Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tbvanbelle@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Terry Van Belle) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Charlie Brown and Religion Message-ID: Date: 15 Nov 89 09:06:23 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 33 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article @sun.acs.udel.edu:spike@sun.acs.udel.edu (spike) writes: >One book written on the subject of Peanuts and Christianity is called >_The_Gospel_According_to_Peanuts_. I have never read this book, but I do remember vividly the book that started this discussion, _It's_the_Great_Pumpkin,_Charlie_Brown_. In it, Linus is the only kid on the block who believes in the Great Pumpkin. In fact, he is scorned by his sister for making her look bad & ridiculed by Snoopy. He finally gains Sally as a convert and they both give up trick-or-treating one Halloween to wait in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin. The only person who shows up all night is Snoopy, who causes quite a false alarm, but in the end, Linus is humiliated by the non-appearance of the Great Pumpkin. I found the whole story extremely depressing. So what was Schulz trying to say? Was it an attack on Christianity, or an illustration of a Christian's worst fears? Linus is undoubtedly the theologian of the Peanuts gang. His name comes from a letter of Paul, and he is often found expounding on some Biblical passage. He's the smartest of the gang, and yet he carries a security blanket with him wherever he goes. Another interesting book to compare would be _A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas_. Just as Charlie Brown has almost given up on finding the meaning of life amidst all the commericalism of Christmas, Linus recounts the Christmas story as told in Matthew. Terry Van Belle tbvanbelle@watcgl.Waterloo.edu [Perhaps Shultz is simply being realistic. How often do Christians confidently expect God to appear in a particular place in a particularly way, and go sit out in the pumpkin patch waiting for him, when he's really busy at work elsewhere in our lives? --clh]