John Lennon: One of Christ’s Biggest Fans
A long lost radio interview with John Lennon, in which he calls himself “one of Christ’s biggest fans” was broadcast by the BBC on July 13, 2008.
The 1969 interview, with Ken Seymour from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was taped during a bed-in for peace in Montreal.
Lennon’s remarks about Christianity drew international headlines in a March 4, 1966 interview in the London Evening Standard when he said: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I do not know what will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
Asked to clarify his remarks, Lennon said: “It’s just an expression meaning the Beatles seem to me to have more influence over youth than Christ.”
“Now I wasn’t saying that was a good idea, because I’m one of Christ’s biggest fans,” he went on. “And if I can turn the focus of the Beatles on to Christ’s message, then that’s what we’re here to do.” 
He said: “If the Beatles get on the side of Christ, which they always were, and let people know that, then maybe the churches won’t be full, but there’ll be a lot of Christians dancing in the dance halls.”
Two years after the “we’re bigger than Christ” interview, Lennon released a song, “Imagine,” that drew the ire of churchgoers. The song contains the lyrics, “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try…Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.”
Now, the recovered 1969 may shed some light on Lennon’s thoughts behind the famous song.
“I haven’t got any sort of dream of a physical heaven where there’s lots of chocolate and pretty women in nightgowns, playing harps,” he said. “I believe you can make heaven within your own mind. The kingdom of God is within you, Christ said, and I believe that.”
Why wasn’t this interview released back in the ’60s or ’70s? It would have been a huge support to grassroots Christianity.
April 21st, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Such a statement concerning what sounds like the “lost scripture of the apostle John Lennon” is saddening, and I hope that it is not an accurate reflection of post-modern spirituality that needs endorsements from celebrities.
My friend, you spread a message that implicitly states the Lord God can be more clearly heard through a pop-singer’s words rather than scripture. I don’t know much about Mr. Lennon, though I feel very badly about the way the public has unfairly criticized his wife; however, the demonstration of my Christian beliefs and virtue ends there. I cannot “imagine”” a man or woman of true faith caring one way or the other about such statements, and if someone’s spiritual life was altered in some way by the omission of Lennon’s statement, it speaks more to celebrity than to faith. Whether a man of God or not, Lennon’s remarks should not be the cause of consternation or celebration. Whatever he said, he said it as a man and not as a prophet, and his words–whatever they might be–can’t sway me in my own faith. I turn to my bible. When seeking truth, I don’t turn to the White Album.
The conspiracy theory espoused is as follows: “Why wasn’t this interview released back in the ’60s or ’70s?”
Do you believe that true Christians were ever concerned in the first place? I can’t believe that a celebrity would cause any reasonable person of faith to question his or her core beliefs or influence anyone other than those who were already being influenced.
If anyone’s faith is resurrected by a lost interview from a pop-star, that affirmation of faith may very well disappear when the APA announces their next press release. I am not a person who chooses to build my spiritual foundation on such a wet marsh!
May God continue to bless you, and please know that my comments–perhaps scattered and not as well-structured as I’d like–are in no way intended to denigrate your own views. I only ask that people might remember that Lennon holds no unearthly enlightened perspective on the subject of Christianity.
July 20th, 2011 at 6:34 am
I’ll just respond by asking what version of the bible do you read? Whichever one it was written by not God, but men….. whom God spoke to. What makes you think God speaks any less to people today? I think he “uses” people all the time to spread his message. Now whether Lennon is one of those may or may not be true but I find it funny that Christians who cling to the Bible only don’t realize where the Bible came from. None of the oldest texts agree and even the compilation of the Bible is at least several hundred of years after Christs death. What’s the quote? Wherever three or more of you are gathered God is there?
And even more specifically most if not all the hymns and music played in curches were created many many years later than Christ by ….. Musicians, like Lennon and probably just as flawed….the horror!