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John Lennon’s hopeless humanist hymn, “Think about”, is the unsuitable tune for the Olympics

John Lennon enjoying a child grand piano in a white mansion for his “Think about” video(Photograph: Youtube/johnlennon)

It occurred once more. First it was the Olympics in 1996, then the Winter Olympics in 2006, then again to the Olympics in 2012, then the Winters in 2018; and this 12 months the Olympic opening ceremony did it once more. They sang John Lennon’s “Think about”. It appears as if this has develop into the secular humanist hymn for our instances, the godless prayer that have to be uttered on any event – typically even by Christian clergy.

It’s an applicable anthem/prayer as a result of it displays the hubris, hypocrisy and hopelessness of secular humanistic values.

Hubris

Ten years in the past, as I used to be recovering from a critical sickness, I obtained tons of of playing cards from everywhere in the world. I could not reply to all of them, however one I had to answer was from a few proud atheists who instructed me that regardless of our variations they have been praying for me! To whom?

After we pray “Think about” we’re praying to ourselves. We’re saying that we’re the ‘Bob the Builder’ of the universe. We are able to repair it. All we have now to do is think about. John Lennon was an clever man. He did not write emotional guff. On the time of “Think about”, he was going by means of his revolutionary socialist, Mao T-shirt-wearing part.

He knew the teachings of Marcuse, the progressive thinker who argued that step one to alter is to think about it. Yoko Ono was a devotee of this sort of considering. John and Yoko sang “Comfortable Xmas Warfare Is Over” – “if you need it”. That is the way in which to finish warfare apparently – to need it, think about it. That sort of fanciful considering is now deeply ingrained in our tradition. I imagine I can fly. I imagine I can contact the sky.

A couple of years in the past my daughter returned from her major faculty and knowledgeable me she was in bother with the instructor. Why? The instructor had requested all of them to shut their eyes, to suppose pink, and to think about that Saddam Hussein and George Bush have been collectively in the identical room. This might carry peace. My daughter bought in bother as a result of when the instructor requested her – ‘what are you able to see?’, she replied ‘nothing, my eyes are closed!’. I used to be so happy with her!

To start with God spoke and the universe got here into being. At present our delusion is to think about that our creativeness will change actuality. It would – however solely in our heads.

The opposite side of this hubris is {that a} secular elite are imposing a godless world on a world the place 90 per cent of persons are spiritual. As Rebecca McLaughlin in Confronting Christianity places it: “At present, we should get up to the truth that Lennon’s dream was a fantasy. What’s worse, it was a fantasy fuelled by white Western bias and grounded on the belief that the world would comply with the place Western Europe led.”

Hypocrisy

The hypocrisy is breathtaking. They sing “think about there is not any international locations” because the anthem of a contest that’s based mostly on international locations! If their creativeness got here true, the Olympics wouldn’t exist.

Elvis Costello hit the nail on the top when he noticed in his good tune, “The Different Facet of Summer time”, “Was it a millionaire who stated think about no possessions?”.

Even the video of Lennon recording ”Think about’ has him singing it at his child grand piano in his white mansion. As a Lennon fan, I visited the Lennon shrine close to the Dakota constructing in Manhattan, the place he was shot. Singing “think about no possessions” whereas dwelling in a grand residence in probably the most costly areas on this planet, is a becoming picture for a hypocritical society. Wealthy celebrities sing “think about no possessions”. The poor do not should think about.

Hopelessness

Lennon desires us to think about that there’s nothing to kill or die for. It is a neat soundbite, however because the guide of Ecclesiastes reminds us ‘it is meaningless vainness”. Would you not be ready to die in your kids? Is there something to reside for, if there’s nothing to die for? Martin Luther King declared: “There are some issues so pricey, some issues so treasured, some issues so eternally true, that they’re price dying for. And I undergo you that if a person has not found one thing that he’ll die for, he is not match to reside.” A life with out one thing price dying for is a hopeless life.

As is an imagined world with no heaven. It is nearly past parody that some individuals sing this hopeless tune at a time of mourning. My father died a few weeks in the past. It’s a distressing and onerous time – particularly when you find yourself on the different aspect of the globe. I had hoped to see him once more on this life, however this was to not be. Nonetheless I’m sure that I’ll see him once more. The hope expressed in the funeral was certain and sure. We grieve and mourn, however not as these with no hope. If I adopted Lennon’s creativeness I might be in despair.

“Think about” is a tune about hope that’s hopeless. There isn’t a hope. There isn’t a that means. There isn’t a group. Individuals will not reside collectively in peace as a result of there’s nothing to base it on besides the unconventional narcissistic, nihilistic individualism that characterises those that are on the prime of the tree in our celeb tradition.

The Biblical Resolution

The biblical imaginative and prescient is the direct reverse of the hubristic, hypocritical, hopelessness of “Think about”. By Christ we’re provided humility, honesty and hope. And it is actuality, not fantasy – from the One who’s The Manner, The Fact and The Life.

When the Olympics come to Brisbane in 2032 I hope and pray that they may have discovered a special tune. I can recommend one. It is a 3,000-year-old tune from the Center East – which is for the entire world; not a 50-year-old Western cultural imperialist fantasy.

“Shout for pleasure to the LORD, all of the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come earlier than him with joyful songs.

“Know that the LORD is God. It’s he who made us, and we’re his; we’re his individuals, the sheep of his pasture.

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with reward; give due to him and reward his title. For the LORD is sweet and his love endures eternally; his faithfulness continues by means of all generations” (Psalm 100).

Think about this ringing out!

Could the earth be full of the data of the glory of the Lord, because the waters cowl the ocean! (Habakkuk 2:14)

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