Elton Steps In It, Big Time

One of the first albums I ever bought was Elton John's Caribou. I bought it because I loved the song "The Bitch is Back," which was all over the radio. I was about 12 and had no idea what the lyrics were about. I was the biggest Elton fan, and bought all his early albums. By Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, however, I'd moved on. When he came out during the '80s, it was not a surprise to me.

Fast forward 25 years, and Elton has just given a very revealing interview with Parade magazine, in which he makes this slightly indelicate statement:

I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you’re as good as dead.

His friend, the late John Lennon -- himself the target of a backlash over his "We're more popular than Jesus" comment made 45 years ago -- is smiling from heaven.

Predictably, the Catholic world is aghast. The Catholic League's William Donohue had this to say:

To call Jesus gay is to label him a sexual deviant. But what else would we expect from a man who previously said, 'From my point of view, I would ban religion completely.'

Coming from a man who advocates on behalf of a religion that aided and abetted scores of sexual deviant priests (and would have continued to do so had the public never noticed), I'd say, "Pot, meet kettle."