Exactly as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers

by Shea Tuttle

Overview

Welcome to the spiritual neighborhood of Fred Rogers

“I like you as you are
Exactly and precisely
I think you turned out nicely
And I like you as you are.”

Fred Rogers fiercely believed that all people deserve love. This conviction wasn’t simply sentimental: it came directly from his Christian faith. God, he insisted, loves us just the way we are. 

In Exactly as You Are, Shea Tuttle looks at Fred Rogers’s life, the people and places that made him who he was, and his work through Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. She pays particular attention to his faith—because Fred Rogers was a deeply spiritual person, ordained by his church with a one-of-a-kind charge: to minister to children and families through television. 

Tuttle explores this kind, influential, sometimes surprising man: the neighborhood he came from, the neighborhood he built, and the kind of neighbor he, by his example, calls all of us to be. Throughout, Tuttle shows how he was guided by his core belief: that God loves children, and everyone else, exactly as they are.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802876553
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/22/2019
Pages:	211
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Shea Tuttle is the author of Exactly as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers (Eerdmans, 2019), coauthor with Michael G. Long of Phyllis Frye and the Fight for Transgender Rights (Texas A&M University Press, 2022), and coeditor of Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith and Justice (Eerdmans, 2019).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Why hi, don't I know you? 1

Becoming Mister Rogers

From Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

1 Childhood, Love, and Fear 9

Are you brave and don't know it?

2 The First Neighborhood 15

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

3 Adolescence and Acceptance 21

I like you as you are

4 College Years, Loneliness, and Musical Expression 28

I'm learning to sing a sad song when I'm sad

5 Formation in New York City 34

You're growing

6 Whimsy and Seriousness on The Children's Corner 43

It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood

7 Graduate Studies and Life-Transforming Teachers 56

Did you know when you marvel, you're learning?

8 Canada, Fatherhood, and Separation 64

I like to be told when you're going away

9 Television and the Church 70

It's the people you like the most who can make you feel maddest

Broadcasting Grace

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

10 Change, Fear, and Peace 85

We all want peace

11 Neighborhood Liturgy 95

I'll be back when the day is new

12 Parables of the Kingdom 104

Won't you be my neighbor?

13 Difference in the Neighborhood 111

I like someone who sings like, and walks like, and talks like, and looks like you

Hello, Neighbor

Finding Fred Rogers

14 Puppets and Personality 127

I think III let the people see the comfortable inside of me

15 Friends and Neighbors 135

There are many ways to say I love you

16 Fred's Big Feelings 147

The very same people who are mad sometimes are the very same people who are glad sometimes

17 All Ground as Holy Ground 158

Keep us safe and faithful, God. Tell us what to do

18 Heaven Is a Neighborhood 166

Goodnight, God, and thank you for this very lovely day

Notes 175

Editorial Reviews

— Booklist Review
“Fred Rogers was everybody’s favorite neighbor, but he was also, as he once said of himself, ‘a composer, piano player, writer, television producer, performer, husband, and father.’ He was an ordained Presbyterian minister, too, and, Tuttle adds in this affectionate biography, ‘a man of complexity.’. . . To his often-asked question, ‘Won’t you be my neighbor?’ readers will doubtless offer a resounding ‘yes’ to both the question and this charming biography.”

America
“Exactly as You Are: The Life and Faith of Mister Rogers will prove of interest to theologians and Gen-Xers alike (and perhaps even to other generations).”

Publishers Weekly
“Tuttle’s satisfying biography provides a keen sense of the deeply religious forces behind a classic TV show and its widely lauded creator.”

Library Journal (starred review)
“An enjoyable biography of a man many people believed they knew from his daily show. This warmly written volume will surely delight his many fans.

From the Publisher