Let's set the record (if you will) straight, since the Vatican has chosen to re-open this tempest in a chalice.
When John Lennon remarked in March, 1966, about The Beatles that "...we're more popular than Jesus now..." he was right.
At the time The Beatles were more popular than anything, as far as anyone could tell. But there was more to it than that. In fact, the period marked a distinct turn toward secularism. People were increasingly skeptical of organized religion. Church attendance was down.
The prevalent mood was caught in a Time magazine cover that April - after Lennon made his remark but before it had turned into a controversy - posing the question: "Is God Dead?".
Yes, at that point, at least, The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Lennon made the comment to Maureen Cleave in an interview for the London Evening Standard. It was one of many observations in the wide-ranging chat and no one in Britain paid it any attention. Cleave was later to say that they were used to the Beatles - Lennon especially - making deliberately pointed statements.
It wasn't until the comment was lifted from that interview and featured in an American teen publication called Datebook that the backlash started. But even then, it was pretty much confined to the American bible belt of the south. Conservative/religious disc 
jockeys and newspapers started calling for boycotts and burnings of Beatle products. Overnight, teenaged Beatle fans in states like Georgia turned out to smash records and throw their Beatle paraphernalia on bonfires. These gatherings resembled nothing less than Nazi book burnings. The Bible-thumping teens who eagerly turned out to toss their Fab Four fuel onto the flames looked to the rest of us like yokels from another planet.
There's speculation that in pronouncing its forgiveness of The Beatles, the Vatican is making a feeble attempt to lighten its image. Ringo Starr, in the only official Beatle reaction so far, observes that the Vatican has a lot more to talk about than his former band: namely, the scandal over sexually predatory priests.
Still, maybe the Vatican's learned something over the centuries. Some wags have observed that it took a lot less time to absolve The Beatles than Galileo (note to Pope Urban VIII, wherever you are: he was right).
As for me, I'll wager that The Beatles are still more popular than Jesus.
Maureen Cleave's original interview:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob/pob24.html
Lennon's response:
Time magazine's article:
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html
When John Lennon remarked in March, 1966, about The Beatles that "...we're more popular than Jesus now..." he was right.
At the time The Beatles were more popular than anything, as far as anyone could tell. But there was more to it than that. In fact, the period marked a distinct turn toward secularism. People were increasingly skeptical of organized religion. Church attendance was down.
The prevalent mood was caught in a Time magazine cover that April - after Lennon made his remark but before it had turned into a controversy - posing the question: "Is God Dead?".
Yes, at that point, at least, The Beatles were more popular than Jesus.
Lennon made the comment to Maureen Cleave in an interview for the London Evening Standard. It was one of many observations in the wide-ranging chat and no one in Britain paid it any attention. Cleave was later to say that they were used to the Beatles - Lennon especially - making deliberately pointed statements.
There's speculation that in pronouncing its forgiveness of The Beatles, the Vatican is making a feeble attempt to lighten its image. Ringo Starr, in the only official Beatle reaction so far, observes that the Vatican has a lot more to talk about than his former band: namely, the scandal over sexually predatory priests.
Still, maybe the Vatican's learned something over the centuries. Some wags have observed that it took a lot less time to absolve The Beatles than Galileo (note to Pope Urban VIII, wherever you are: he was right).
As for me, I'll wager that The Beatles are still more popular than Jesus.
Maureen Cleave's original interview:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob/pob24.html
Lennon's response:
Time magazine's article:
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835309,00.html
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