Dec 26, 2018
By Sarina Villalpando
Maranatha Community Church, Colton, CA
Lately I have been very intrigued by the Peanuts comics and their background with Christ; more importantly, the life of their creator, Charles M. Schulz. It is something I personally have overlooked but have recently rediscovered through my trips to Knott’s Berry Farm. Here we have a famous author who uses his platform to spread the word of God. I have been doing a deep dive of personal research on them and their history, which led me to the idea of writing a series of articles about the research I have found.
In an article, “The Spirituality of Snoopy,” Jonathan Merritt records that more than 560 comic strips include a type of religious reference. I felt in order to kick off this miniseries of mine I should introduce you to some of the more famous/my favorite Christ-related Charlie Brown quotes.
The most famous to remember is Linus’ monologue in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where he quotes Luke chapter 2, verses 8 through 14: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’”
Next is a comic strip of Linus and Lucy, who are brother and sister, and are looking out the window as it is raining outside:
Lucy: “Boy, look at it rain…what if it floods the whole world?”
Linus: “It will never do that..In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow…”
Lucy: “You’ve taken a great load off my mind…”
Linus: “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
Another is Linus approaching Lucy while she is jumping rope and ignoring him:
Linus: “Here’s something I’ll bet you didn’t know.”
Lucy continues to jump rope.
Linus: “The Bible contains 3,566,480 Letters and 773,893 words.”
Lucy continues to jump rope.
Linus: “You’re just not interested in theology are you?”
A photo I found from a comic strip: Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown are leaning against a tree. Patty asks Charlie, “Tell me what love is, Chuck.” Charlie Brown responds, “A man named Jesus.”
In the series, Lucy has a psychiatrist booth where she offers help for five cents. In one of the comic strips, Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I can’t help thinking that this would be a better world if everyone would listen to God,” which is honestly an amazing quote and a very true statement.
Linus is pretty popular for his theological references, and is often the one found to be quoting the Bible. In one comic strip it is Linus passionately yelling a scripture, which I found pretty funny:
Linus: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men…upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers…my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!”
Charlie Brown: “Is Linus still talking about Christmas?”
Lucy: “Is he waving a pistol?”
Then we come across Charlie Brown, in his bed at night thinking to himself, contemplating “How would we feel if someone never talked to us till they wanted something? God has feelings, too.” This is something we often overlook—we tend to not go to God unless we are in trouble (which honestly, a sucky thing to do). We should talk to God every day and all the time!
Finally, the last comic that popped out to me that I will share this time is a comic between Franklin and Linus. Even though this is not a direct quote of anything theological, it shows the kindness of the greatest commandment, to love your neighbor greater than yourself.
Franklin: “Hi…I’m Franklin.”
Linus: “I’m very glad to know you.”
There are so many comics of Charlie Brown that are worth taking the time to read, but then we’d never leave if I were to quote them all. I urge you to look up some of the Christ-related comic strips because they sure made me smile. Lastly, I thank you for making it this far and letting my research nerd have a place to write what I have found. Until next time. *Wink, Wink*
