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Former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral last week sparked a new debate about a decades-old song.
Funeral viewers took to social media to argue over whether it was appropriate for “Imagine” to be performed at the service in Washington National Cathedral. Some wondered why a song about a world with “no religion” was used to honor a deeply religious man.
Carter reportedly loved the John Lennon classic, as do millions of others around the world. But reports that he handpicked it for his funeral weren’t enough to quiet the debate about what “Imagine” says about religion.
If you’ve followed news about “Imagine” since its release in October 1971, last week’s controversy shouldn’t have been surprising.
For decades, people have argued about its lyrics, questioning whether it should be seen as an atheistic, anti-religious anthem or simply a humanistic one.
“While most pop songs are secular by default — in that they are about the things of this world, making no mention of the divine or spiritual — ‘Imagine’ is explicitly secularist. In Lennon’s telling, religion is an impediment to human flourishing — something to be overcome, transcended,” wrote scholar Phil Zuckerman for The Conversation in 2021.
The song’s detractors say it blames religion for the world’s problems. Its defenders argue that “Imagine” is not opposed to faith in general, just organized religion.
It’s safe to say the debate will never be fully resolved. It’s also safe to say that Carter cared more about song’s peace-related message than its religion-related one.
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Term of the week: Parapsychology
Parapsychology refers to the study of alleged paranormal events, like out-of-body experiences.
I stumbled upon the term while reading a fascinating story from The New York Times about the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia.
DOPS researchers specialize in parapsychology, which means they investigate the kinds of phenomena that many of us associate with science fiction. The article focuses on their work on past lives, which involves interviewing children who seem to have been born with memories from a whole different life.
“Common features in children who claim to have led a previous life include a verbal precocity and mannerisms at odds with that of the rest of the family. Unexplained phobias or aversions have also been thought to have been transferred over from a past existence. In some cases, extreme clarity besets the remembrances: the names, professions and quirks of a different set of relatives, or the particularities of the streets they used to live on and sometimes even recalling obscure historical events — details the child couldn’t possibly have known about,” The New York Times reported.
Although the Division of Perception Studies is affiliated with UVA, its work is controversial, as is the field of parapsychology as a whole.
DOPS is funded entirely by private donations, per The New York Times.
What I’m reading...
Two new billboards in the Salt Lake City area call for support for the Jewish community. My colleague Caitlin Keith spoke with the organization funding them, JewBelong, about their unique effort to combat antisemitism.
I’ve read a lot of stories about church closures, but few so powerful as Bobby Ross Jr.’s column for The Christian Chronicle about the final days of his parents’ small church.
The Atlantic has published several thought-provoking articles recently about America’s loneliness crisis. My personal favorite is about the importance of hosting parties. Here’s my new life motto, which I got from the piece: “We are obligated to create the social world we want.”
Odds and ends
I recently started watching the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” from the beginning, and I was amused by an episode featuring a board game about moral dilemmas. As it turns out, “Scruples” is a real game and, if you ask me, a great way to start good-natured arguments about what it means to be a good person.