Paul Random

Two years ago, just after the centennial celebration of Peanuts’ creator Charles Schulz’s birthday, I wrote about our then 10-year-old’s affinity for the classic comic strip.

Some things never change.

I came into the kitchen this past weekend to find now 12-year-old Alex pouring over our local newspaper’s comic section.

“Of all the comic you read, which one is the best?” I asked him.

Without even looking up, he replied, “Easy. Peanuts. And it’s not even close.”

How is it that a comic strip that debuted 74 years ago, and that hasn’t even had new content in more than 24 years, is revered by a 12-year-old living in 2024?

Funny is funny. And wholesome, timeless, relatable humor is funniest of all.

The child of a Norwegian mother and German father, Schulz revealed in numerous interviews that writing the strip was something of a cathartic exercise – and a reflection of his own insecurities and struggles.

“All the loves in the strip are unrequited,” Schulz wrote. “All the baseball games are lost; all the test scores are D-minuses; The Great Pumpkin never comes; and the football is always pulled away.”

Charles Schulz was more than a cartoonist, and Peanuts wasn’t just a comic. For 50 years, Schulz was a storyteller, and his strips were sermons of a sort, some more profound than others.

As we approach Thanksgiving, an especially poignant one from 1963 is worth remembering.

“My life is a drag. I’m completely fed up. I’ve never felt so low in my life,” laments Lucy. Linus attempts to gently console his sister.

“Lucy, when you’re in a mood like this, you should try to think of things you have to be thankful for,” he says. “In other words, count your blessings.”

“Ha! That’s a good one!” responds Lucy. “I could count my blessings on one finger! I’ve never had anything, and I never will have anything. I don’t get half the breaks that other people get. Nothing ever goes right for me! And you talk about counting blessings! You talk about being thankful! What do I have to be thankful for?”

Linus replies, “Well, for one thing, you have a little brother who loves you.”

Lucy stares at Linus, then she bursts into tears and hugs him. Linus says, “Every now and then I say the right thing.”

In many ways, Charlie Brown gave us permission as kids to make mistakes. His string of defeats gave us hope. We weren’t the only ones striking out. There was someone else who couldn’t quite work up the nerve to talk with the pretty girl.

As the world continues to spin dangerously out-of-control, we can relate to Charlie Brown’s angst.

His favorite catchphrase? “I can’t stand it!” Then there’s “Good grief!” and “Sigh.”

Don’t tell me anyone who follows the news hasn’t thought those very things – and sometimes all within the same story.

Charles Schulz’s willingness to have his characters publicly express their faith has emboldened readers to do likewise. There’s the famous Christmas television special of Linus reading from the Gospel of Luke – a plot line that Schulz refused to cut despite initial network opposition. But there were plenty of other more subtle references.

“Keep looking up – that’s the secret of life,” says Snoopy.

“The rain falls on the just and the unjust,” says Charlie Brown as they walk in a downpour. “That’s a good system,” quips Linus.

Then there’s a clear jab at the 1962 “Engel v. Vitale” Supreme Court ruling. We see Sally slinking along the floor, looking around cautiously, and then whispering, “We prayed in school today.”

We give thanks for the life of Charles Schulz and the forever young and relatable Peanuts gang.

Image credit:  Andrews McMeel Syndication

The Reverend Dr. Tony Campolo, an itinerant preacher and longtime professor of sociology at Eastern University College, died last week at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was 89.

Born in Philadelphia to poor, Italian immigrant parents, Tony’s folks credited a local Baptist mission with helping them make the ends meet. Members of the local church not only taught them about the Lord, but also helped Tony’s dad find a job and secure a place to live.

“People often ask me, ‘Where did you get your social consciousness? Where did you get your commitment to the poor, before it was ever fashionable?’” Tony recalled.

“My mother and father saw in the way they were treated by a group of Baptists that this is what Christianity is about. It’s not about getting a ticket to heaven, it’s about becoming an instrument of God to transform this world.”

Tony caught those same values, graduated from Eastern Baptist College, then earned his Master of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He eventually earned a Ph.D. from Temple University.

Over the years, Dr. Campolo admitted to being something of an ugly Christian soon after being saved.

“I thought I would impress the world with my piety,” he recalled. “I was sure that would do it [lead people to Christ]. I would walk around school and be sure to let the rest of the kids know that I didn’t do what they did. But the world is not impressed with piety.”

As a pastor and preacher, Dr. Campolo electrified and convicted classrooms and congregations. He was bold and blunt, often lamenting what he perceived as either apathy or disinterest for those who were suffering.

But though considered controversial and at times caustic in the early years of his ministry, Campolo was unapologetically faithful to the Scriptures:

“I’m one of those old-time fundamentalist types,” he said back in the 1980s.

“I believe the Word, and if the liberal wing of Christianity had no right to reinterpret the Scripture to serve their purposes, neither does the evangelical wing have the right to reinterpret the Bible. It says what it means, and it means what it says.”

In 1998, Dr. Campolo was invited to serve as a spiritual advisor, along with Reverend Gordon MacDonald, to President Clinton in the aftermath of the Monica Lewinsky affair.

”There are those who will say that Gordon and I are being used and manipulated,” Dr. Campolo wrote.

