Why I Hate John Lennon’s “Imagine”

once you stop believing in god then anything is permitted imagine there's no heaven no absolute moral criterion no way that's an invitation into a very dangerous space [Music] [Applause] i've been a beatles fan since i was about 12. their songs have worked their way into my soul in fact i would say they probably provide my idea what good pop music sounds like and of the four beatles my favorite is john lennon who i consider to be perhaps the greatest popular songwriter of the 20th century i love john lennon with the beatles i loved him in his solo work i remember when he died in 1980 when he was killed i was a college student in washington and i deeply and sincerely mourned him when he died now i say all that as a preparation uh just to let you know i got absolutely nothing against the beatles or against john lennon's work but i must say i do not like the song imagine now this came to my mind when very recently at the um uh opening of the tokyo olympics the song was played and was sung by a children's choir and then then it was a pre-recorded versions by different pop stars and it was done as a kind of secular anthem it was very clear that it was a song that you know should bring us all together again i love the music i think it's got a great arrangement i love the way john lennon sang it but i hate the lyrics of imagine and i bemoan the fact that it seems to become something of a of a secular anthem see take a look at some of these words it begins this way imagine there's no heaven it's easy if you try no hell below us above us only sky well frankly i can't imagine anything worse than that see to say imagine there's no heaven there's no hell what that means is there is no finely absolute criterion of good and evil there's no way finally to measure the difference between one person's private inclinations and another person's private inclinations there's no final moral judgment and therefore it's an invitation into a very dangerous space the space described by dostoyevsky once you stop believing in god then anything is permitted imagine there's no heaven no absolute moral criterion no way that's an invitation into a very dangerous space now you doubt me on this score take a good hard look at the 20th century there were a lot of people and i mean people in very influential political and cultural positions who imagined there was no heaven and they piled up millions upon millions of corpses to me this is nothing to to get dreamyite about that's a very dangerous proposition imagine there's no countries it isn't hard to do nothing to kill or die for and no religion too that's another verse of uh imagine well first of all i find it very amusing that they were singing this right after the parade of nations so into the olympic stadium come all the different nations of the world and yet we're singing imagine there's no countries see again the problem is not countries in themselves that's just a way of naming what's you know particular to a given people there's particularity to one's culture one's political arrangement etc one's presuppositions nothing wrong with countries in themselves i'll tell you what the problem is the problem is when you bracket any moral consideration there's nothing by which we can judge the activities of nations we can say well that that behavior by a given country is no good and that one's better see imagine there's no heaven i've gotten rid of all that then there is no way to adjudicate disputes among nations warfare comes from that much more than from countries in themselves but you know what particularly rankles to me in that verse so you know countries nothing to kill or die for that's what we're always fighting about but then they they line at the end and no religion too so we've imagined there's no heaven so there's no transcendent there's no god and now very clearly john lennon wants us to imagine in this sort of dreamy-eyed way that there's no religion and the implication common to many people on the secular left is that the real source of mischief you know if nationalism is bad enough but the real source of mischief it's religion that's what people fight about as i say it's a commonplace it has been since about the 16th century a standard view that you know religious warfare is the source of all of our struggles there was a study done i think about 20 years ago now and very very careful objective study of all the wars in human history of which we have records you know what the conclusion was something like six percent of all the wars fought in human history could reasonably ascribe to religion far more deadly tribalism uh disputes uh political and colonial uh disputes in fact i would say look at the 20th century again atheistic ideologies were responsible for far more violence than religion so this canar that you know well religion that's what we got to get rid of if we want peace i mean i'd say oh contraire it's again precisely when we bracket god we bracket the transcendent we bracket a sense of objective morality that's when we have trouble now i must admit the one that made me laugh out loud is when i heard all these celebrities i won't name them you can go on youtube and find out but all these celebrities singing this line imagine no possessions i wonder if you can no need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man well see i think a lot of people all they hear is brotherhood of man now isn't that a wonderful thing but go back to that opening line imagine no possessions and i tell you every single person singing that song was a multi-millionaire and i don't think it takes too great a leap of imagination to say that they probably all have multiple homes and fleets of cars and closets full of clothes in other words i'd be willing to bet you a lot of money that they've got lots of possessions and i'll tell you i will give up my possessions the minute they give up theirs and i would say let's not hold our collective breath on that one see again catholic social teaching would say there's nothing wrong with possessions in themselves in fact we defend the legitimacy of private property the problem is if i lack a moral vision that allows me to place my own possessions within a wider moral context of the common good that's the problem that's when possessions can indeed become problematic not possessions in themselves but possessions apart from heaven if you want apart from religion apart from considerations of god you know that last line of the song i said it's great i'm i'm willing to imagine that to dream about that a brotherhood of man but think for a second it is simply impossible to have a brotherhood and sisterhood of all human beings if you bracket our common father see we can come together in all kinds of ways we can have economic and political and social and cultural you know organizations and and bonds with one another but if you're talking about real brotherhood sisterhood in other words a relationship of of siblings that's impossible apart from a common father you bracket heaven bracket religion you also ipso facto bracket anything like a brotherhood of man so here's the bottom line everybody uh i love the beatles love john lennon love the music of imagine i mean when it comes on the radio i still listen to it and sing along with it but for god's sake and i mean that literally for god's sake don't take the word seriously thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed this video i invite you to share it and to subscribe to my youtube channel

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 171,954

Rating: 4.7594905 out of 5

Keywords: John Lennon, Imagine, The Beatles, Bishop Barron, Olympics, john lennon imagine, john lennon olympics, totalitarianism, catholic, bishop robert barron, john lennon imagine olympics, heaven, catholic views, the beatles, john lennon lyrics imagine, imagine lyrics john lennon, belief in God, morality, olympics, tokyo olympics 2021, 2021 olympics, 2020 olympics, catholic commentary, john lennon imagine commentary

Id: vIWk1Bj-d9I

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 29 2021