John Lennon, The Beatles, and Jesus?

On March 4, 1966, in an interview printed in the London Evening Standard, John Lennon made the following statement: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with 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.“ The statement, being part of a two page interview, went unnoticed in Britain at the time. John had said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus meaning that Christianity (and religion in general) were getting so weak and unpopular that a rock ’n’ roll group (the Beatles) were more popular than it at the time. He just said it as an example to make his point, that Christianity was not popular among young people, and he certainly didn’t want to compare the Beatles with Jesus or to show off himself a