One approach to infusing religion
in a film is to utilize a secular lens to keep overt religious content hidden such
that only its messages that can be stated in a secular way come through. The
basic values of a religion can be transmitted without specific religious
belief-claims possibly turning off some viewers. Given the mass audience that a
typical film can reach, the medium is a good means for presenting people with
values that come out of religion but have their own intrinsic worth apart from
the related religious belief-claims. Film can play a role, therefore, in
enabling the values of a religion to survive the religion’s downfall. From
watching the film, A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood (2019), a viewer would not know that Fred Rogers was an
ordained Presbyterian minister. His wife says at one point in the film that
Fred reads scripture and prays daily, but that is the only clue in the film
that his religious faith is the source of his motivation for and messages on
his show, “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.”
To be sure, Fred had a masters
degree in child development, but as a very religious man, he was motivated
apply Jesus’ teachings to kids. As he said on "The Charlie Rose Show," “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Fred is quoting from the book, Le Petit
Prince. Fred then elaborates: “What we see is rarely essential; what’s
behind your face is what’s essential.” Charlie Rose then asks him, “What can’t
we see about you that’s essential to you—to understanding you?” Fred replies,
“Well, you can’t see my spiritual life unless you ask me about it.” Rather than pushing his faith on others, he
let its fruits speak for themselves. Fred would likely agree with the biblical
passage, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I
tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray,
go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”[1]
Before Fred taped each episode of “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” he would quietly
recite this short prayer: “Let some word that is heard be thine.”[2]
The thine refers to God. Rogers saw
himself as a conduit rather than the source of his messages broadcasted on his long-running
television show. He believed that the Holy Spirit would make up for his
shortfalls in getting the messages out.[3]
Fred Rogers once said that his
ministry was the “broadcasting of grace throughout the land.”[4]
Grace is a vague word. It is what God gives to people without them meriting it.
According to Shea Tuttle, author of Exactly
as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers, “It’s not like he had a
covert theological mission, but religion was so much a part of who he was that
it was always there.”[5]
Tuttle adds that the message that God loves us just the way we are was at the
heart of Fred’s theology.[6]
Rogers said the central message of his television show, that you are loved just
the way you are, is based on God’s concern for all creation.[7]
God’s concern issues out in the Gospels as Jesus’ preaching on love as
universal benevolence—caritas seu
benevolentia universalis. On Fred Roger’s television show, the resulting secularized
message to the viewers is that they are fine just as they are, so they need not
do anything to prove themselves. “You don’t need to speak overtly about
religion in order to get a message across,” Rogers once said.[8]
Unconditional acceptance makes
intimacy possible. Television can be an intimate medium, Fred tells Charlie
Rose on “The Charlie Rose Show.” Fred tells Charlie, “Jesus said to the people
around him, please let the little people come up here; I want to learn from
them; I want to be with them—these innocent people who make up the kingdom of
heaven.” The intimacy that Fred wanted to establish with the children also reminded
him of the Incarnation, wherein God comes close to humanity by God becoming
flesh in Jesus Christ.[9]
As every episode of “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” opens, Fred sings about wanting his viewers to be his neighbor,
which means he is inviting them just as they are to be close to him. He does
not mention Jesus’ view on children or the Incarnation. He is using his faith’s
teachings rather than preaching about them explicitly.
In the film, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the passage about Jesus and
children is nowhere to be found, yet its meaning is one of the major themes of
the movie: kids should be accepted as they are. At one point, Fred says that
each person is precious. Precious to whom? Or what? The answer is left
unstated. Generally speaking, the religious substratum of Fred’s spiritual life
and its direct impact on his television show is hidden in the film under the
language of secular psychology, though a few choice words from the religious
lexicon present clues that Fred is motivated beyond being a therapist.
When Fred meets Lloyd, who has
just had a physical fight with his father at his sister’s wedding, Fred’s
message concerns forgiveness and anger management. The former is no stranger to
Christian teachings. In the faith narratives, Jesus urges his followers to ask
God to forgive their trespasses, as his followers have forgiven those who have
trespassed against us. Jesus reminds his followers, “But if you do not forgive
others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”[10]
But in the film, Fred leaves Jesus’ teachings out and instead tells Lloyd that
it is difficult to forgive those people whom we love. Fred is referring to
Lloyd’s difficulty in forgiving his father for running out on himself, his
sister, and his mother when she was dying. When his father does finally apologize
just before he dies, Lloyd has a muted reaction, as if he were just taking it
all in. The family’s happy ending may imply that Lloyd has forgiven his father,
but the question remains as to whether he has forgiven himself. The family’s
happy ending may mean that he has done so by the end of the film. My point is
that forgiveness is a religious term, and yet in the film, Fred Rogers does not
present it as such. The same can be said of his concern for Lloyd.
Besides forgiveness, compassion is
also salient in the film. Fred stresses the importance of empathy and kindness.
It is no coincidence that Jesus of the Gospels says to his disciples, “I feel
compassion for the people, because they have remained with me know three days
and have nothing to eat.”[11]
Also, in seeing the people, “he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed
and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”[12]
When Jesus went ashore, he “saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and
healed their sick.”[13]
Finally, “Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they
regained their sight and followed him.”[14]
Fred does not lecture Lloyd on Jesus’ view on the importance of compassion;
instead, Fred follows Jesus’ lead by empathizing with Lloyd even just after the
two men met. It is the compassion itself that is important, and it can be
conveyed by the intimate medium of film by how concerned Fred is when Lloyd
admits that his physical fight was with his father.
Fred’s emotional interest in
Lloyd from when Lloyd discloses that he was in a fight closely resembles that
of a pastor even though Fred does not discuss religion with Lloyd, but uses
words familiar to psychology. Fred’s compassion goes beyond that of a therapist
because his empathy is intense and sustained. As Fred’s manager, Bill, says to
Lloyd, “You’re still here because Fred wants it.” It is no longer a matter of
Lloyd’s interview with Fred; the story has become Lloyd’s family problems. Rather
than standing back and being as objective as possible, Fred literally leans
closer to Lloyd in a way that shows an emotional sensitivity that a spiritual
person would have. That Fred’s wife, Joanne, tells Lloyd that Fred reads
scripture and prays for people daily is a hint that the ordained minister
rather than a child-development psychologist is at work.
To the extent that some viewers
may not like explicit mention or visuals of a religious nature, translating
such themes (e.g., teachings) into a secular language could extend the
religion’s reception. Moreover, in a secular culture, this can result, in
effect, in the religion being expanded and even extended temporally. For
example, the value of not fighting back and helping nasty people (i.e., loving
thy enemies) can be spread without mentioning that Jesus preaches love of neighbor
and that Jesus is the Son of God. Some viewers may not believe that Jesus is
the Son of God and yet be open to the value of helping those who insult and
even attack them. Doing so can have intrinsic value that could survive even the
demise of the religion. Should Jesus’ identity ever become a matter of myth,
then Jesus’ message on how to treat other people could at least continue on,
and even be woven into the fabric of a post-Christian society. By putting
secular robes on religious content, films can demonstrate that such content be
extracted from its religious moorings and thus have intrinsic value.
[1] Matthew
6:5-6.
[2]
Daniel Burke, “Mr. Rogers Was a Televangelist to Toddlers,” CNN.com, November
19, 2019.
[3]
Ibid.
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
Ibid.
[6]
Ibid.
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Ibid.
[9]
Ibid.
[10]
Matthew 6:15.
[11]
Matthew 15:32.
[12]
Matthew 9:36.
[13]
Matthew 14:14.
[14]
Matthew 20:34.
