The news that Tom Hanks will be portraying Fred Rogers in a coming biopic was met with frenzied glee. Americans also seem to love sharing myths about Fred Rogers, the friendly neighbor known the world over as Mister Rogers. Consider the one about how he wore cardigans to cover up his tattoos (false). Or the one that he was an ordained Presbyterian minister. That one is true—he graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1963—and it's far more foundational to Rogers's legacy than you might think. Rogers was a man defined by his Christian faith, and the message that he taught every day on his beloved children's show was shaped by it.

Rogers said over and over again: "You've made this day a special day by just your being you. There is no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are."

"I think everybody longs to be loved, and longs to know that he or she is lovable," he said in the 2003 documentary "America's Favorite Neighbor." Rogers echoed the sentiment of the biblical passage 1 John 4:10, "This is love: Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." The focus is not just how important it is that you're loved, but also how vital it is to be loving.

Rogers' theological messages could be traced to the biblical notion of "neighbor" and Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan. Jesus' point—that the Samaritan and the Jewish man were neighbors in a spiritual sense, if not a physical one—feels right at home on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, where Rogers greeted you with a daily "Hi, neighbor!" as if the whole world lived in the same close-knit community.

Rogers said in a 2001 commencement address at Middlebury College: "When we look for what's best in the person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does; so in appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something truly sacred."

It may sound old-fashioned, but Mister Rogers's theology was radical in 1962 when his show debuted, and it remains radical today. That's why it resonated. That's why it's still necessary.