, Hollingsworth gathers up the “spiritual toast sticks” Rogers bequeathed to her — toast sticks of the heart (inner disciplines), for the eyes (seeing others), and for the hands (using practical things we’ve learned). She adeptly weaves snippets of her own life throughout, exemplifying the influence Rogers had on her life.Hollingsworth paints a portrait of a disciplined, contemplative man of deep faith ordained by the United Presbyterian Church as an evangelist with a unique charge to serve children and families through television. And rather than conform to what passed for quality children’s programming, he determined to chart his own course. “I’m so convinced that the space between the television set and the viewer is holy ground,” he told Hollingsworth.There was no frantic Sesame Street action in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Each of the 900 episodes opened with a traffic light flashing in yellow. Slow down, was the message. Take time. “And so, for me, being quiet and slow is being myself, and that is my gift,” Rogers told Hollingsworth. “Sometimes slow is better: in understanding, in learning to be patient, in ‘going deeper’ spiritually,” observes Hollingsworth, a self-confessed Type A, hyperactive person.Rogers also used the unlikely medium of television to teach about silence. Hollingsworth relates the story of cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing a composition on the show and Rogers telling children: “Let’s take some quiet time to remember, to sit and think about what we’ve heard.” And he did. Silence, Hollingsworth says, wasn’t dead air to Rogers — it was thanking the God who inspires and informs all that is nourishing and good. “Fred may have considered silence his most important legacy.”Right next to feelings, that is. Rogers referred to himself as an “emotional archaeologist,” Hollingsworth writes, wanting to get to the root of what motivates people. As a child, he was overweight and teased by bullies. He wanted someone to tell him it was okay to feel bad. As an adult, he encouraged children to open up about their feelings through setting an example of vulnerability on the show himself. His plea for public television as a venue for teaching about feelings helped him sway the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications to come through on a $20 million grant for the medium in 1969.”It’s one of the most important parts of the Neighborhood, knowing that feelings are all right. You know, that you don’t have to hide them and that there are ways that you can say how you feel that aren’t going to hurt you or anybody else. If there were a legacy that I would hope for the Neighborhood passing on, that’s certainly one of them.”Rogers, Hollingsworth shows, carefully structured his life. He rose every morning at 5 a.m. for prayer. He swam at 7:30 a.m. (after singing “Jubilate Deo” out loud, a song taught to him by his mentor Henri Nouwen), worked, then went to bed at 9:30 p.m. He ate no meat and drank no alcohol. “It isn’t difficult to see why a man with this level of discipline would be able to cultivate an interior life that would inspire awe in others,” writes Hollingsworth.His spirit was contagious. He once quieted five thousand rowdy Boston University graduates at commencement by inviting them to sing, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” He befriended inmates he taught in a maximum-security prison. “Love Boat” star Lauren Tewes credits his show with giving her the strength to kick her cocaine habit. He inspired song lyrics.Hollingsworth emphasizes Rogers’s humility. (Can you say “humble”? Sure you can.) “I don’t think of myself as somebody who’s famous. I’m just a neighbor who comes and visits children; (I) happen to be on television. But I’ve always been myself. I never took a course in acting. I just figured that the best gift you could offer anybody is your honest self, and that’s what I’ve done for lots of years. And thanks for accepting me exactly as I am.”We do, Mister Rogers. We do. — Reviewed by Cindy Crosby. Contact Cindy at phrelanzer@aol.com.
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