“We're more popular than Jesus now”
One of the most controversial statements Lennon ever made, this was published in England's Evening Standard newspaper (4 March 1966) as part of an interview with writer Maureen Cleave.
Context: 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 and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
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John Lennon 228
English singer and songwriter 1940–1980Related quotes

being the Justin Biebers and Lady Gagas of sports. Baseball need not hang its head in shame. A lot of things that are good and worthy are not popular. And baseball is plenty popular, for heaven's sake.
2010s, Baseball and Its Worriers (2018)

News conference in Chicago, where he apologized for the above statement, which was accepted by the Vatican. (11 August 1966)
Context: I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I wasn't knocking it or putting it down. I was just saying it as a fact and it's true more for England than here. I'm not saying that we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and it was wrong. Or it was taken wrong. And now it's all this.

“[A]n attractive lie is always going to be more popular than a hard truth.”
No. 11, p. 27
Following Cerebus (2004-)

“Superman is nothing more than a popular retelling of the Christ story, or Greek mythology.”
Caught in the Act : New York Actors Face to Face (1986) by Don Shewey and Susan Shacter, p. 18
Context: Superman is nothing more than a popular retelling of the Christ story, or Greek mythology. It's an archetype, watered down and made in vivid colors for twelve-year-old's mentality. It's pop mythology, which extends to the actor, then seeps over to a demand that that actor reflect the needs of the worshipers. The worship doesn't only go on in the temples — it goes on in the streets, and restaurants, in magazines. But, you know, I'm from New Jersey, I'm not from Olympus or Krypton, so back off 'cause I can't take the responsibility.

“At all times pseudoprofound aphorisms have been more popular than rigorous arguments.”
Evaluating Philosophies (2012), p. xiv.
2010s

“My skin is more beautiful than yours. I would be quite more popular in jail if I so chose.”
Fresh Air interview (February 4, 2002)