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
There are people who believe that a belief in an afterlife leads to an abandonment of our responsibility to others in the present. While I don't see this as a given, I have actually seen that dynamic at work in certain Christian groups. Their view of the Kingdom of God is completely in the future. They see the world as completely fallen, and consider it pointless to do anything to try and better things. For them, no real good can be done until Jesus comes again, so they wind up living for themselves. They miss that the Gospels make it clear that we are to live as if God's Kingdom has come. Our hope must be lived out in the present.
It is also easy to blame religion for conflicts. And unfortunately, Christians have participated in this. Worse, it isn't just in our past; the human tendency to try and solve things through violence is still with us. But it isn't unique to religions. Every ideology can fall prey to it. In fact, I would argue that it is when a religion moves from spirituality to ideology that it succumbs to violent conflicts. When I am seeking God, I will tend to act with compassion. It is only when I stop seeking God because I believe I have the answer that I begin to judge others and try and impose my beliefs on them.
So while I disagree with Lennon, I view the lyrics as a helpful warning. They portray the result of religiosity supplanting faith, law supplanting compassion, and escapism supplanting hope. Instead, I pray that God's Kingdom "come on earth as it is in heaven," and I pray that my actions help make it so.
