John Lennon, 3/4/66: "We're more popular than Jesus now."

[Miles Archer]

On March 4, 1966, an article appeared in the London Evening Standard that would cause an uproar and ripple for some time. Journalist Maureen Cleave was doing a series titled "How Does a Beatle Live?" and her encounter with John Lennon provided controversy that spread far beyond the London paper.

"Christianity will go," Lennon said. "It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

The comments generated little response in Britain, but after U.S. teen mag Datebook reprinted the quote out of context months later, the controversy boiled over. Alabama disc jockeys Doug Layton and Tommy Charles of WAQY initiated a "Beatle Boycott" urging people to take their Beatles "records and paraphernalia" to designated places to burn them. The Beatles, and Lennon in particular, were momentarily the devil incarnate to the Bible Belt and beyond, just as they were about to begin a U.S. tour.

"John is deeply concerned and regrets that people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way whatsoever," said Beatles manager Brian Epstein at a press conference. "I'm not anti-Christ or anti-religion or anti-God," Lennon said in a separate press conference. "I'm not saying we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and was wrong, or was taken wrong, and now it's all this."

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/john-lennon-beatles-more-popular-than-jesus/

[malchickiwick]

1. He later sang "Imagine no possessions" whilst owning a golden Rolls Royce and a castle...

...jus' sayin'

[Miles Archer]

2. On the recent anniversary of his birthday, similar comments were made about George

You take the songs and the philosophy and the spirituality and you still ended up with a guy who was living in a castle with a stable of high-end race cars.

Altruism is what you make of it.

"He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction" - Kris Kristofferson

[Lint Head]

3. "He's a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction" - Kris Kristofferson That line was

written about a friend of mine. Chris Gantry. He used to write with Kris for Combine Music back when For the Good Times and Help Me Make it Through the Night was written. https://www.chrisgantry.com/

[Cartoonist]

4. Philanthropy

He was also continually giving millions to charity, year after year. Yoko still is. That makes him different from Jesus. Jesus was always talking about helping the poor, but he never had a dime to give.

[malchickiwick]

5. I seem to recall something about some loaves and fishes, but it's been awhile since Sunday school...

... these days I avoid church religiously.

I don't doubt that the Lennon estate engages philanthropically, does that make the line from "Imagine" any less hypocritical?

[steve2470]

6. "reprinted the quote out of context months later"

Oh how the internet has changed the world.