“Little did he know his story would make the world’s headlines.”
This past summer, Lennon had also made headlines after an interview that was recorded in 1969 aired on BBC Radio 4's “Sunday” programme.
In the interview, conducted by Ken Seymour of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation when Lennon was at the Bed-In for Peace protest in Montreal, Lennon said his notorious 1966 statement was misunderstood.
"It's just an expression meaning the Beatles seem to me to have more influence over youth than Christ," he explained.
Many Christians familiar with remark, however, note that Lennon's claim that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” was less disturbing than his comment that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink.”
In the 1969 interview, Lennon also claimed to be “one of Christ’s biggest fans” and that the Beatles were always “on the side of Christ”.
He blamed "the hypocrites" for being too "uptight" in reacting to his comments.
Experts, however, have argued against the claim, noting that while Lennon was fascinated by the life of the historical Jesus, bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr did not have particularly strong religious feelings and George Harrison increasingly leaned toward Eastern religion.
“The Beatles started out as atheists and agnostics and I think as everybody knows they became more interested in spiritual things,” Steve Turner, author of 'The Gospel According To The Beatles', told CNN. “ They went out to India in 1968 and I think in a way the Beatles became a spiritual force themselves.”
Lennon did return to the Christian faith for a brief time, announcing to close friends in the spring of 1977 that he had become a born-again Christian. He was later “saved” from God by his wife, Yoko Ono, who “had again become the captain of his soul, the mistress of his destiny”, as Turner wrote in his 2006 book.
Lennon eventually announced that he was a "born again pagan".
