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The late ex 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 ceremony has sparked a social media storm as critics say it was unsuitable for use at a memorial service at a Christian church.
On Thursday, the tune was performed by fellow Georgian Trisha Yearwood and her husband Garth Brooks during Carter’s funeral 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 housing projects.
Social media lit up later on Thursday, casting doubt on the song’s interpretation, 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,” the first line goes.
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Former President Jimmy Carter. (Emma Woodhead/Fox Digital)
At X, several observers, including leading conservative figures, questioned the use of the song, while others disagreed.
“Having Joe Biden lecture us about how strong a 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 commentator Erick. Erickson, who also served on the Macon City Council in Carter’s home state.
“Imagine There’s No Heaven. Sung for someone who is a devout Southern Baptist,” one X user added.
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“I don’t think Jimmy likes the ‘no religion’ part,” said another.
Self-described “Trumpocrat” Steve Carlson, a perennial Democratic candidate from Minnesota now running for governor in 2026, wrote that it is an “insult” to have “Imagine” played at Carter’s funeral.
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“Why would a Christian have that sung at his funeral? To imagine that there is no heaven or Christianity at a Christian funeral is dark indeed,” said Mollie Z. Hemingway, Federalist editor and frequent member of the “All-Star Panel” 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 soaring dome of what I believe is still a Christian church, they chanted reverently: ‘Imagine there is no heaven; it’s easy if you try’ and ‘imagine there is no country; it’s not hard to do. There is nothing to kill or die for it and have no religion either. — The vested 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 the memory of a devoutly believing christian but also an indicator of the lack of character of much of the established religion in our country,” said the bishop.
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Jim Geraghty of 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, there would be no need to ask us to imagine anything else,” Geraghty said.
Lennon himself had a complicated view of Christianity and organized religion, but in particular corresponded with Christian preachers such as Oral Roberts.
“I was raised a Christian and only now 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.”
