Ringo Starr attended an Evangelical Anglican Church in Liverpool as a child

by Dan Wooding
Founder of Assist News Ministries

Following the news that former Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr, has announced that at the age of nearly 70, he had “turned to God,” comes the revelation that, as a child, he attended an Evangelical Anglican church in Liverpool.

Ringo was reported to have said, during an interview at a recent event at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, that he had “found God” after taking a long and winding road to this change in his life.

Ben Todd, writing in Britain’s Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk), said that Liverpool-born Starr admitted he lost his way when he was younger, both as a Beatle experimenting with marijuana and LSD and afterwards when he suffered alcohol and cocaine problems in the late 1970s.

“But the musician, who has since become teetotal and quit his 60-a-day cigarette habit, says that religion now plays an important role in his life,” said Todd.

Todd reported that Starr, who turns 70 later this year, said: “I feel the older I get, the more I'm learning to handle life. Being on this quest for a long time, it's all about finding yourself.

“For me, God is in my life. I don't hide from that. I think the search has been on since the 1960s.

“I stepped off the path there for many years and found my way back onto it, thank God.”

Now British writer, Steve Turner, author of The Gospel According to the Beatles, has told me that, at the time of writing his book, “Ringo had an album with a track called ‘Oh My Lord’ on it which was very gospelly sounding and didn't refer to Krishna.”

Turner went on to say, “He's certainly changed from the old days when he didn't care about religion at all - not even much for TM (Transcendental Meditation). If you remember, he was first out of the meditation camp.

“As a child he [Ringo] attended an Anglican church near his home which had an evangelical tradition, but only because they had nice toys at Sunday school and you got paid to sing in the choir!

“Of course I hope that he has had a true conversion but I always fear that it’s just another love-peace-togetherness and a-higher-power kind of thing. I think I sent him a copy of my book when it was published but I might now send it again.”

Ringo Starr is due to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this Monday (February 8, 2010) and his many Christian fans trust that his new life with God continues and grows into a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.