On this day in 1922, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, and the rest of the gang were born. Well, technically, their creator was born, Charles Monroe “Sparky” Shultz. Best known as Peanuts, they would not show up until 1947 in an embryonic form known as Li’l Folks. They would be rebranded in 1950 as Peanuts.
Shultz was brought up Lutheran but claims that he had a “conversion experience” as a young man shortly after WWII when he came out of the Army. He became a part of the Church of God where he claims to have been saved. Later, he became an active Methodist, teaching Sunday School classes and Old Testament courses. A series of life events, though, brought him to a point where in the late 80s, he declared himself to be a “secular humanist” and he totally abandoned church.
The point of the devotional is not to debate the authenticity of Shultz’s faith. Nobody but God knew the man’s heart or where he spends eternity which began on February 12, 2000. What I want us to notice is that during the early years of Shultz’s career, he used the comic strip to introduce the world to Biblical truth.
In the cartoon strip, “we observe the aimless Charlie Brown go through life disappointed due to low-self-esteem, always wanting to ask the cute Little Red Haired Girl out. Good ‘ol Charlie still never gave up, he even quotes Scripture at times. Charlie told his beagle: “Be of good cheer, Snoopy. Yes, be of good cheer.” When Snoopy was caught stealing from the refrigerator, Charlie Brown quoted the 10 Commandments.”1
The biggest infusion of the Biblical message came at one of the most critical times of the year. The 1965 airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas contains a scene that “was added to the special over the objections of the producer and the animator, who believed that Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz had crossed a line in wanting Linus to recite the Bible…
“Producer Lee Mendelson recounted the controversy in author Charles Solomon’s 2012 book, The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation.
“I said, ‘Sparky, this is religion. It just doesn’t go in a cartoon,’” Mendelson said, referencing Schulz’s nickname and the debate over the scene. “He looked at me very coldly and said, ‘Bill, if we don’t do it, who will? We can do it.’ He was right. That’s been the most commented-on little sequences of that show – Linus telling the true meaning of Christmas. But every time I see that scene, I wince. It’s such poor animation, such bad drawing.”
“Mendelson later told the Huffington Post, “When [Schulz] said, ‘You know, we’re going to have Linus read from the Bible,’ Bill and I looked at each other and said, ‘Uh oh, that doesn’t sound very good,’ But then Schulz said, ‘Look, if we’re going to do this, we should talk about what Christmas is all about, not just do a cartoon with no particular point of view.’”
“Andrew Stanton, who directed Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, called the addition of the scene a bold move. A Charlie Brown Christmas won a Primetime Emmy in 1966 for Outstanding Children’s Program.
“They stopped everything: just a single spotlight on a kid standing on stage, saying this long passage,” Stanton told Solomon. “It was very moving because of the stillness, because of everything stopping for the simplicity to it.”
A Charlie Brown Christmas follows Charlie Brown as he fights the holiday’s commercialism and searches for the true meaning of Christmas. In the show’s final moments, Linus takes center stage at a play practice and recites Luke 2:8-14.
“And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” Linus proclaims.”2
This cartoon, as well as the comic strip, highlights an important lesson. We can use just about any medium to get the Gospel into the hands of others. We are limited only by our own lack of imagination, creativity, or preconceived notions that there is one way and only one way for the job to be accomplished.
Make no mistake about it. There is only one Gospel message and it can never be altered or abbreviated. ONE. But how we go about sharing that message is as diverse as we can imagine. To me, that is exciting because I realize that we’ve only just begun tapping all the 
resources that could be used to propagate the Gospel across the world.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. (20) And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; (21) To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. (22) To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (23) And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.”
This does not intimate that Paul did anything sinful or compromising. He simply is saying that he will use any legitimate means available to reach people for Christ. Let’s be willing to do the same!
“Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: (33) Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” (1 Corinthians 10:32-33)
1https://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/articles/religion-charlie-brown-and-charles-schultz.aspx
2https://www.crosswalk.com/headlines/contributors/michael-foust/how-charles-schulz-fought-for-jesus-in-a-charlie-brown-christmas.html
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
