Unkosher Jesus- Red Meat Commentary With a Side of Cheese: Vatican Absolves Lennon: Former Beatle Immediately Released from Hell

"Are you there, God?
It's me, Lennon."

I don't know whether it's true or not that the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano actually did this- I haven't been able to find the article online- but apparently, in a 40th anniversary retrospective of the Beatles' 1968 release entitled The Beatles (aka "The White Album"), the paper reportedly described
Lennon's "the Beatles are bigger than Jesus" comments from 1966 as little more than a joke made by "a young English working-class musician who had grown up in the age of Elvis Presley and rock and roll and had enjoyed unexpected success."

I suppose that the paper is right. Although he made it pretty clear in his 1970 song God, and his 1971 release Imagine, that he was not a religious man in any traditional sense of the word, and may well have been an atheist, the following quote from 1969 makes it clear that Lennon had some appreciation for the Gospel message of Jesus as a force for good in the world:

"We're all Christ and we're all Hitler. We are trying to make Christ's message contemporary. We want Christ to win. What would he have done if he had advertisements, T.V., records, films and newspapers? The miracle today is communication. So Let's use it."

God, by John Lennon

So, we're left with two questions: did the Vatican actually absolve Lennon of his so-called sin? What did John Lennon actually believe with regard to who or what God is or isn't? Of these two questions, we can only ever truly know the answer to one, that of course being whether the Vatican actually wrote the article in question. As for Lennon's beliefs, well, he may not have been a religious man, but he clearly believed there are forces at work in this life of a spiritual nature, and that the energy we put out into the world always comes right back to each of us. So just be sure to keep putting the good stuff out there. We all shine on, baby.

- Doug L.

Instant Karma, by John Lennon