The following article appeared in New Musical Express on August 19, 1966, page 2.
Referring to his religious statement, John Lennon is reported in the "Washington Post" as saying: "I can't express myself very well. That's my trouble. I was just saying in my illiterate way what I had gleaned from a book I have been reading-The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield.
"The main thing is I did the article with a quite close friend (Maureen Cleave), who has been with us since we began. I was talking to her in my own home and we know each other so well that I was being even less expressive knowing that she would put it right.
"But when it was taken out of my house and into her business, something happened to it. Actually, though, if I'm going to blame anyone, it's myself for not thinking what people a million miles away were going to say about it."
Making clear he was apologising for the mistaken impression he gave, and not for holding controversial opinion, he continued: "I'm more of a Christian now then ever I was. I don't go along with organized religion and the way it has come about. I believe in God, but not as an old man in the sky.
"I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong. Jesus says one thing and then all the clubs formed telling their versions and the whole thing gets twisted.
"It's like a game of having six people in a line and I whisper soemthing to the guy next to me. By the time it gets to the end of the line it's altogether something else.