Posted on 12/04/2010 7:03:56 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
On December 8, 1980, The World was stunned to hear that John Lennon was murdered on a street in New York, not far from where he and his wife Oko lived. The impact of his death was felt immediately, as millions mourned the forty-year old rock star in candlelight vigils around the world.
What was this man’s legacy? Who is this man who will again be deeply mourned by many in this generation on the thirtieth anniversary of His death? Lennon was no doubt a profoundly gifted musician and lyricist, but I believe his legacy goes deeper than his involvement with the Beatles, and the songs he is noted for.
Lennon’s legacy was more than musical, it was and still is spiritual, for he was a minstrel for the drug and sexual revolution that swept through the west in the sixties. Obviously he wasn’t the only one who promoted sex and drugs through music, but he was one of the more effective toxic role models.
In a Rolling Stone interview of January 1971, Lennon admitted he began taking LSD in 1964, “How Long did it go?”, he was asked.”It went on for years” he replied.”I must of had a thousand trips…a thousand,I just used to eat it all the time”. When the Rolling Stone interviewer said “Theres a lot of obvious LSD things you did in the music,” Lennon replied,”Yes”. (from pg 58 The Legacy Of John Lennon, David Noebel,Nelson publishing)
Lennon would go on to say that “Help”, “Rubber Soul”,”Day Tripper” and “Yellow Submarine” were all drug oriented. Perhaps the most pervasively drug oriented Album up to that time, was 1967s “Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. This album has been credited with heralding the drug revolution.
Lennon himself , to be fair, insisted that “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” was not a coy reference to LSD, although the lyrics of the song evoke a mystical,dreamy hallucinogenic trip. But other songs such as “I Get High With A Little Help From My Friends”openly advocate the Pharmekia that God hates.
The fact that the Beatles were open and outspoken proponents of the Drug Revolution cannot be denied.Life Magazine, in an article “The New Far Out Beatles” quoted Paul McCartney about his own use of LSD;
“After I took it ,it opened my eyes.We use only 1/10 of our brain.Just think what we could accomplish if we could only tap that hidden part! It would mean a whole new world.If politicians would take LSD, there wouldn’t be any more war ,poverty or famine!.”(Life June 1967)
In July 1967 The Beatles signed heir names to a full-page advertisement in the London Times, calling for the legalization of marijuana. In his biography of the band, called The Beatles, Hunter Davies quotes Lennon’s favorable evaluation of his own use of LSD,”I was suddenly struck by great visions when I first took acid. But you have got to be looking for it before you could possibly find it”.
Lennon was also a minstrel of the sexual revolution which wreaked such terrible havoc in the west. I personally do not believe we have ever recovered from the trashing of Judeo- Christian morality in the west, and perhaps never will.
Lennon strongly advocated in his songs and interviews, and by his very public life, the deliberate destruction of the Christian sexual ethic of monogamous. married, till death do us part commitment.
Lennon, while still married to his first wife Cynthia,posed nude for an Album cover with his adulterous lover Yoko Ono for his album The Two Virgins. His comment on that was ;
“…intellectually we knew marriage was a stupid scene, but we’re romantic and square as well as hip and aware. We lived together for a year before we got married, but we were still tied to other people by a bit of paper.”(Noebel,legacy of John Lennon, pg 52,Nelson)
Lennon also wrote a pornographic ,blasphemous book called A Spaniard In The Works, which ridiculed Jesus, in hate filled and badly written prose. There are many blasphemous, anti Christ quotations Lennon is noted for, therefore I feel no need to repeat them. We pray he had time to renounce his anti-christianity before he died, God alone knows.
We are all going to be treated to the spectacle of mass mourning, public airings of Lennon’s songs, notably the atheistic hymn, Imagine , and other forms of canonisation, on or about the anniversary of Lennon’s tragic death. But what exactly are the people mourning?
Who is going to mourn for the millions who followed Lennon’s lead into the drug culture, and never made it out to sanity again? Who will shed a tear for the legions of broken and ruined people, who allowed Lennon’s message of sexual anarchy to wreck their lives? What about the broken families, the disenfranchised children, the ruined health of the thousands who bought into Lennon’s hedonistic Utopia?
