Schulz announced his retirement for health reasons in 1999, having drawn, inked and created the ''Peanuts'' stories for nearly 50 years. Schulz passed away shortly thereafter, on February 12, 2000, just hours before the final ''Peanuts'' Sunday strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz was a member of the Anderson Church of God. He was a universalist and believed that the way to worship God was to love others. His comics frequently quoted the Bible, as made famous by the speech Linus gave at the climax of the 1965 TV special ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'', where Linus quotes the Gospel of Luke 2:8-14 to explain the true meaning of [[Christmas]]. | Schulz announced his retirement for health reasons in 1999, having drawn, inked and created the ''Peanuts'' stories for nearly 50 years. Schulz passed away shortly thereafter, on February 12, 2000, just hours before the final ''Peanuts'' Sunday strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz was a member of the Anderson Church of God. He was a universalist and believed that the way to worship God was to love others. His comics frequently quoted the Bible, as made famous by the speech Linus gave at the climax of the 1965 TV special ''[[A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'', where Linus quotes the Gospel of Luke 2:8-14 to explain the true meaning of [[Christmas]]. |