In an article for Relevant Magazine, Jesse Carey shared eight of what she considers to be unusual pop culture stories, with a Christian emphasis.
In this article, I want to share two of Carey’s examples that caught my attention, as well as one I came across while waiting for a physiotherapist appointment.
Turning The Beatles into a Christian band?
The first story involves John Lennon, a member of The Beatles, perhaps the most famous rock band of the 20th century. Lennon, along with Paul McCartney, co-wrote many of The Beatle’s greatest hits. Lennon was brutally murdered by Mark David Chapman in 1980.
Though Lennon became involved in new age philosophy towards the end of his life, in a 1969 interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Lennon said that he was hoping that at some point, The Beatles would turn into a Christian Band.
Of course, Lennon is also known for stating that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus, a statement that he claimed was misunderstood.
He was stating this was the reality of what was happening, and it was not necessarily a good thing:
It’s just an expression meaning the Beatles seem to me to have more influence over youth than Christ. Now, I wasn’t saying that was a good idea, ’cause I’m one of Christ’s biggest fans. And if I can turn the focus on the Beatles on to Christ’s message, then that’s what we’re here to do … If the Beatles get on the side of Christ, which they always were, and let people know that, then maybe the churches won’t be full, but there’ll be a lot of Christians dancing in the dance halls. Whatever they celebrate, God and Christ, I don’t think it matters as long as they’re aware of Him and His message.
At one point, John Lennon claimed to have been a born-again Christian and regularly corresponded with the televangelist, Oral Roberts. READ: ‘Bigger than Jesus? The Beatles were a Christian band’
Megan Fox on speaking in tongues
The second story involves popular American actress and Transformers star Megan Fox. In an interview with Esquire in 2013, Fox share how while others turn to booze and drugs for release, Fox finds it through speaking in tongues at a Pentecostal church:
I have seen magical, crazy things happen. I’ve seen people be healed. Even now, in the church I go to, during Praise and Worship I could feel that I was maybe getting ready to speak in tongues, and I’d have to shut it off because I don’t know what that church would do if I started screaming out in tongues in the back … It feels like a lot of energy coming through the top of your head — I’m going to sound like such a lunatic — and then your whole body is filled with this electric current. And you just start speaking, but you’re not thinking because you have no idea what you’re saying. Words are coming out of your mouth, and you can’t control it. The idea is that it’s a language that only God understands. It’s the language that’s spoken in heaven. It’s called ‘getting the Holy Ghost.’
After her mother divorced and remarried, Fox was raised in what she described as a strict Pentecostal home. READ: Megan Fox Saves Herself
God provides a witness to American actor, Donald Sutherland
As mentioned earlier, as I was waiting for my physiotherapist appointment several years back, I can across a 2014 interview in GQ magazine with actor Donald Sunderland, 87. READ: The Original Donald, GQ, November 2014
In the interview with Michael Hainey, Sunderland, who had polio as a young child, shared how he had an obsession with death, wondering what happened after a person died.
Though he claimed to have no God, Sutherland shared how his brother was a born-again Christian. Though, they weren’t close Sutherland paid for his care after his brother had a stroke at the age of 38.
He had a second stroke in 2012 and ended up in Palliative care and died a short while later.
And they phoned me to say that he had not regained consciousness. I said, “I’m in the middle of working, and I can’t get down there. Can you keep me abreast?” And then he died. They cremated him and sent his ashes here, in that box I have to take care of. Two weeks afterwards, I received a phone call from a grief counselor at the palliative-care center. She said, “I want to talk to you about dealing with the grief.” And I said, “I don’t have any grief. We were never very close.” She said, “You should write him a letter,” and I said, “What’s the point? He’s dead.” She said, “Write about the things that—” And suddenly I started to bawl. And I said, “Thank you very much.” I went to my computer and started to write him a letter. There are forty pages, and it’s not even nearly finished.
OpentheWord.org 