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"The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers."

How was Mister Rogers' faith simple?

Sometimes the word "simple" is confused with the word "simplistic," and it wasn't.

His philosophy of life is not simplistic, but it's simple in that there are some basic tenets to it that seem simple but are so profound and so hard to live out on a daily basis.

Probably the central tenet of his faith and the theme of the Neighborhood is just the idea of loving your neighbor.

When asked who is your neighbor, he said, whoever you happen to be with at the moment. So right there, there's no loophole—that means we have to love everybody.

He said, once you realize that everybody's your neighbor, you have a choice. You can either be an advocate or an accuser.

An accuser is somebody who only sees what's awful about themselves so they look through those eyes and look for what's awful about their neighbor.

An advocate is somebody who looks through the eyes of God at their neighbor and sees what's good about that person because they're created in God's likeness.

That's a very simple, basic truth, but to live that out in our daily lives is tremendously difficult.

I just found this. And it's a very good point.

QuoteHe said, once you realize that everybody's your neighbor, you have a choice. You can either be an advocate or an accuser.

An accuser is somebody who only sees what's awful about themselves so they look through those eyes and look for what's awful about their neighbor.

An advocate is somebody who looks through the eyes of God at their neighbor and sees what's good about that person because they're created in God's likeness.

That's a very simple, basic truth, but to live that out in our daily lives is tremendously difficult.

Unfortunately, this is what's called anthropocentric (man-centered) thinking.  We can and ought to become aware of God's thinking on these things.  We can do so only through His Word.  When we use that Word to shape our thinking, we must come to realize that God sees not only His own image, but also man's sin through his fall into rebellion.  I think we need to face the truth by facing God's Word.  We are indeed created in God's likeness, but we have destroyed that likeness by our fall into sin.  Nevertheless, God has taken some out of all mankind  and has recreated them through His Son and by His Spirit.  The recreated ones then love (by His Spirit) not merely for the sake of other's supposed goodness, but for the sake of love to their Creator.  I love you and others, not only because of God's image, but simply because He wants me to.