On March 4, 1966, John Lennon’s comments to reporter Maureen Cleave in the UK about Jesus were first published in the London Evening Standard. It came in an interview where Lennon covered many subjects, not just religion.His comments were almost sounded like an afterthought.“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. We’re more popular then Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” he said.
The comments went almost unnoticed until they were published in the American teen magazine Datebook. And still, years later, people refer to the comments as anti-religion when, in fact, they were a commentary on society in general.He later apologized, but a lot of people didn’t hear what he said. “I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn’t knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it’s true more for England than here. I’m not saying that 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 it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it’s all this,” he said at a press conference.Given the way the comments were misinterpreted back then, thank goodness he didn’t have to go through the talk show host fires he would have if he’d had made those comments today. Imagine how they would have been spun? Besides, anyone who stopped to really read and think about what Lennon said would have gotten it. Most people didn’t. Have times changed since then?You have to wonder.

The first part of a four part documentary on the controvery. All four parts are on YouTube.

And John Lennon still attracts attention. Witness the recent stories about the Citroën ad. Son Sean Ono Lennon has now spoken out and said the ad was done to keep him in the public eye, but certainly there are better ways — even better TV ads — to preserve the Lennon legacy.He’s still a magnet for controversy after all these years. Somewhere, you know he’s smiling.