In fact, there was no need to at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics because Lenin was there in spirit as his destructive atheism was hymned by the minstrel of the permissive society, John Lennon, in his dreadful song Imagine.
The song with its no heaven and no religion too is after all a chilling reflection of the godless ideology Lenin imposed on the Soviet Union.
The sight of a children's choir in Imagine-emblazoned T-shirts mouthing Marxist propaganda reminded Cranmer's Curate of a visit in 1981 to a primary school in the Ukraine where he saw a group of children singing a hymn in praise of Lenin.
The sight of Lennon's effigy at the ceremony reinforced the parallel further.
In case anyone objects that children sing hymns to Jesus in Church of England primary schools, the difference between the UK and the then Soviet Union is that children here are free to reject Christianity if they so choose.
It is also true at present in the UK - thank the good Lord - that children in the Imagine choir are free to embrace Christianity if they so choose. But with Lennon's Leninism proclaimed with such enthusiasm by the state broadcaster, it is obvious that they would be going against the cultural flow.
'Imagine there's no heaven/It's easy if you try/No hell below us/Above us only sky'. Again no need to imagine no hell below us because hell on earth is what we fallen human beings create when we reject the authority of almighty God and his Christ and live as if this world is all there is.
Ask any evangelical Christian sent to a Siberian prison camp when the spirit of Lenin hovered over the USSR.
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Absolutely agree.
ReplyDeleteImagine the fuss if the children had sung a hymn of praise to Jesus for the salvation of sinners. I doubt the BBC would have repeated the song afterwards. But I suppose Lennon's song goes with the flow of the anti-Christian agenda being imposed on society now.
Anyhow, perhaps best to forget the closing ceremony and focus instead on the 2 weeks of superb sport and sportsmanship that showed something of the best of human nature, and on the achievements of Team GB
Think of all those foreign athletes who crossed themselves when about to compete - and plenty of other Christians among them. Plus Muslims etc. What would they have thought of making that Lennon song a centrepiece of the finale? What a massive insult.
ReplyDeleteDan
Well said, Dan, and CC also. Hopefully the world will see the vile State-imposed materialism that our society (and no doubt other Western societies) has fallen into, and be suitably disgusted. At least there was no bomb horror or other outrage at the olympics - and it did allow for much Christian outreach which we must be glad about, and applaud all those involved. Apparently (I read) a local prostitue came to Christ in the course of the games - so they were worth it after all (yes, even for just one ...)
Deletewhat complete twaddle, ask the 80,000 singing along with Lennon, oh hang on these were the christians, muslims that were massively insulted that Dan talks about
ReplyDeleteNo not twaddle. I agree with Philip and Cranmer's Curate. Sad that the 80,ooo went along with it and failed to understand what they were singing about. Following like sheep. However we cannot know how many did not sing-along in that number. There may have been some and that statement is an exaggeration.
DeleteI'm no fan of Imagine or John Lennon, in fact I used the term 'dirge' to describe it yesterday, and the fact remains that it is one of the most well known pieces of contemporary British music by one of the most well known British musicians in the World. In that context, it was entirely fitting that it was played.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred it hadn't been played, but that's my personal taste, and it was entirely consistent with the celebration of British music, which catered for all tastes, no matter how dubious some might be.
That said, to suggest it was somehow bringing the spirit of Lenin to proceedings is at best incredibly cynical, and at worst deliberately disingenuous.
The logic used to link the two seems to be that since Lenin opposed religion and had people sent to camps, and Imagine is suggesting a world without religion, Imagine is suggestive of the forced detention of people practising religion.
Frankly that just doesn't make sense and is is entirely inconsistent with other lyrics from the same song.
"Nothing to kill or die for", "Imagine all the people living life in peace", and "No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people sharing all the world".
How do those thoughts fit with sending people to Siberia? That's hardly 'living life in peace', or 'all the people sharing all the world' and a brotherhood of man, is it? Yet according to your reasoning the song reflects Lenin? Surely, those latter lyrics reflect what most religions claim as part of their ethos?
I find it quite sad that in a 3 hour celebration of contemporary British Music, of which Lennon is unquestionably a huge part, you choose to focus on a 3 minute song, comprising less than 2% of the total output of the ceremony, in a hugely negative way.
Finally, in reply to Philip, I don't recall any fuss whatsoever when Abide With Me was sung during the opening ceremony.
I suspect you have an inflated opinion of the importance of Christianity in society today if you think that the choice of Imagine was part of some 'anti-Christian' agenda. I doubt the organisers gave religion (of any kind - including atheism) any thought at all when choosing the song.
As with all the other works used, likely as not, it was chosen because it is something distinctly British, in exactly the same way the singing of Abide with Me is. It has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with being something innately British.
