A Message of Love: Mr. Rogers and the 21 Martyrs
“Only prayer allows us to hear another voice … Who says good things about me? Who doesn’t? Who is my friend? My enemy? How many like me? As we make God the center of our lives, our sense of who we are will depend less on what others think or say about us.”
- Henri J.M. Nouwen, Mr. Rogers’ friend
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I’ve written several times about my encounters with Mr. Rogers and the profound theological truth he evangelized: that in a broken world full of hurt and pain the road to healing and wholeness is through sacrificial love … in community, in family, and through a God who would give up his life for you.
As we launch our Indiegogo fundraising campaign to produce a short animated film on the 21 men martyred on a beach in Libya in 2015, I’ve been meditating on this upside down perspective of power and the critical importance of living the truth that everyone is special and made in the image of God. Even our “enemies.”
Jesus’ disciples expected an earthly rule, a kingdom in which they would sit at the right and left hand of a new king, liberated from the shackles of the Roman Empire. Jesus’ enigmatic Sermon on the Mount seems to have gone over their heads, so much so that after His resurrection they still asked “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Mr. Rogers reminds us in the new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood that "the kingdom of God is for the broken hearted." Which, as we know, is every one of us, at least once we are willing to acknowledge it.
It is this willingness to die to self and ground our identity in God’s unconditional love that empowers us pursue the kingdom of God, and to figuratively and literally die for others, even our enemies.
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This is why we want to elevate the story of the 21 Martyrs at this time. When we dehumanize our enemies, we end up pursuing the world’s power paradigm, whether through the sword of our social media, the swords the soldiers and Jesus’ disciples wielded at the Garden of Gethsemane, or the swords that beheaded the martyrs on the beach in Libya.
The 21 Martyrs were (with one exception) Copts, having left Egypt to work and earn money to send back to their poor families. They lived together in a house where they all slept side by side on the floor, turning their only other room into a place of prayer.
This has been my revelation: that in the upside down Kingdom, the answer to oppressive, worldly power is prayer. Even for our enemies. This is what Mr. Rogers wants to remind us. This is what the 21 Martyrs showed us.
In his recent reflection in The Atlantic, journalistTom Junod, who the film is based on, writes:
“I don’t know what to do next, because Fred never asked anything of me. But of course he did. I have read his old emails, and I can see that he was very clear about what he wanted from me and everybody else. He never stooped to proselytizing. But he lived a life of prayer, and he wanted us—he wanted me—to pray.”
We would love to have you join us in telling the story of the 21 Martyrs. Please go to our Indiegogo campaign and contribute what you can. We are working closely with the Coptic community, including its iconographers and musicians, to tell the story that real power is manifest in prayer with the living God who knows you and loves you.
This love is expressed so poignantly through the words of Mr. Rogers:
“You are a very special person. There is only one like you in the whole world. There's never been anyone exactly like you before, and there will never be again.”