Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Why I’m Unworthy of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

Why I’m Unworthy of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood

Last updated on: September 5, 2018 at 9:53 am by Dan Peterson

Why I’m Unworthy of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood 2018-09-05T09:53:03-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I share this photograph, taken of me just this morning, in order to show that, contrary to the claims of my critics, I am often filled with love, kindness, and an almost irresistibly contagious joie de vivre. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

Nearly two weeks ago, having just returned from watching a documentary about the late children’s television host Fred Rogers, I remarked here on this blog that I had never been a fan of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, had probably never watched an entire episode, and didn’t really enjoy what I had seen:

“A movie-induced walk down memory lane”

That revealing admission seems to have stirred up yet another negative discussion about me (on a mostly atheist and apostate message board where, admittedly, negative discussions about me are regular, perhaps even mandatory, occurrences). It’s an amusing conversation, and I think I’ll comment on it.

The thread or discussion was launched by my Malevolent Stalker, who has dedicated most of his online activity for the past decade or more to posting anonymous criticisms of me and to leveling anonymous accusations against me.

My Malevolent Stalker likes to charge me with such offenses as, to choose a few from among many, the deliberate destruction of other people’s careers, racism, slander, sexism, mercenary greed, anti-Semitism, libel, seething and uncontrolled anger, voyeurism, intentionally destroying families, dishonesty, a propensity to violence, and fascism. For a while, he spent his days combing through publicly available Internal Revenue Service documents in an effort to demonstrate that I’ve earned large sums of money from seeking to defend the claims of Mormonism. At one point, he triumphantly produced a Christmas wishlist posted on Amazon years before by my youngest son (when that son was about six or eight) in order to illustrate some aspect or other — I’ve forgotten the exact specifics — of the psychologically dangerous consequences of growing up in my family.

Several years ago, one of his themes focused on my bland, unadventurous, vanilla tastes in art, literature, music, and drama, which stem from my manifold aesthetic and intellectual inadequacies. (So far as I’m aware, we’ve never met. But he knows such things about me. He knows.) This time, though, my stated lack of interest in Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood — a program that has often been criticized as, precisely, bland, unadventurous, and very vanilla — reveals my defective character and my moral depravity.

Because, you see, it’s not just that I didn’t like the show. I actually, even “coldly,” “hate” Mr. Rogers himself. (Curiously, until I read my Malevolent Stalker’s analysis, I imagined that I found the man himself quite likable, a judgment that had just been reinforced by the recent documentary.) I despise Mr. Rogers’s goodness, his niceness, and his kindness. I disrespect him because he was Christlike — for the simple and sufficient reason that, when it comes right down to it, I don’t actually like Jesus, either. Moreover, Fred Rogers was and is a painful reminder to me of my moral failures and an exemplar of decent behavior, which I loathe.

The concurring opinions arrived almost immediately:

Peterson, observed one of the Stalker’s respondents, cannot comprehend genuine kindness and affection, and, consequently, had no time for either Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood or Fred Rogers himself.

Another offered Fred Rogers as an example of genuine Christian discipleship — he actually was, by the way, an ordained Presbyterian minister — which is enough to explain why I would hate him.

Yet another — perhaps trying to be more sympathetic to me — offered the insight that, since my fellow defectives and I spend our lives trying not to face reality, we don’t have much energy left over for being nice. Later, a second sympathetic commenter explained that I don’t “understand” Mr. Rogers because, unlike Fred Rogers, I’m afflicted with a “hardness” in my character that apparently forces me to judge and condemn others.

A subsequent commenter pointed out that what separates me from Fred Rogers is that, unlike Mr. Rogers, I lack sincerity and authenticity. Fred Rogers was kind, authentic, accepting, sincere, and loving, while I . . . Well, does it really need to be pointed out that I’m none of those things? She went on to remind the others that nobody has ever, ever, detected even a trace of human empathy in me.

My Malevolent Stalker’s “Mini-Me,” a distinctly odd fellow who likes to flatly invent shameful quotations and attribute them to me and who, for a year or two, falsely claimed to be a serving (but unbelieving) LDS bishop and to have accompanied me on a tour of Israel, where he purportedly observed my viciousness and laughable incompetence at first hand and up close, arrived then to announce that he was unsurprised that I hold Fred Rogers in utter contempt. Why? Because, unlike Mr. Rogers, I’m absolutely consumed with perpetual hatred, anger, and virtually uncontrollable rage.

One of the reasons behind my visceral disgust at Fred Rogers, offered still another commenter, might be that he was Presbyterian. That’s right, commented a different participant in the discussion. Mr. Rogers, after all, didn’t have the priesthood. A third participant agreed: Peterson has an exclusivist view of religion; in Peterson’s view, there’s nothing valuable outside of Mormonism.

One man joined in just to compliment my Malevolent Stalker on his brilliant opening post and to call me an “[crude expletive deleted].” (Presumably, I’ve offended him by my lack of niceness and kindness.)

Perhaps, opined another participant in the discussion, I hate and despise Mr. Rogers because, in my worldview, the idea that a non-Mormon might be a good, decent human being is deeply threatening.

Basically, the discussion appears to have concluded, people like me just plain hate and fear love.

And all of this because I wasn’t a fan of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. (I’m guessing that mine wasn’t the only television set in America that wasn’t tuned in.)

But why on earth should I have been? I also never watched the Cosby Show, the Lawrence Welk Show, or Alias Smith and Jones. Truth be told, I didn’t watch much television at all.

Moreover, according to Wikipedia, the target audience for Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was preschool ages 2 to 5. But when the show came on the air in 1968, I was already fifteen years old and just two years away from the university. Should I have skipped my high school classes to watch it?

At one point in the discussion, even Professor Louis Midgley is cited as someone whose poor character is demonstrated by the fact that he didn’t watch Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (as he himself acknowledges in a comment following the blog post of mine that inspired the conversation described above). But Dr. Midgley is (literally) old enough to be my father. (There’s no shame in that, of course, as, for some, there would be in actually being my father.) Should he have cancelled his university lectures on political philosophy and on the Federalist Papers in order to stay home and watch the show? Should he, perhaps, have had his classes watch it?

I find myself thinking, in this context, of Puck’s exclamation to Oberon in William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III.ii.115:

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

(Shakespeare was a Mormon, right?)

Posted from Newport Beach, California

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 7, 2018

Religion in Iran (A)

Next Post

July 7, 2018 LDS Church News, Mostly (But Not Quite Entirely)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did the biblical measurement of a cubit represent?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Length of forearm Length of foot Length of leg Length of hand