The Beatles are and have been incredibly popular since they started out in the 1960s, but most people in the new generation don't know about the whole "Beatles controversy" that occurred in the mid-1960s. I also did not know about this issue until recently. To give you a summary of what happened, John Lennon was being interviewed in England and remarked that "The Beatles were more popular than Jesus." Clearly, this was a pretty radical remark but it did not receive much attention in England, which had waning levels of Christianity. Nevertheless, when an American magazine printed it 5 months later, it would be an understatement to say that there were few strong consequences.
Most of the chaos could be seen in the bible belt in the south of the United States. It got to a point where there were organized "Beatle Burning" sessions, where people would come to publicly burn their Beatles albums. Moreover, concerts were canceled, Beatles music was banned from many countries, and threats were made to the band. During one concert they were even targeted for gunfire and after the tour ended 44 years ago, the Beatles never performed commercially again. Fans were offended and hurt when Lennon said those things, because most of them were Christian. In my opinion, Lennon was not saying The Beatles were better or greater than Jesus, rather that the Beatles were being listened to more than people were going to church. Lennon was just repeating what the church admitted to about the decline of Christianity.
To get a feel of the attitude among young people during this time, take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZU8F-eO6W0
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus
Pictures courtesy of Google
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