Read this comic:


Now consider the following:

Charles Schultz drew comic strips like that almost every day for 50 years. He denounced religion in the early 80’s but he always questioned it, hiding his thoughts in his comics. His character “Linus” was a gospel quoting smart kid, on the surface. In reality he had no original thoughts and spoke almost exclusively in quotes. He carries and worships his baby blanket, his security blanket. He fights brutal wars over it with Snoopy, causing Snoopy to be astonished by his brutality and give the blanket up: “I had no idea he’d fight so dirty!”

Linus sucks his thumb, an effort to make him seem infantile. His Grandmother, after quitting smoking herself, tries to convince Linus to give up the blanket. She offers to donate money to his favorite charity, to do some good in the world. He refuses. His faith is more important than charity.

It gets better. Linus creates his own God and tries to make the other children believe. Linus promotes faith in The Great Pumpkin. Initially the other children believe until they realize he’s just a false prophet of a phony vegetable god.

Schultz eventually redeems Linus, however. He gives up the great pumpkin, stops carrying the blanket. He even stops sucking his thumb, saying “It’s a good thumb, not a great thumb.” It’s a good religion, not a great religion. He then grows up and joins his friends on the playground instead of being an outcast, even finding a relationship.

I saw that comic strip on Facebook today, posted by an old friend who somehow became an Evangelical Calvinist minister. His followers praised him for posting such a wonderfully Christian cartoon.

Hilarious.