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The first deceased President Jimmy Carter He reportedly had John Lennon’s 1971 hit “Imagine” as his favorite song. But its use as a song at his state funeral has sparked a firestorm on social media from critics who say it was unsuitable for use at a memorial service in a Christian church.
On Thursday, the tune was performed by fellow Georgian Trisha Yearwood and her husband Garth Brooks during Carter’s funeral service at Washington National Cathedral. A year earlier, Brooks and Yearwood also performed it at former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s wake. The country star couple reportedly previously worked with Carter on several Habitat for Humanity home projects.
Social media lit up later Thursday, questioning the song’s performance, given its lyrical rejection of religion.
“Imagine there’s no heaven / It’s easy if you try / There’s no hell below us / Above us, only heaven,” goes the first line.
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AX, several observers, including leading conservative figures, questioned the use of the song, while others disagreed.
“For Joe Biden to confess to us what a strong Christian Jimmy Carter was before the crowd sat down to ‘Imagine’ with the lyrics ‘Imagine there’s no heaven / It’s easy if you try’ makes me question the authenticity of the statement,” said commenter Erick. Erickson, who also served on the Macon City Council in Carter’s home state.
“Imagine There’s No Heaven, sung by someone who’s a devout Southern Baptist,” added one X user.
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“I don’t think Jimmy would appreciate the ‘no religion’ part,” said another.
Self-described “Trumpocrat” Steve Carlson, a perennial Minnesota Democratic candidate who is now running for governor in 2026, wrote that it’s an “insult” that “Imagine” would be played at Carter’s funeral.
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“Why would any Christian sing that at his funeral? To imagine that there is no heaven and no Christianity at a Christian funeral is dark, indeed,” said Mollie Z. Hemingway, Federalist editor and “All-Star Panel” regular. on Fox. News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier.”
A prominent member of the Catholic clergy also weighed in on X, saying he was “horrified” by the performance.
“Under the lofty vault of what I believe is still a Christian church, they reverently intoned, “Imagine there is no heaven; it’s easy if you try” and “imagine there is no country; it’s not hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion either.’ — The robed ministers sat patiently while a hymn to atheistic humanism was sung,” said Bishop Robert Barron, prelate of the Catholic Archdiocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota.
“This was not just an insult to memory a devoutly believing Christian but also an indicator of the lack of thorn in too much established religion in our country,” said the bishop.
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Jim Geraghty of The National Review said that the fact that “Imagine” asks the listener to imagine the absence of heaven is a “de facto concession” that it exists, in an apparent defense of the interpretation.
“Otherwise, we shouldn’t be asked to imagine otherwise,” Geraghty said.
Lennon himself had a complicated view of Christianity and organized religion, but mostly corresponded with Christian preachers like Oral Roberts.
“I was a Christian and only now do I understand some of the things Christ said in those parables,” Lennon has also been quoted as saying. “God is a concept by which we measure our own pain.”