Imagine: Pope trumps Lennon

by Gunther Simmermacher · December 9, 2012

After his violent death at the hands of Mark Chapman on December 8, 1980, society virtually canonised John Lennon as a pop music martyr. To this day, his widow Yoko Ono perpetuates the elevated status of the ex-Beatle as a sage, with no public appearance going without a quote of supposed wisdom, typically prefaced with the words: “John would say…”.

“The verse about materialism, however, could have been written by Pope Benedict: ‘Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger; a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world.’?

The city of Liverpool toadied up to the image by naming its international airport after Lennon, even though Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the surviving Beatles, have done much more for the Fab Four’s home city than Lennon ever did.

Lennon probably would be rather embarrassed by all of this. He had a profound suspicion of celebrity and hero worship. He made that clear in interviews and in song lyrics. In his 1970 song “God”, he sang, “I don’t believe in Beatles”, or anything else except in his relationship with Yoko.

The sanctification of Lennon, a complex man of many contradictions, is soundtracked by his iconic, melodic and wholly overused song “Imagine”. It has been covered by many singers who profess to be Christians even as secularists embrace it as the “atheists’ anthem”.

The opening line would suggest as much. “Imagine there’s no heaven,” Lennon sings, and later, “and no religion, too”. So atheists were quite put out in January when R&B singer Cee Lo Green changed the lyric to “and all religion’s true” (Catholics might also object to that, though for different reasons).

“Imagine” isn’t quite an atheist hymn, though. In an interview with Playboy a few weeks before his death, Lennon explained that the lyrical concept of “Imagine” was inspired by a Yoko Ono poem and a Christian prayer book he had been given by the comedian and social activist Dick Gregory.

“The concept of positive prayer… If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion — not without religion but without this ‘my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing’ — then it can be true,” he said.

Lennon was a seeker of religion, though his concept of God resided in fuzzy New Age notions. His beef was with organised religion — and, it seems, the idea of salvation, as his rejection of heaven and hell indicates.

So the opening line should set off the alarm bells that “Imagine”, for all its idealism, is not a song that is wholly compatible with Christian thought. If we do not believe that there is heaven, we deny salvation. And if we deny salvation, we deny Christ.

The verse about materialism, however, could have been written by Pope Benedict: “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger; a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world.”

Of course, the alert secularist might jump at the thought, pointing to the old chestnut of the Vatican’s wealth. And some Catholics of more conservative stripe might protest that the pope is not “a communist”.

Both factions would miss the point, though. Lennon knew, as does the pope, that the denunciation of the pursuit for material possessions is impossible for most —
even and in particular for a Rolls Royce-driving, land-owning pop star. That is why in later years Lennon would change the lyrics to “I wonder if we can”.

The sort of people who actually have succeeded in realising the vision of surrendering possession and sharing with others in the spirit of brotherhood are those who have taken a vow of poverty in religious life. So in absence of religion, who else would put into practice what Lennon is urging us to imagine?

It is a bit rich for Lennon, or most people who croon “Imagine”, to agitate for some kind of idealism-driven revolution before they have done their bit in getting rid of their possessions and working for the poor. If you really want all the world to act like Mother Teresa, then don’t sing about your dreams but lead by example.

And that’s the big problem with “Imagine”. By imagining themselves to subscribe to the Lennon doctrine, listeners can persuade themselves that they have done their bit, much as one might by clicking the “Like” button on a Facebook page for a good cause. “Imagine” is a placebo, not a vehicle for the cure.

The song is not offering a programme for concrete change: it speaks of idealistic daydreams which can be translated into reality only if enough people join in. But since we can be certain that these numbers will never reach critical mass, it is entirely safe to sing of a revolution that will never come. In this way, “Imagine” is a call to procrastination.

If we really want to get to the meat of what ails the world, the answers can be found in religion. And Pope Benedict’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est — a call to action, not dreams — is a good place to start.

I suspect that even John Lennon would appreciate that.