They are not the government. So why not?
I’m always so pleased (and surprised!) that A Charlie Brown Christmas still airs in its original format. It’s perfect!
Notice anything?
Linus stands there by himself on the stage. The spotlight falls upon him. He begins reciting from Luke.
And then Linus gets to the part where it reads "Fear not."
The only... the ONLY... the ONLY moment ever in the half-century of the Peanuts franchise - the comic strip, the TV specials, the movies, all of it - that Linus lets go of his blanket. The same blanket that he holds onto for safety and security.
And Linus lets it drop to the stage floor when he speaks "Fear not" from the Bible.
It's something so subtle that most have never noticed it.
Today’s Hollywood would never allow “A Charlie Brown Christmas “ to be made, much less to be run on national TV.
“A Charlie Brown Christmas “ should be seen for what it is: an artifact of a country and culture that has long disappeared, vanquished by satanic leftism.
Charlie Brown Christmas is an awesome show that we all know today would have all stops pulled out against making such a show. And of course the Linus scene in not only on point but a classic.
However Ann Barnhardt pointed this out the other day and I think it is a point worthy of consideration:
Most Bibles today read Luke 2:14 as:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
The last clause is mangled, as anyone who knows the Gloria in Latin (as one should, because it is said at a plurality of Masses throughout the year) can see.
The Vulgate Latin, which is St. Jerome’s synthesis of the original source texts commissioned by Pope St. Damasus I, triple cross-referenced against each other in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew in preparation for the eventual setting of the canon of scripture at the Councils of Rome in ARSH 382, and Carthage in ARSH 397, reads thusly:
“…gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis”
In English, in the Douay-Rheims translation thus reads:
Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.
These are two completely different ideas. Radically different. The first translation has peace and goodwill together as co-subjects, as unqualified universals: “peace, goodwill TOWARD men”. The Vulgate clearly has goodwill not as the COMPOUND SUBJECT along with peace, but as the QUALIFIER. To men OF GOOD WILL. Good will isn’t the subject, it is the OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION.
The Peace of Our Lord is a massively qualified, and extremely rare and precious thing. When the priest says at Mass, “Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum” (The peace of the Lord be always with you), he isn’t just saying “nice things” as filler. This is a profound and precious prayer.
Why would God, in His Perfect Justice, wish good will towards those men who are at war with Him, and thus His Church? Is not the Second Person, God Incarnate in the Manger in Bethlehem, the Judge of mankind? Is not the Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes He who will sort the sheep from the goats? Is He not the One who is come to sift the wheat from the chaff? Did He not say:
“Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.”
Cornelius of Lapide says in his commentary on Luke 2:
But all the Latins, and, among the Greeks, Origen, S. Chrysostom, and Cyril, read, and with better reason, for good will, —of good will, making the hymn consist of two members. For as glory is given to God as to Him who is glorified, so peace is given to men of good will as to those whom the peace of Christ belongs and befits; and in this way the concatenation of the whole sentence hangs better together. The peace on earth cannot be supposed to be other than that which belongs to men of good will.
And this was way back in 1965.
In 1968, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman from Apollo 8 read from Genesis while gazing at the earth from space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEmn0uaQCYc
NASA was threatened with lawsuits from atheist groups, and the astronauts were told to never do that again.
I believe both of these events were inspired by God Himself.
Even back then they had people in the entertainment business who were so tone deaf about their audiences that they fabricated controversy where none existed. Lee Mendelson sounds like someone who’d be comfortable in the NFL front office today.
A fascinating thread. Thank you.
Never noticed the blanket drop. A wonderful catch, Ciaphas.
Linus is right.
It goes to show how far back the active effort to get Christ out of our society and culture really goes.
Even before I was a Christian, I loved that part of the cartoon.
That made the whole thing.
BABY ALLAH
A Charlie Brown Christmas should be edited to include the BABY ALLAH visited by Muhammad, the Unwise Man.
Of course, if a cartoonist wanted to run a cartoon special based on the Koran, the networks would have tripped over themselves to run it. They want to destroy Christianity and see all those who practice it die.
The battle against Christianity has been happening for decades (actually centuries) and they are counting on us to give up at some point.
That show is still great. Wish someone would start shows like that again. It would be nice....
I still look forward to watching this every year.