Charlie Brown Christmas Actually Reads Book of Matthew, Wonderful Show Could Not Be Made Today

December 20, 2012 1

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Linus goes to the center of the stage where the Christmas play is being not rehearsed very well. He doesn’t read about The Night Before Christmas, doesn’t read about Santa, doesn’t say anything about Macy’s or presents or toys or the spirit of giving. He reads from the book of Matthew. I was blown away by this. Think about that for a moment. He’s reading from the book of Matthew. He’s talking about the shepherds in the field and the angel of the Lord was upon them and the angel says, “Be not afraid because I bring you great tidings of joy. On this day is born to you a savior who is Christ the Lord.” He reads from the Bible, the New Testament at that. Then he goes on to talk about how God has sent his son, a savior, “for a savior is born to you.” Check out the rest in today’s transcript…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: We watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. I want you people to think about something. I can remember the first time it came on when I was but a little chi’rens. That’s New Orleans area slang, by the by. I’m not going to stop using it. I know it’s slang. It’s the way my father has said the term since I was a little chi’ren. I intend to keep using it. Since I was a little chi’rens, A Charlie Brown Christmas was a yearly staple to me. “Mom, mom, what day is Charlie Brown Christmas coming on? I want to watch Charlie Brown Christmas.” I never missed it. I hadn’t seen it in a while but I watched it last night, as I said, with my daughter and Mrs. Church. We laughed and laughed and remarked about how entertaining it was. It was a great moment just to watch that.

I was struck by what Charles Schulz, who was the author of the Peanuts comic strips and who wrote A Charlie Brown Christmas, what he was seemingly able to get on network television, and to rave reviews, and endeared himself to an entire two generations of Americans. Just consider this for a moment. In A Charlie Brown Christmas, the climax moment of the Shakespearean three acts happens when Linus van Pelt endeavors to tell Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about.

Linus goes to the center of the stage where the Christmas play is being not rehearsed very well. He doesn’t read about The Night Before Christmas, doesn’t read about Santa, doesn’t say anything about Macy’s or presents or toys or the spirit of giving. He reads from the book of Matthew. I was blown away by this. Think about that for a moment. AG, I don’t know if you can find that clip on YouTube, but I’d love to play it. He’s reading from the book of Matthew. He’s talking about the shepherds in the field and the angel of the Lord was upon them and the angel says, “Be not afraid because I bring you great tidings of joy. On this day is born to you a savior who is Christ the Lord.” He reads from the Bible, the New Testament at that. Then he goes on to talk about how God has sent his son, a savior, “for a savior is born to you.”

I’m just watching this thinking that the Peanuts comic strip was probably catapulted to American iconic status by that A Charlie Brown Christmas show, and contained in it was what? A reading from the book of Matthew. Is that even possible today? No, it’s not. It could not and would not happen. I believe the debut of that was in 1971, I want to say. We’re talking 41 years ago, but two generations ago, that speech in that Christmas show was enough to endear two entire generations of Americans to love Peanuts comic strips. That’s why so many people mourned when Charles Schulz died. I think it was in 2004 or 2005 Charles Schulz died. I was blown away by that. I hadn’t considered it, but there is Linus van Pelt reading from the book of Matthew and this was on network television. I don’t think anyone questioned it, [mocking] “Hey, where’s the separation of church and state? Schulz, CBS, what are you doing? You can’t read from the New Testament on network television. We have rules around here, you know.”

The entire theme of the A Charlie Brown Christmas — I realize this sounds really anachronistic to some — but the entire theme of it was that commercialism stinks and it’s ruined Christmas. Children today don’t think of Christmas as mangers and nativity scenes and what have you. They think of it as “what are you going to get me?” I’m a victim. Hell, I’m a promoter of it. It brought those questions full bore onto me and made me remember when I was a child. I grew up — and it wasn’t that long ago, I’m only 50. I grew up in a totally different media world. Today’s media world would never tolerate such a thing. Schulz and CBS would probably receive death threats and phone calls, complaints, petition drives, people out there threatening to boycott advertisers and what have you. A mere 41 years ago, you could say a legend was born. Jimmy, you’re first up here today. How you doing?

Caller Jimmy: Good morning and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukah and all that stuff. Very interesting, the A Charlie Brown Christmas. My pastor does promotional work. The music industry was his background. He was in Mexico, because our ministry from New York, we provided toys and clothing to 600 kids this year down in the Mayan Peninsula. We do this every year. While he’s down there, after he decided he wanted to do A Charlie Brown Christmas — we do it in a warehouse and we invited a lot of old folks this year from various elderly homes. His feeling was regular church stuff, I want to do something that’s real. He always wanted to do Charlie Brown. He chose this year.

Sure enough, what happens? He’s down in Mexico at a motel. He gets this news from New York, which he hardly ever watches American TV. It’s O’Reilly saying Charlie Brown was under attack by somebody. He said I’m glad we chose Charlie Brown this year. Sure enough, we’re doing Charlie Brown live in a warehouse as a ministry. It’s a powerful, powerful effect. That’s exactly what Linus does. He preaches right out of the book of Matthew. That is what Christmas is about. You had to see these precious little, old ladies walking in with their canes and sitting down to watch this. They probably grew up watching these people. It’s exciting. I appreciate hearing you say it. I can’t wait to tell you later. We’re always wrestling how to touch the community and how to be a part of what goes on. He’s in and out of that South Brooklyn area where the storm blew everybody out. He grew up in Brooklyn, a little Brooklyn boy. I really appreciate you mentioning this. It’s a lot of effort for a bunch of volunteers to give away their time and put up a live performance.

Mike: Do you have a pianist who can actually play the piano score like Schroeder does?

Caller Jimmy: Yes, we do. The problem is he’s 6’6” and he sits down at this tiny little make-believe piano. We have it synced up with the track. We’ve done quite a bit of technical work. He can play because he is our keyboardists. He’s a guitarist. He’s trained in music and has gone to school for audio engineering. We’re having a blast with it, but it feels good to know that there are other people that recognize what Schulz did.

Mike: I’m playing you a little, Jimmy. I love the piece. I love the theme of it. As I said, I’m amazed by the fact that I had forgotten that the theme of the whole thing and the culmination of the entire show, that it basically ends with the reading from the book of Matthew. There’s no fanfare or anything. It’s a very solemn thing. All the kids stop laughing, the music stops. Charlie Brown doesn’t go, “Oh, come on, Linus, that can’t be what it’s all about.” He actually walks out of the auditorium saying, “Finally, I get what Christmas is all about,” and he’s happy. He’s just received the gift of our Lord and Savior. He walks out to go fix his little Christmas tree. Of course, he thinks he kills it.

Caller Jimmy: I love the scene.

Mike: It’s a wonderful scene. Today it’s just viewed as square, as fuddy-duddy, antiquated, out of date. I’ll tell you what else I did, Jimmy, when the credits were scrolling, I paused on animators. Sixteen artists were employed to animate A Charlie Brown Christmas. Today it would take 1,600 of Pixar’s finest. Hell, it might take 16,000 of them to animate what it took 16 dedicated artisans to do in 1971.

End Mike Church Show Transcript