Unimaginable

Bishop Robert Barron was irked. One of the most prominent Catholic prelates and interviewers in the country, with an online audience of many millions, Barron had watched some of the highlights of the funeral service of the late Jimmy Carter. Much of the service paid tribute to the Christian faith that was so prominently part of the former president’s life, along with the hymns to match: The Navy and Army Bands performed rousing renditions of “Eternal Father,” “Come Thou Almighty King,” and of course “Amazing Grace.”

But one of the songs sung was not like the others. At one point, country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood took center stage, giving a performance that was anything but Christian: a rendition of one of the most famous songs on earth, John Lennon’s “Imagine.” The song asks us to “imagine there’s no Heaven,” as well as a world in which there are “no countries,” and “no religions too.” Only, the song implies, if we do away with nationalities and with faith, will a genuine heaven on earth come to be: “Imagine all the people / living life in peace.” In such a scenario, then it is possible toimagine an age in which “the world will be as one.” As he watched and heard these words sung in a house of worship, Bishop Barron took to X to make his annoyance known:

I was watching highlights from President Carter’s funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. I found some of the speeches very moving. But I was appalled when two country singers launched into a rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Under the soaring vault of what I think is still a Christian church, they reverently intoned, “Imagine there’s no heaven; it’s easy if you try” and “imagine there’s no country; it isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.” Vested ministers sat patiently while a hymn to atheistic humanism was sung. This was not only an insult to the memory of a devoutly believing Christian but also an indicator of the spinelessness of too much of established religion in our country.