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'More popular than Jesus' | How one sentence changed everything for The Beatles
WFAA.COM ^ | 29 JULY 2019 | Matt Gregory, Spencer Bruttig

Posted on 07/29/2019 4:43:12 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist

With one sentence, John Lennon changed The Beatles’ prospects in the United States.

In March 1966, the renowned singer sat down for an interview with The London Evening Standard.

“We’re more popular than Jesus now,” Lennon said during the interview.

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The sentence alone appears to compare the band’s fame to Christ. But in full context, Lennon wasn’t attempting to say what would be regarded as a blasphemous and negative comment. Lennon simply stated that rock music, The Beatles in particular, were more popular in England than Christianity at that point.

(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: antichristian; hollywoodreds; jesus; johnlennon; liberalbigot; thebeatles
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1 posted on 07/29/2019 4:43:12 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I remember that! What a firestorm! Wonder what such a statement would do today.


2 posted on 07/29/2019 4:45:11 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=imagine+john+lennon+lyrics

3 posted on 07/29/2019 4:45:39 PM PDT by ealgeone
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

>>But in full context, Lennon wasn’t attempting to say what would be regarded as a blasphemous and negative comment.

Bullsh!t. He followed later by saying that Christianity (and Beatlemania itself) would go away some day.


4 posted on 07/29/2019 4:48:42 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I bet Lennon is imagining if he could only go back and have a redo about now.


5 posted on 07/29/2019 4:49:59 PM PDT by Dogbert41 (When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe. -Luke 11:21)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I could be wrong but IIRC this was one of the things that set off Mark David Chapman to murder Lennon.


6 posted on 07/29/2019 4:50:52 PM PDT by xp38
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

‘Christianity will go,’ he said. ‘It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will 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.’


7 posted on 07/29/2019 4:51:12 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I think that at that point (in the UK and the US) he may have been correct.

Which says more about the people than it does the Beatles.


8 posted on 07/29/2019 4:51:51 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: xp38

Mark Chapman got John Lennon’s autograph and stuck around afterwards to kill him. Clearly Lennon’s remark didn’t offend him enough to stop him from asking for a sacred autograph a decade and a half after the remark.


9 posted on 07/29/2019 4:52:35 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

John said “Christianity will go” and that he will be proved right.

The fringe Left has done what it can do to combat Christianity and not just in the 20th and 21st centuries.


10 posted on 07/29/2019 4:54:11 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: ealgeone

Yes, John Lennon was an atheist.

And yes, few have ever bothered to contend with the truth of his statement.


11 posted on 07/29/2019 4:54:20 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

He was referring to Jesus Cruz his landscaper.


12 posted on 07/29/2019 4:54:29 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary walks free, equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

A week later, John met Yoko.


13 posted on 07/29/2019 4:55:21 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

Correction. Six months later, John met Yoko.


14 posted on 07/29/2019 4:56:17 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

They also liked the USSR.


15 posted on 07/29/2019 4:57:25 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

They would ask “who’s Jesus?”.


16 posted on 07/29/2019 4:57:43 PM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (If you want a definition of "bullying" just watch the Democrats in the Senate)
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To: Larry Lucido

17 posted on 07/29/2019 4:59:20 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: xp38

It was. He also felt Lennon was a bad influence on kids with the drugs and stuff and he thought he would be like Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the rye and save the kids before they went off the cliff, and in his mind that meant killing Lennon. Now he gives a whole different excuse, that he wanted to steal his fame which is baloney, he probably says that to appease the parole board. When he was arrested he constantly talked about the Catcher in the rye book.


18 posted on 07/29/2019 5:00:19 PM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary walks free, equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: SkyDancer

“They also liked the USSR.”

I don’t really see any evidence of that. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” is a sort of novelty song, bouncing off the old “Back in the U.S.A.” song. But it’s not pro-communist.

And Beatle albums were banned in the U.S.S.R. until their last album, Let it Be.


19 posted on 07/29/2019 5:00:38 PM PDT by River Hawk
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Yoko Ono accepts John Lennon’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award (”bigger than Buddha”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ie-6QtUPNQ

Paul McCartney on Who Broke Up the Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azq8ud8oiLY


20 posted on 07/29/2019 5:00:59 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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