John became a Christian shortly before he was killed, per his diaries. Despite appearances and some misguided lyrics, he seems to always have had an interest in Christianity and it seems to have scared him, because he ran away from it until the end. Incidentally, the line about The Beatles being more popular than Jesus was said by John with astonishment. He was not bragging.
Correct. The reaction to that comment was an early example of "outrage mob" hysteria. They were burning Beatles records for weeks. If I recall correctly, John did not bend a knee to it. But I could be wrong.
Anyway, these dumb kids. Those vintage Beatles albums would have been worth big money today.
And...Lennon was a quintessential “wise ass.” You could not take very seriously what he was saying in those early days.
Yes, and it was true at the time. There had never been anything like Beatlemania. People went absolutely crazy over them. This is why they quit touring early in their career. They couldn't hear themselves play over the screaming.