JOHN AND PAUL 1966
(during the 'Jesus statement' controversy)
JOHN: "I was just talking to a friend of mine, who also happens to be a reporter. I wasn't saying The Beatles were 'better' than God or Christianity. I could have said motor cars are more popular than Jesus. I just used the name Beatles because I can talk about us easier to use as an example, especially to a close friend. The point of what I was saying came from what I'd read and observed of Christianity. It just seemed to me to be shrinking. I wasn't saying it was bad. I was just saying that it seems to be shrinking and losing contact."

PAUL: "And we deplore the fact that it is, you know."

JOHN: "When the story of it came out in England, a few people wrote in the papers, 'He can have his own opinion,' and then it just vanished. It was very small. But by the time it got over here and was put into a kid's magazine, it just lost it's context and everyone started making their own versions."

Q: "As this has begun to die down, a great many ministers have agreed with you in the full context of what you said. Most of the oversimplification of what you said has come from the 'Bible Belt.'"

PAUL: "Yea, they seem to think that John is trying to get at them, but he isn't at all. It was just a straight comment on something, which may be right or may be wrong... but he's got to answer as he feels honestly. If they think for him to do that is wrong, then they don't believe in free speech. I thought everyone here did."

You see Ebbie your quotation marks don't actually mean that is what he said. It wasn't what he said. It is what you believe. Dwindling congregation figures bears out his opinion although at the time it wasn't based on irrefutable fact.

Sometimes people are so scared of the message they shoot the messenger.