Which famous person said this: "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".

John Lennon said this during an interview with reporter Maureen Cleave (Evening Standard) in March of 1966: "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".

This comment went virtually unnoticed in England, but caused a great controversy five months later in the U.S.A. Many people burned their Beatles records, threats were made against Lennon, some radio stations banned the Beatles music from their airwaves.

Lennon later apologized for his comments: "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". This controversy contributed mightily to the band's decision to stop touring.