Like most Americans I suppose, the Charlie Brown holiday specials are among my favorites. Especially as someone who grew up loving newspaper comics (I even aimed to be a cartoonist for many years), I have a special affinity for them. “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is easily my favorite, but “It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” isn’t far behind. Incidentally, the latter was released within a year of the first, so there’s a close connection between the two in many ways.
At the same time, there’s a notable difference between them as well. The drawing and voice acting are more or less the same, but it’s the theological underpinnings that differ significantly. The Charlie Brown Christmas special is deeply religious, emphasizing not just the Christian story behind Christmas, but also the impact the story should have on our lives. On the other hand, The Great Pumpkin deals with the issue of religious skepticism, albeit lightheartedly. This shows up not just in the animated special, but in the comic itself as well.
Think about the story of Linus and the Great Pumpkin. Linus has this idea, for some reason, that there exists a Great Pumpkin – a magical being who, on Halloween night, will appear to sincere believers in only the most sincere of pumpkin patches, bearing great gifts and joyous tidings. Almost all of his friends tell him he is crazy, even Charlie Brown, but Linus is devoted to the point of evangelism (in one comic, he even walks clear across town to tell Peppermint Patty). His sister Lucy warns him of all the fun he will be missing with the other kids, but Linus is convinced the momentary loss is worth it, and even convinces Sally to stay and wait with him. Eventually, Linus mistakes Snoopy for the Great Pumpkin, at which point an already skeptical Sally comes to her senses and angrily ditches him. But Linus remains in the pumpkin patch until Lucy finally comes and brings him home in the middle of the night. Despite a clear prophetic failure, the next day he is right back at it, convinced that if he is only more sincere next year, the Great Pumpkin will really show.
From a skeptical viewpoint, this is surely how Christianity and religion in general must look. Do we really believe all of this clearly made up nonsense? Look at all the fun we miss! How silly we look! Face the facts – there is no Great Pumpkin. There will be no gift giving. No pumpkin patch, no matter how sincere, will ever change that. We should enjoy the festivities for now, because once missed, there’s no going back. Instead, we’re left dragging the gullible into our delusion, and having others pick up the pieces of our foolish enterprise. If we’re honest, perhaps it’s not just the skeptical who have thought of it this way. I suspect many Christians have had their moments as well.
That Schulz might approach the topic of faith this way isn’t as surprising as you might think. Although it’s hard to imagine this of the same man who created the famous Christmas special, it appears that Schulz moved towards humanism later in life, though how exactly he meant that is unclear to me. At any rate, it seems obvious enough that he had faced doubt and perhaps the Great Pumpkin was a way of letting that see the light of day in his art.
If nothing else, I think the Great Pumpkin is a helpful analogy for those of us who truly believe the Christian story. It’s helpful in that it can reveal to us how our faith seems to many, and furthermore offers a means of clarifying the differences. What is so different about Linus and us? How is Christianity any different from the Great Pumpkin?
Actually the Great Pumpkin analogy is similar to what you may already hear from the more brazen skeptics – that God is little more than a cosmic Santa Claus. But this is a bit too harsh for your average person. That is part of the brilliance of Schulz’ approach: by using the Great Pumpkin he removes all of the well worn traditions and simply lays out what is at stake. As someone who has faced serious doubt and questions, I sense those stakes every time I watch the Halloween special.
Subsequently, I begin to reflect on some questions about Schulz: I wonder if he ever studied the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. I wonder if he ever engaged with thoughtful Christians who understood the importance of God for morality. I wonder if Schulz ever studied any theodicy or ever heard the Leibnizian or Kalaam versions of the cosmological argument. These arguments are where absurd myths like the Great Pumpkin and the Christian story radically diverge. Christianity rests on a bedrock of serious theology, philosophy, and history. The Great Pumpkin rests on Linus’ imagination and rejection of serious thought.
The Christian faith actually rests on something much greater though – the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus there is grace, there is mercy, and there is love. And that’s really the key difference, or at least it should be, between the Christian faith and the vain myths of man. At one point in the Great Pumpkin special, Linus is sitting in the pumpkin patch while Sally angrily walks off and he says “if the Great Pumpkin comes, I’ll still put in a good word for you.” He immediately realizes his folly. He said “if!” There could be little doubt this would cost him a visit from the Great Pumpkin. This is a feeling I find all too familiar within the church, and within myself at times. There’s this notion that any question or any failure will be met with certain condemnation, and that it’s totally on me to get everything right. While that may be what useless myths have to offer, that’s not what Jesus offers. Jesus offers mercy to those who doubt. Jesus offers grace in our time of need. Jesus doesn’t demand we miss out on life, but instead gives us abundant life.
I would have enjoyed having this conversation with Schulz. I wonder how much he related to Linus’ predicament. I wonder if he felt a bit left out in the cold, so to speak.
I suppose if we’re honest, many of us have experienced moments, if only in the dead of a sleepless night, when we wonder the same for ourselves. The Christian story doesn’t end with Jesus’ death and resurrection after all, it ends with his return and with God making all things new. But we’ve been sincerely planting and watering and waiting for so long. We’ve eschewed the festivities of life for so long. At some point it’s only natural to experience some doubt. Unlike the Great Pumpkin however, the Christian faith comes not from idle tales but from eyewitnesses. It is built not on lunacy but on history. Christianity is exciting and beautiful, yes, but it also happens to be true. There are serious reasons to believe it. On that count, the Great Pumpkin, it turns out, is not actually all that great. But the God of Jesus Christ most definitely is.
