On the 4th of March, 1966 John Lennon told the London Evening Standard‘s Maureen Cleave that, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I do not know what will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity… We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
Several months down the line [blogs were called “zines” back then and took way too long to spread inflammatory soundbites…] the “more popular than Jesus” crack made it back to the states, sparking torch and pitchfork retribution from American Bible Thumpers who subsequently exported their outrage back over the pond. Even the Vatican had critical words for the young man.
Who’d a thought that all the heartache and apologetic press conferences could have been avoided with some simple data?
Take, for example, the latest Harris poll (pdf) in which President Barack Obama edged out Jesus Christ as the greatest American Hero, followed by Martin Luther King and Ronald Reagan.
What’s truly astonishing, if you stop to think about it, are the criteria by which one is deemed heroic. As you scan the list, think about the life (and death) of Jesus, and about how awesome Obama must be to have surpassed the Son of God in categories that seem to heavily favor a JC victory:
The Harris folks, loathe to be misunderstood, included this caveat in their digest: The fact that President Obama is mentioned more often than Jesus Christ should not be misinterpreted. No list was used and nobody was asked to choose between them.
Unless there’s a furor over the next few weeks it’s safe to say that John should’ve waited for the polls to come out. Can anyone doubt that the Beatles would’ve topped Jesus in a popularity contest in 1966?
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*Another interesting datum from the poll, overshadowed by Jesus’ disappointing finish, is the vertiginous decline of Colin Powell. When asked “Is there any person you can think of whom you used to consider a hero but now do not?” Powell was the number one answer (amazing what trading on your considerable reputation in a disingenuous presentation widely credited for pushing the nation over the edge into an invasion of Iraq will do to your poll numbers). Second and third were George W. Bush and John McCain, respectively.
