Watching the Beatles in fast-forward reminded me of just how far we’ve come in four decades, writes Eric Miller in a web-only article at Christianity Today.

“Clearly, for all their standard bemoaning of the fate of America after the ’60s, evangelicals have in evident ways embraced the profound changes in sensibility, style, and thought the era brought—and often with good reason.

Even paganism, it turns out, has redemptive worth.”

See also: The Beatles were a Christian band

The Vatican’s daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the “The White Album” by dismissing as a “quip” John Lennon’s notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.

At the time, the comment by Lennon to a London newspaper in 1966 infuriated Christians, particularly in the United States, some of whom burned Beatles’ albums in huge pyres. [video]

John Lennon famously claimed the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, even predicting that Christianity would “vanish and shrink”.

But 28 years after his death, in an interview being broadcast for the first time, he claims that on the contrary, he hoped to encourage people to focus on the Christian faith.