Jesus Christ Superstar

The Vatican last week pardoned John Lennon for his “more popular than Jesus now” statement made 42 years ago. It said that in all probability the remarks were made by the band members because they could not handle the sudden fame and stardom they had achieved. Given this, it must be an irony that Lennon made that statement, as he met Paul McCartney for the first time at St Peter’s Church in Liverpool.
It might be true that being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire did make them a bit cocky (George Harrison was 22 when he received the MBE).
The Beatles were no strangers to controversies -- be it snubbing the Marcoses in the Philippines or getting arrested in Hamburg for arson. In the US, Elvis Presley asked President Richard Nixon to ban the group from entering the US for their anti-war activism and open drug use.
For the Church, which was relatively unchallenged for the greater part of its existence, the statement by the band was a rabbit punch. In the 1960s and 70s the Church was in crisis. The disillusionment of the two World Wars and the hippy movement saw a sharp decline in church attendance all over the world.
The Church was rocked, perhaps for the first time, when Henry VIII of England decided to separate the Anglican Church from the Roman hierarchy in the 16th century. Until then the Vatican had enjoyed unquestioned power and anyone who was seen as being against its interests got a taste of its tough love. The best example is the case of Joan of Arc, burnt at the stake. Later, the Vatican apologised and Joan was canonised in 1920.
Lennon’s statement was small potatoes considering the damage Henry VIII caused to the Church. But the eighth Henry was a monarch while The Beatles were a ‘working-class group’ who symbolised values unbecoming of Christendom. By taking strong exception, the Church was rebuking not just The Beatles.
But the Church’s biggest knock came from a Cambridge theologian who said that all species of life evolved over time from common ancestors through a process he called natural selection.
Is anyone paying heed to a pardon that has come 28 years after Lennon was shot dead? In 1966, when the Church reacted and Beatles’ LPs’ were burnt in the US and South Africa, Harrison said: “They’ve got to buy them before they can burn them.” So how much would McCartney and Starr heed the pardon now?