- Nov 26, 2019
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You are correct. Yes, he took on many spiritual and social issues which are still quite relevant today.
Yes, I love him. He brought the Gospel and Christian morality to the television. He was the first of the three great televangelists, the others being his close friend Rev. Schuller of the Reformed Church in America parish known as the Crystal Cathedral, which is now the actual cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, and which I have visited a few times, and the other being Dr. James Kennedy, of the Presbyterian Church in America (which is conservative, unlike much of the PCUSA), who after the death of Pope John Paul II, until a day or two after his last service on Christmas in 2006 (where he preached a profoundly beautiful sermon about who Jesus Christ was), when he had a debilitating heart attack that he would not recover from, but rather reposed the following summer, was, during that year and some month, the foremost Western moral theologian (since moral theology was really a strong suit for Pope John Paul II, as demonstrated by Dignitatis Humanae, and James Kennedy in terms of his pro-life, pro-family, anti-sodomy values, was in many respects a Protestant fellow-traveller of Pope John Paul II on issues of morality. Since that time there are a few contenders, although the best work I see being done in the West on moral theology is by the Southern Baptist theologian Dr. Albert Mohler.
Among Eastern moral theologians, there are a number of leaders, particularly among the Coptic Orthodox (who are OO), but among English speaking Eastern Orthodox, Fr. Josiah Trenham, who has ten children and is extremely opposed to abortion, the anti-family objectives of the left wing, and sodomy, and also other issues which have been brought to the forefront such as marijuana.
Another important Christian evangelist on television who worked in a different way was Rev. Fred Rogers, a Presbyterian minister specially ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the UPC to work in children’s television, who retained his credentials as an ordained minister throughout his life and regularly appeared before the presbytery. His work was really exceptional, in that he taught the basics of Christian morality and lovingkindness to generations of young children, myself included. He also maintained a marriage lasting more than 50 years, from 1952 until he reposed in 2003, with his pious wife Joanne, who was a concert pianist until arthritis forced her to retire in 2016, and who reposed in 2021 (Fred Rogers himself had a Bachelor’s in Music and a Bachelor’s in Divinity).
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