Lennon had gifts alright, but who did he actually put them to the service of?
Psalm 12
Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever .The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
more to come
LOL! Paul is the Walrus. It is however a typical Lennon song. Sitting in an English garden...
I loved John Lennon’s music with the Beatles and on his own. I never felt the draw to indulge in the sex and drugs culture. People who make that claim are only trying to excuse their own miserable choices and behaviors. Rock n Roll is just music.
Good post! EVERYTHING we need to know about that piece of filth is right there! Now let’s all sing Yellow Submarine or something, ‘cause it’s such brilliant music making.
Yesterday afternoon, a Trader Joe’s cashier asked me as I approached his station “Who’s your favorite Beatle?”, just to be friendly, y’know, they’re hired for their friendliness, and I answered after a moment “George Harrison”. I have a favorite Beatle, like I have a favorite member of the Hollies, or the Swinging Blue Jeans, but it’s easy to put me on the spot. I should’ve answered “Pete Best”. Oh, well, l’esprit de l’escalier.
I stand by my statement.
A Pharisee or any of those who self-exalted themselves described in Holy Scripture stand in judgment before the Lord in the same way the prostitute or tax collector does.
Only God judges. You have no way to judge the eternal destination of any soul. To do otherwise is to set oneself up as God....and you ain’t God, no matter how much you think you might be.
Stick to behavior and ideals, not individuals.
I humbly present my rebuke knowing I am indeed a sinner in need of mercy.
I was only pointing to the wide spread (malign ) influence of these guys.
I would love to have seen what kind of collaborations he would have had if he hadn’t died. Especially with his old friend Harry Nilsson, they recorded an alcohol and drug fueld album, but it wasn’t very good and Harry damaged his voice. After they got clean and sober, it would have been a kick to see them back together. I don’t care about his politics, that was his business, but I sure did love the music.
Lennon’s brief rendezvous with musical grace and beauty were gifts from the God he denied.
How ironic that Lennon’s denial of God were portrayed using those things created by God and which only God can give—order, symmetry and beauty. Lennon’s atheist claims sure do look silly in this light.
This can be said of any and all atheist musicians with notable talent.
Say what?
Hey you stole my line. Not only is it the manifesto set to music it is a lullabye.
You can get frightened kids to go to sleep by singing them songs about falling out of trees if you use a soothing tune.
It’s easy if you try.
“Conservatism is not life”
Conservatism is not life, but God is.
In this way, Lennon denied life itself. Other posts in this thread have illustrated how Lennon regularly violated every principle he seemed to advocate in his music and writings.
Nothing Lennon ever expressed in language was worth noting. His only accomplishments were in putting together particular musical vibrations which seem pleasing in their symmetry and gracefulness.
It seems Lennon was not clever enough to understand that his only real accomplishments were entirely dependent on tools which can only come from God himself.
Amen! Pastor! I think of all the people who took drugs because of his type and ilk. I have lost many friends to drugs. Praise Jesus!
:-) I think Japan was probably happy to get rid of Yoko.
They probably gave her a (one-way) Ticket to Ride.
“Conservatism is not life - it is the basis of a sane socio-political economic system that is only part of life. Staggeringly, it is actually possible to write songs about other parts of life that do not have anything to do with conservatism, but still have value. Art, in general, follows this idea as well.”
As a life-long musician and a conservative for about 25 years, I agree.
I was 21 going on 22 when it happened and it hurt.
According to John’s diaries, he became a Christian after watching a Billy Graham crusade. Unfortunately, the pressures from Yoko and others (and John was easily used and manipulated)caused him to begin to stammer about his faith, where he had initially been excited. He touched me deeply for reasons I will never really understand (except that he seemed very vulnerable under the hard as nails exterior). I prayed for him for years and do hope his conversion was genuine. What a horrible death the poor man had.
Comic Judy Tenuta’s version: “(imitates Yoko’s singing and diction, then)...you know if that guy had just aimed a lil’
to the left...he’d have been a hero...”
Ringo turned out the most pleasant and decent one by far.
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