Christians torch 'dark' performance of Lennon's 'Imagine' at Jimmy Carter's funeral
Many Christians on social media took issue with Trisha Yearwood and her husband Garth Brooks' performance of John Lennon's 1971 song "Imagine" during the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday.
Yearwood and Brooks, who were friends with the Carters and worked for Habitat for Humanity's Carter Work Project for decades, also sang "Imagine" at former first lady Rosalynn Carter's funeral in 2023. The song was reportedly one of the former president's favorites, according to The Daily Mail.
.@GarthBrooks and @TrishaYearwood perform "Imagine" at President Jimmy Carter's State Funeral. pic.twitter.com/XPhnzjqCJS
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2025 Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Many Christians on X were offended by the song choice and pointed out that its lyrics are antithetical to the message of a Christian funeral.
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota issued an extensive statement on X expressing his disgust at the atheist anthem being featured in the nation's cathedral, which he suggested is symptomatic of cowardice in the American church.
"I was watching highlights from President Carter’s funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC," Barron wrote. "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," Barron added.
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…
— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) January 9, 2025
Ben Zornes, who serves as executive pastor at Christ Church (CREC) in Moscow, Idaho, noted the irony of performing a song denying Heaven immediately before the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, which addresses God the Father "which art in Heaven."
"At Jimmy Carter's funeral Garth Brooks sang 'Imagine' right before a congregational recitation of The Lord's Prayer," Zornes wrote. "This sort of incongruity happens every Sunday in many congregations. Many draw near God with their mouths, but are far off in their hearts."
"WHAT? Why would ANY Christian have that sung at their funeral? Imagining there is no heaven and no Christianity at a Christian funeral is dark, indeed," wrote Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway.
Paul Anleitner, a cultural theologian and podcast host, described Lennon's song as "a terrible substitute hymn from an empty substitute religion of our Secular Age."
"It paints with this thin veneer of profundity and hope over the hollow, and frankly frightening, vision of a global, homogenous monoculture that has lost all distinction and genuine diversity," he said. "It presents a new global religion that has subsumed all other religions and cultures and lies about the fact that its peculiar brand of secular progressivism is, in fact, a religion with a clear eschatology and proposed plan for the salvation of the human race."
"Having Joe Biden lecture us about what a strong Christian Jimmy Carter was before the crowd sits through 'Imagine' with the lyrics 'Imagine there's no heaven/ It's easy if you try' makes me question the authenticity of the assertion," radio host Erick Erickson tweeted.
Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, a Dominican friar and former parish priest at St. Pius V Church in Providence, Rhode Island, penned an op-ed in Our Sunday Visitor arguing that "Imagine" replaces the hope of the Resurrection with "secular dreams."
"While the song may be considered an anthem of unity in our culture, its message is deeply opposed to Christian hope and the sacred purpose of a church," Briscoe wrote.
"The tragedy of 'Imagine' lies not in its longing for peace, but in its denial of the ultimate source of peace. True unity and justice cannot be achieved by erasing God; they are found in surrendering to him," he later added. "In moments of mourning, the human heart yearns for assurance. A Christian funeral doesn't merely console; it declares. It declares that death is not the end, that sin has been conquered, and that Christ has opened the gates of heaven."
Carter, who described himself as a born-again Christian and taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, drew criticism in his later years for drifting from biblical teaching, such as when he made headlines in 2018 for claiming that "Jesus would approve of gay marriage."
Lennon, who was raised Anglican, generally rejected organized religion, though he briefly claimed to have converted to Christianity in the 1970s after corresponding with televangelists such as Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson.
Lennon famously set off a firestorm of controversy in 1966 when, during an interview with the London Evening Standard, he made an offhand remark comparing the Beatles' fame with that of Jesus.
"Christianity will go," Lennon said. "It will vanish and shrink. ... We’re more popular than Jesus now."
When news of Lennon's comment reached the United States, many boycotted the Beatles and burned their records, and Lennon eventually apologized while maintaining his assertion that Christianity is waning.
"I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ or anti-religion. I was not saying we are greater or better. I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky," he said. "I’m sorry I said it, really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. From what I’ve read, or observed, Christianity just seems to be shrinking, to be losing contact."
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
