Governing Body more popular than Jesus Christ? Where have we heard this before?

by Newly Enlightened 13 Replies latest social entertainment

  • glenster
  • free2beme
    free2beme

    John got so screwed in this comment. As he was dead right! But Americans at that time, did not have Internet and did not realize Christianity was not the largest religion in the world. So more people knew of the Beattles across country lines, states and religions, then knew about Jesus Christ. Imagine what would cause him to later make a song about the peace of no religion.

  • glenster
    glenster

    "Imagine what would cause him to later make a song about the peace of no
    religion."

    I think John will back me up:

    Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian
    prayer book, which helped inspire in Lennon what he described as:

    "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 ... the World Church called me
    once and asked, "Can we use the lyrics to 'Imagine' and just change it to
    'Imagine one religion'?" That showed [me] they didn't understand it at all. It
    would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29

    Not all one religion or all disbelief--just don't be 'centric and intolerant
    about the differences.

  • glenster
    glenster


    "Imagine"--it's origin as a sugar-coated Communist Manifesto
    and how John got sugared himself
    Some more familiar with communism may want to add details.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

    Imagine there's no heaven
    It's easy if you try
    No hell below us
    Above us only sky
    Imagine all the people
    Living for today...

    Imagine there's no countries
    It isn't hard to do
    Nothing to kill or die for
    And no religion too
    Imagine all the people
    Living life in peace

    Some humanists think religion causes people to neglect current human
    conditions in favoring an existence to come. This ignores the better
    religious social efforts and progressive advocacy in strict adherence to
    the communist view that religion is "the opiate of the masses" and should
    be eliminated.
    Imagine calls for people to not have a hope for a possible Heaven beyond the
    known things in the name of a plan for a real "heaven on Earth" beyond
    what's realistic to expect.
    In communism, government will become unnecessary because everyone will
    share...after a communist government makes them do it for a while....
    Violence between governments will not exist although it's a recipe for
    worldwide anarchy so not a cure for violence.

    You may say I'm a dreamer
    But I'm not the only one
    I hope someday you'll join us
    And the world will be as one

    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 communist stance of everyone sharing everything. It might diminish the
    motive for higher learning for people to end up with the same whether they
    take eight years of college or none.
    http://www.rusbasan.com/Politics/John_Lennon_Imagines.html

    This view evolved with time.

    For John on a communist advocacy of revolution, free the workers/proletariat,
    Janov's primal therapy, real pain, etc., and discouragement of bourgeois
    capitalism, religion, parent figures, etc., see the site at the next link.
    (John Lennon and Yoko Ono talk to Robin Blackburn and Tariq Ali for the left-
    wing newspaper Red Mole)
    http://marxsite.com/Lennon%20interview.htm

    "So that’s my feeling. The idea was don’t aggravate the pig by waving the
    thing that aggravates–by waving the Red flag in his face. You know, I really
    thought that love would save us all. But now I’m wearing a Chairman Mao badge.

    "I’m just beginning to think he’s doing a good job. I would never know until I
    went to China. I’m not going to be like that, I was just always interested
    enough to sing about him. I just wondered what the kids who were actually
    Maoists were doing. I wondered what their motive was and what was really going
    on. I thought if they wanted revolution, if they really want to be subtle,
    what’s the point of saying “I’m a Maoist and why don’t you shoot me down?” I
    thought that wasn’t a very clever way of getting what they wanted.
    http://www.jannswenner.com/archives/john_lennon_part2.aspx

    "'Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,'
    is virtually the Communist manifesto, even though I'm not particularly a Commu-
    nist and I do not belong to any movement." He told NME: "There is no real Commu-
    nist state in the world; you must realize that. The Socialism I speak about ...
    [is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That
    might suit them. Us, we should have a nice...British Socialism."

    Lennon once told Paul McCartney that "Imagine" was "'Working Class Hero' with
    sugar on it for conservatives like yourself."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29

    Around then John moved from the UK and high taxes to the US and more rewarding
    capitalism.

    "the radicalism was phony, really, because it was out of guilt. I’d always
    felt guilty that I had made money, so I had to give it away or lose it. I don’t
    mean I was a hypocrite, I mean when I believe, I believe right down to the
    boots. But (what I was doing) fighting the American government just because
    Jerry Rubin couldn’t get what he really wanted--a nice cushy job." (Newsweek,
    Sept 29, 1980)
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2638486/posts

    If it boils down to just support for some welfare programs, encouragement
    for charity, and discouraging people from being 'centric and intolerant about
    things that aren't character determinants, the call for no heaven/religion is
    is an awkward reminder of the concerns the song arose from. It would be better
    served by a suggestion to not be 'centric and intolerant about the belief/non-
    belief differences in calling on everyone to support welfare, etc. Like John
    adjusted, Imagine can be imagined that way to adjust to that.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29

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