“Should this be true, it would not be the first time that Christians have been taken in. But we would rather be men of faith who believe that God is working in the life of the President than to join that army of cynics, many of whom are religious leaders who cannot accept a plea for forgiveness at face value.”

Either Campolo or MacDonald met and prayed with the president on a weekly basis.

“We want him to understand what went wrong with him personally that led to the tragic sins that have so marred his life and the office of the Presidency,” explained Campolo. 

Conservative Christians rarely become liberal overnight, but instead incrementally. Looking back across the arc of Dr. Campolo’s ministry, this would certainly have been the case with him.

As the 1980s and 1990s evolved, and the radical Left began wholeheartedly championing abortion on demand and later same-sex “marriage,” Dr. Campolo grew increasingly uncomfortable with the evolving dynamic between evangelicals and Republicans.

It was in 2007 when Dr. Campolo joined forces with Shane Claiborne to start “Red-Letter Christians,” a movement designed to focus on following what Jesus said in the Bible – and either ignoring or deemphasizing other parts of Scripture.

At the top of the priority list of “Red-Letter Christians” has been the destigmatization of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Asked what Jesus had to say about gay “marriage,” Dr. Campolo would reply with one word: nothing.

“The evangelical community has made gay marriage the greatest sin that you can commit, but when Jesus went after the greatest sin, you know what it was?” he stated. “It was the sin of the Pharisees and the priests and the Sadducees, who kept people out of the kingdom with their rules and regulations.”

Dr. Campolo is correct that the Bible doesn’t record Jesus saying anything specifically about homosexuality. But that’s an incredibly misleading statement. Jesus did and said a lot more than is recorded (John 21:25). Second, and perhaps most importantly, Jesus is God, and all of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). That means all of the verses in the Old and New Testaments that reference homosexuality also come from Jesus.

Our strengths taken to extremes can become weaknesses. Putting such an appropriately high premium on ministering to those struggling and living on the margins of society, it would seem that Campolo allowed himself to be persuaded by the emotional arguments many of his friends were waging. Having previously believed same-sex marriage was unbiblical, the pastor reversed his position in 2015, writing:

Dr. Tony Campolo believed he was called to be a critic, but also said God wasn’t going to quiz him on the orthodoxy of his theology. 

“On the day of judgement, it will not be: ‘Campolo, do you believe in the Virgin Birth? Strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree – check one.’ No. He’s going to ask me: ‘Did you feed the hungry? Did you clothe the naked? Did you visit the sick? Did you help those who were in prison? Did you reach out to the alien?’”

When it comes to our theology, reductionist thinking is dangerous and can be downright destructive if it leads others astray. It is not ours to pick and choose which parts of God’s Word to believe.

Despite some significant differences on key issues, many of us especially loved Dr. Campolo’s telling of Pastor S.M. Lockridge’s famous sermon, “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming!”

“It’s Friday, Satan’s dancing his little jig and he thinks he rules the world, and all the institutions are at his command and governments do his bidding and everything’s in his control – but that’s because it’s Friday,” Campolo shared. “But Sunday’s a-coming!”

Sunday is coming for all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Image credit: Tony Compolo

It’s been just over two months since Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina, a storm that ushered in torrential rains, triggered historic flooding and wiped-out entire towns and communities.

As of last week, there have been 103 deaths related to the storm in the Tar Heel State, each one a heartbreaking tragedy that not only ended the lives of the victims, but also changed and traumatized loved ones and friends.

Jim Lau, 75, was a deputy with the Macon County Sheriff’s office. He was swept away in his car. Major Michelle Quintero, an 18-year veteran of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, was also killed when a broken dam overwhelmed her vehicle.

“She was the heart of the whole place,” Madison County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brittany Green said. “She was the person you went to for everything, especially for me and all of our employees. She was the calm in the storm of everything here.”

But even as individuals and families mourn these incalculable losses, countless others are being forced to navigate a dizzying array of other post storm challenges. Such challenges range from establishing temporary housing to finding clean water to the interruption of employment and the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges that pile up and multiple and magnify in the weeks and months following a disaster.

Ed Kelley is the medical director at Mission Health’s Sweeten Creek Mental Health and Wellness Center in Asheville, North Carolina.

“When a natural disaster like this occurs, we see acute stress reactions,” he told Carolina Public Press.

“But that is not usually the peak. During a crisis, people are just so busy surviving that they don’t tend to fall apart. We are just getting into the delayed trauma phase. That is much more common and much more intense for most people. People lost houses, jobs, loved ones, friends, family, pets. It’s all starting to sink in.”

Which is why as Christians, we cannot forget or stop praying for those in North Carolina currently navigating this extremely difficult time.

Our friends at Samaritan’s Purse are on the ground in some of North Carolina’s hardest hit areas. They’re clearing trees, removing mud and debris from homes, clearing driveways – and providing clean water to those for whom it has become a luxury.

The apostle Paul urged believers to “not grow weary of doing good.” As Christians, we cannot ignore the plight of those who are struggling from the effects of these devastating storms.

Wherever you may find yourselves this Thanksgiving, please remember our brothers and sisters in North Carolina. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,” wrote James.

May the Lord continue to bring comfort and relief to those recovering from Hurricane Helene.

Image credit: Samaritan’s Purse