a
n interviewer once wrote that one of my characters, CharlieBrown, mirrors some of my own childhood troubles. That may be true, but he is also a reflection of the troubles of mil- lions of others—or so I gather from those who write me. I think Charlie is a reflection of something in all of us which needs constant reassuring that the people round about us really do like us.
Linus’ affection for his blanket, on the other hand, is a symbol of the things we cling to. Our first three children, when they were small, all carried blankets around the house with them. But some of our adult habits are ridiculous. Not long ago I had Linus’ blanket- hating grandmother come to his house for a visit. She tried to get him to give up his propensity for the blanket; so he threw up to her the fact that she was drinking 32 cups of coffee a day!
I grew up an only child, and my mother died the very week I was drafted. This was a tremendous blow to our little family. I was assigned to the 20th Armored Division and eventually became a machine gun squad leader. Our division was shipped to Germany just before the war ended, and we took part in the liberation of Dachau and Munich. We were also assigned to the proposed inva- sion of Japan which never materialized.
Before going into the armed forces I met a minister from a local congregation. He walked into my father’s barbershop one day in St.
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Peanuts as Profession of Faith
Paul, Minnesota, and we became friends. It was not long after that that we called him to preach my mother’s funeral sermon. After coming back from the Army, I began to attend services at his church. We had an active group of young people—all of us were in our twen- ties—and we began studying the Bible together.
The more I thought about the matter during those studying times, the more I realized that I really loved God. I recognized the fact that He had pulled me through a depression in which I had been torn apart from everything I knew, and that He had enabled me to survive so many experiences. These realizations did not come upon me at any particular great moment of decision. I never went forward at a Sunday evening service. I cannot point to a specific time of dedi- cation to Christ. I was just suddenly “there,” and did not know when it happened that I arrived.
I accepted Jesus Christ by gratitude. I have always been grateful for the things the Lord has provided me with: good health, educa- tion, family, and the experiences of World War II which have now passed into history.
Since those youth group days, we have all moved to different areas, and many of us have become active in other churches. I teach the adult Sunday School class in a church in Sebastopol, California. I am trying to encourage the new members in particular to raise questions and to present their views in class without fear or embar- rassment. It is terrible, of course, to be a beginner in anything and to feel that you don’t know enough about the subject. Most people feel that way about the Bible. The idea is to create a climate in which people will not be afraid to ask even little questions. And it is such a thrill when you find someone saying that he is doing some outside reading and that for the first time in his life he is studying the Bible on his own.
In my cartooning I draw for two kinds of editors: secular edi- tors and church editors. I work for the secular press through a news- paper syndicate, and naturally I must exercise care in the way I go about expressing things. I have a message that I want to present,
24 My LIfe
but I would rather bend a little to put over a point than to have the whole strip dropped because it is too obvious. As a result, all kinds of people in religious work have written to thank me for preaching in my own way through the strips. That is one of the things that keeps me going.
Sometimes people ask whether our children (they range in age from six to fourteen years) supply me with most of my ideas. For the most part I have to say that they do not; nor do I get many ideas from watching pets. Snoopy, you see, is more a result of reflection than of observation. You just don’t see dogs lying around on top of doghouses!
As I said, I also work for church magazine editors, and my teen- age cartoons appear in about seventy different church publications every week. This is a different medium. I step out now and then and say a few things which people don’t want to see in cartoons. But I am trying to teach some of the church publication editors that if you do not say anything in a cartoon, you might as well not draw at all. Humor which does not say anything is worthless.
So I contend that a cartoonist must be given a chance to do his own preaching. I say to the editors, “You have to give us room to work, and you have to tolerate us, too, and not regard the cartoon as a mere ‘filler.’” Of course, I am very fond of my editor friends and am surprised and happy that such a variety of groups is publishing this work.
This comes back to my relationship of gratitude. I feel a con- stant gratefulness to God for His patience with me and with all of us. I cannot fail to be thrilled every time I read the things that Jesus said, and I am more and more convinced of the necessity of following Him. What Jesus means to me is this: in Him we are able to see God and to understand His feelings toward us.
I am still a believer in what the church refers to as “holy living.” I think it is applicable for a person in whatever profession he may be working. We were able to prove a good point in the publishing of
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Peanuts as Profession of Faith
look quickly around him to see the great quantity of useless litera- ture being published, and yet there was a market for a book which was absolutely pure in content to the extent that it immediately sold a million copies. What does this mean to those who cry that the pub- lic wants things which are only low and degrading? I think each of us who deals in any way with things which are creative and things which are going to be read or looked at or heard by the public, needs always to test himself by the eighth verse in the fourth chapter of the book of Philippians: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, what- soever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Recently I published a little series of cartoons on the subject of security. Perhaps the way I feel about Christ is best told in the last cartoon of that series. Linus is kneeling with his arms on his bed, and the caption reads, “Security is knowing you are not alone.”
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