![]() ![]() īoth McCartney and Harrison had been baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, but neither of them followed Christianity. The theme of religion's irrelevance in American society had nevertheless been featured in a cover article titled " Is God Dead?" in Time magazine, in an issue dated 8 April 1966. However, traditional Christian faith was still strong and widespread in the United States at that time. Wilson's 1966 text Religion in Secular Society explained that increasing secularisation led to British churches being abandoned. ![]() Robinson published Honest to God urging the nation to reject traditional church teachings on morality and the concept of God as an "old man in the sky", and instead embrace a universal ethic of love. According to author Jonathan Gould: "The satire comedians had had a field day with the increasingly desperate attempts of the Church to make itself seem more relevant ('Don't call me vicar, call me Dick .')." In 1963, Bishop of Woolwich John A.T. Church attendance there was in decline and Christian churches were attempting to transform their image, to make themselves more "relevant to modern times". The article provoked no controversy in the UK. A young man, famous, loaded, and waiting for something". Ĭleave's interview with Lennon was published in The Evening Standard on 4 March under the secondary heading "On a hill in Surrey. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. We're more popular than Jesus now I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. I needn't argue about that I'm right and I'll be proved right. She mentioned that Lennon was "reading extensively about religion", and quoted him as saying:Ĭhristianity will go. Schonfield's The Passover Plot, had influenced Lennon's ideas about Christianity, although Cleave did not refer to it in the article. Among Lennon's many possessions, Cleave found a full-sized crucifix, a gorilla costume, a medieval suit of armour and a well-organised library with works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Her article portrayed him as restless and searching for meaning in his life he discussed his interest in Indian music and said he gleaned most of his knowledge from reading books. Ĭleave carried out the interview with Lennon in February at his home, Kenwood, in Weybridge. She chose to interview the band members individually for the lifestyle series, rather than as a group. She had described them three years earlier as "the darlings of Merseyside", and in February 1964 had accompanied them on their first visit to the United States. The articles were written by Maureen Cleave, who knew the group well and had interviewed them regularly since the start of Beatlemania in the United Kingdom. In March 1966, London's Evening Standard ran a weekly series titled "How Does a Beatle Live?" that featured John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney. John Lennon speaking to reporters in September 1964 In 1980, he was murdered by a Christian fan of the Beatles, Mark David Chapman, who later cited Lennon's quote as one of his motives in the killing. The controversy exacerbated the band's unhappiness with touring, which they never undertook again Lennon also refrained from touring in his solo career. Lennon apologised repeatedly at a series of press conferences and explained that he was not comparing himself or the band to Christ. The controversy coincided with the band's 1966 US tour and overshadowed press coverage of their newest album, Revolver. ![]() Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, records were publicly burned, and press conferences were cancelled. Lennon's comments incited protests and threats, particularly throughout the Bible Belt in the Southern US. His opinions drew no controversy when originally published in the London newspaper The Evening Standard, but drew angry reactions from Christian communities when republished in the United States that July. " More popular than Jesus" is part of a remark made by John Lennon of the Beatles in a March 1966 interview in which he argued that the public were more infatuated with the band than with Jesus and that Christian faith was declining to the extent that it might be outlasted by rock music. ![]()
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