For a less-theistic take on The Great Pumpkin, check this out:

Regarding Charles M. Schulz you’re mistaking his characters views for the authors views. Just because a fictional character holds certain views does not mean, that the author/inventor of the character holds the same views.

I AM:
I dunno, maybe we’re making small inroads here.
For 1 thing, people are more willing to make fun of their alleged deity. There was once upon a time when doing that was blasphemy, & punishable under the law (in England, for sure: probably still is, in some of the more backward states).
I saw a flick last year, called Time Changer (pre-atheist days), which was a mix of sci-fi & apologetics, where a deeply religious man went forward in time (19th to 20th century). While it’s not anyone’s cup of tea (present company), it was actually semi-decent. Anyways, it illustrated the HUGE changes over the length of a century. 1 instance (it was kinda funny), where said hero went to a movie theater, & came running out shouting “Stop the film! 1 of the characters took the lord’s name in vain! Stop the film!” had me LOL. Another scene showed him talking to a science class, & he began lecturing (the 20th century class) about how there is no science w/o the bible. He got a stern tonguelashing from the extant teacher.
Long story short: yeah, the ubiquitous nonsense still remains, but it’s nowhere near as invasive (that I know of, outside of maybe Indiana & Oaklahoma) as it once was.
If we keep chipping away at it, day-by-day, hopefully, it’ll be regarded by our descendants as an old wives’ tale.
Hopefully.
Fingers crossed.

When I was in high school our neighbor, who was my mom’s friend, would often tell my mom and the other neighbor women folk that she talked to god and that god “told her to not get a job and stay at home all day” living off the money from her parents (she was divorced). I’m pretty sure that my mom didn’t believe that bullshit even though she’s religious herself. But when we discussed it she never would say “oh yeah, she’s lying of course”, she would leave this ambiguity in there as if she were afraid if she criticized this her whole worldview would collapse. I simply told my mom that I didn’t like her hanging out with friends that would outright lie to her everyday.

Er, that penultimate sentence above should read “sing about my country’s relationship” etc. Oops.