Ruz
Ruz, you are right there was no fuss about "Abide With Me", so in that sense that part of my comment was not appropriate. However I didn't mean that "Imagine" was chosen particularly to further an anti-Christian agenda, but just that it does chime with that – and the desire to push God out - no Heaven, no Hell, no religion, just let’s have peace, utopia, etc without the need for Christ. I thought the opening ceremony quite well acknowledged our Christian heritage, and GB as we are today. Interesting that Mr Blair was on Radio 4 this morning saying that although he's was thankful for our Christian heritage, it's great we're now multicultural etc,(therefore, by implication, our Christian heritage is just something of our past?) Society (or some in society) may not think Christianity is important, but that doesn't change the fact of the uniqueness of Christ and the utmost importance of the Christian message for all.
ReplyDeleteYes I preferred the opening ceremony to the closing one! But, re my last sentence, my overarching feeling about the Games is gratitude about the huge success they were and all who contributed to that.
Fair points but I was going to say essentially what Ruz said and he wrote it better than I probably would.
ReplyDeleteAlso 'And did those feet in ancient times' (Jerusalem) was played in the opening too
Abide With Me is not seen as an overtly Christian hymn by the general public. It is the FA Cup final song and the regular choice at funerals, but the Christian meaning behind it is generally overlooked.
ReplyDeleteImagine was not only insulting for all the people of faith at the Olympics, but it's line about imagining no countries goes against the whole point of the Olympic movement, celebrating diversity through competition. It was doubtless welcomed by the BBC, given how little they think of religion as a whole.
And just to mention Jerusalem, the whole section it was involved in included a second hymn, but both were used as anthems for British nations, rather than having any religious meaning behind the words. Whilst I would bet that director Danny Boyle, a practising Catholic, recognised them as hymns the general public would have been clueless.
Speaking to my Dad last night, he commented on the general negative imagery of the beginning of the closing ceremony, as opposed to the positive imagery that pervaded the entire opening ceremony. They may have saved it with the Queen and Who segments, as well as Eric Idle's awesome performance, but I was merely fortunate to switch back to see this section, as the start had been so bad I had switched off.
It was a shame that something that had gone so well was treated with such light-handed contempt right at the end. I think that, in the end, it won't matter to how people think about these Games, as they have been amazing. I just wish the guy organising the closing ceremony had actually thought to represent this, rather than his own image of Britain's musical history.
We seem to have diverged from the Curates's post but I will come back to that at the end.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to the responses, I find it difficult to reconcile the inconsistency with which things are viewed. We dismiss the Christian content of Jerusalem and and Abide with Me "because they are British sporting institutions" (in the context of a celebration of Britishness) but we don't dismiss the content of Imagine even though "it's a British musical institution" (in the context of a celebration of British music).
A great example of the inconsistency that appears to me from my own personal viewpoint is that after calling Imagine an insult, in the next paragraph Youthpasta goes on to call the performance of a song from a film which mocks some of the basic foundations of the Christian faith, "awesome". I can't help but wonder why that song, which pokes fun at the Crucifixion in the film, is somehow 'ok', and at least not commented on negatively.
If we are to ignore the content of Abide with Me and Jerusalem because of context, we should be consistent and ignore the content of Imagine by that same application of context.
By the reasoning displayed here, it's OK to sing a hymn which, to a non-believer, might suggest that a supernatural entity stalk them night and day, which could be considered somewhat disturbing. On the other hand, it's not OK to sing a song which considers that if we did away with several of things people fight over most often, the world might be a nicer place.
My personal feeling is that both were absolutely appropriate, specifically because Britain is a diverse society, and it was a celebration of Britishness that was on show and being celebrated on both occasions, albeit with different slants. It was never about any particular set of beliefs or views, and that made it great.
I can't help but feel that to suggest Imagine is an insult is to go down the opposite path, and make it about specific sets of beliefs and views and at that moment you might as well give up and go home because you don't stand a chance of finding something to suit everyone.
Going back to the original post, I decided to reply because I felt it said more about the way the Curates views the world than about the Olympics, Lenin and the decision to use that song.
Rather than taking the time to post about the positives of the Olympics, the Curate chose to write about the negatives they personally took out of a single 3 minute segment out of a 3 hour show, out of 17 days of many positives.
I would be curious as to what other spectres the Curate saw during the rest of the Games, which were positive in so many ways.
The point of the Olympics is that they are above the petty squabbles of religion (and a glance through this blog shows just how petty and petulent the religiously minded can be!). So, so what if 'Imagine' was used.
ReplyDeletePersonally I loathe the song because of the lyric 'Imagine no possession, I wonder if you can...' - it seems rather ironic this line was penned by a man who left £120 million in his will in 1980 (what would that be in today's money?) - and was very canny about this investments making as much money as possible for him.
The words of Imagine contain some reasonable sentiments, but they are encased in the aspic of platitude... But you could say the same about religion couldn't you?
Any evangelical Christian who reached a prison camp under Lenin was doing very well. They were slaughtered out of hand by the Cheka, man, woman and child. The lucky ones were shot in the back of the head, without ado. The others were tortured to death, as slowly and horribly as possible. The same goes for Catholic and Orthodox. See "Le Livre Noir de Communisme".
ReplyDelete