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The religious views of the English rock band the Beatles evolved over time and differed between members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Contents
Background
McCartney and Harrison were both baptised as Roman Catholics during childhood, although McCartney was raised non-denominationally; his mother was Roman Catholic and his father was a Protestant turned agnostic. Harrison was raised Roman Catholic.
Lennon attended St. Peter's Anglican church in Woolton Village, South Liverpool, where he was a member of the youth group and sang occasionally in the choir.
Starr attended an Evangelical Anglican church during his childhood.
The Beatles years
According to the band's press officer, Derek Taylor, all four Beatles had abandoned their religious upbringings by 1964. In an interview for the Saturday Evening Post, in August of that year, he stated that the Beatles were "completely anti-Christ. I mean, I am anti-Christ as well, but they're so anti-Christ they shock me which isn't an easy thing."
In February 1965, the band gave an interview to Playboy magazine, in which they defended themselves against claims that they were anti-religious, while at the same time emphatically declaring themselves to be agnostic.
It was also in February 1965 that filming for Help! began, on location in the Bahamas. During filming, a Hindu devotee presented each Beatle with a book about reincarnation. The incident is widely regarded as having instigated the band's interest in Indian culture.
In August 1966, on the eve of an American tour, American teen magazine Datebook published Lennon's remark that the Beatles had become "more popular than Jesus". Lennon had, in fact, originally made the remark to a British newspaper and when it was first published in the United Kingdom, in March 1966, his words had provoked no public reaction. After Datebook quoted his comments five months later, however, vociferous protests broke out in the United States. The Beatles' records were publicly burned, threats were made and some radio stations refused to play their music. The protest also spread to other countries including Mexico, South Africa and Spain.
Two press conferences were held in the US, where both Brian Epstein and Lennon expressed their regret that Lennon's words had been taken out of context and offence taken. At one of the conferences, Lennon described his own belief in God by quoting the Bishop of Woolwich, saying, "... not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us." The US tour went ahead as planned, although there was some disruption and picketing of their concerts.
Harrison's interest in Indian culture expanded to Hinduism and after the 1966 American tour, until the commencement of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, he and his first wife went on a pilgrimage to Mumbai where Harrison studied sitar, visited various holy places and met several gurus, including Maharishi. Two years later, in 1968 all four Beatles travelled to Rishikesh in northern India to study meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Although the band later fell out with the Maharishi, Harrison continued his interest in Eastern philosophy. He embraced the Hare Krishna tradition and, in the summer of 1969, produced the single "Hare Krishna Mantra", performed by the devotees of the London Radha Krishna Temple.
Post-Beatles
Lennon continued to reject religious teaching and organised religions. His solo single, "Imagine", has been described as an "atheist anthem". He sings about his beliefs in the song "God", in which he states, "I don't believe in" magic, I Ching, the Bible, tarot, Jesus, Buddha, mantra, Gita and yoga. In his 1973 song "Out the Blue", he sang to his wife, "Every day I thank the Lord and Lady for the way that you came to me." In his 1980 song "Dear Yoko", he sang: "The goddess really smiled upon our love." (On a demo recording of this song, he had also sung the line as "The gods have really smiled upon our love.") Although he commonly rejected the notion of religion, he did claim to have a spiritual side. In an interview conducted in September 1980, Lennon told Playboy journalist David Sheff "People always got the image I was an anti-Christ or antireligion. I'm not. I'm a most religious fellow." When talking about Bob Dylan's new-found Christianity, John said, "But the whole religion business suffers from the 'Onward, Christian Soldiers' bit. There's too much talk about soldiers and marching and converting. I'm not pushing Buddhism, because I'm no more a Buddhist than I am a Christian, but there's one thing I admire about the religion [Buddhism]: There's no proselytizing." After his death in 1980, his wife, Yoko Ono said "John loved and prayed for the human race. Please pray the same for him."
Harrison continued to embrace the Hare Krishna tradition (particularly japa-yoga chanting with beads) and became a lifelong devotee, being associated with it until his death in 2001. Harrison was also a vegetarian, on religious grounds, from 1968 until his death.
Speaking at the Grammy Museum, Los Angeles, in February 2010, Starr stated that he had recently returned to monotheism, saying "I stepped off the path there for many years and found my way [back] onto it, thank God." He was also reported as saying "For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that ... I think the search has been on since the '60s.."
In a 2012 interview for the Indenendent newspaper, McCartney said "I have a kind of personal faith in something good, but it doesn't really go much further than that". He also went on to say "Jesus I could see, that's a historical character".