I saw once on tv a little Christian comedy about the early Apostles in which one of them said, when things weren't going so well for the early church, "Even the beetles are more popular than we are!", to which Paul, the apostle said, "Oh, shut up, John!"
It took me a long time to understand it until I realized it was a parody of John Lennon's Jesus statement in '66..... and it took me even longer to stop lol'ing.

Coca Cola is known and sold in the worlds isolated areas in deep jungles and desert tribes than Jesus being preach to them.

If Lennon brags about beatles popularity, he may be right . Vatican should admit they have not done a good job preaching Jesus and doing His great commission.

its clear these roman catholics and their popes dont understand quite well the language of english.i think lennon was clearly right at that point when he said that they were so popular than christ,Jesus..he lennon clearly suggested in his talk that people had shunned their God for limited world pleasure and idolatry.this lennon needed not ask anyone forgiveness,its our religious leaders who should have gone back and stressed the point of Jesus christ on our daily life.lennons vision is even still true today.....people shunning their GOD for idolatry.

tambua,hamis,kenya.

Lennon was misunderstood. His thoughts challenged and scared many. Sort of like the message of Jesus.

I'm probably what could be considered a rehabilitated obsessed Beatles fan. I have learned to not place them on pedastals as human gods who deserve worship (idolatrus as that might be), and instead merely enjoy the teaming result of their pooled gifts that God gave them. They were a musical and maybe cultural force, but far from anything spiritual. They never claimed to have the answers, but only said they were searching like every other seeker. Even in the song Let It Be, Paul sang: "If there WILL BE an answer.... Let It Be." For those of us who believe in Jesus as Messiah–we know our answer. For fans to suggest that, well, John was taken out of context on his "More popular" remark, is forgetting actually what was said. John said "Christianity will shrink. It will vanish. I'll be proven right." There was intended malice in his statement. I'm not sitting in judgement of Lennon–I loved him very much. But Voltaire also spoke against Christianity as something irrelevant, and today they distribute Bibles from his former home. It is funny how fans conveniently twist John's words around to try to get him off the hook, and sooth their own concsciences. I accept that what John said earned the poor Fabs the awful controversy. And I'm glad they weren't harmed. John also sang "God is a concept by which we measure our pain" and sang "I don't believe in Jesus" as well as "I don't believe in Beatles." I don't think his search ever ended until Dec. 8, 1980, and I so hope the Jesus he so mocked (said his disciples were 'thick and ordinary, and that ruins it for me') was as compassionate as I believe him to be upon his arrival to the afterlife. God rest his soul.

I agree, david. It was purely a social commentary. It had nothing to do with The Beatles, per se. It shows how far ahead of his time John was.

As a non-practising Catholic, what little I know of religion, I thought, was based on tolerance and forgiveness.

I'm not exactly an avid Lennon or Beatles fan, but isn't it about time to forgive and forget? One week from today, Lennon will have been dead 28 years, for goodness sake let it go.

Thought for the day, given recent events, aren't there more pressing issues for us all to be concerned about?

Lennon always had a distain for organized religion (as he did for organized anything) and certainly did believe it's time as a major force in the world had passed (as many of us agree) and his remark that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus was meant to illustrate that point. People didn't like to hear it, especially in the "Bible Belt".....but they knew it was true. He also said if he had said television was more popular than Jesus, he might have gotten away with it.

Really, people. Does anyone out there believe John Lennon would give a rats a– if the Pope forgave him for any comments? I know I certainly don't.