Imagine There’s No Heaven…

The title above is how Imagine, the iconic 1971 song by John Lennon, begins. It is still being played and sung, more than 50 years later. Wikipedia tells us it is “one of the 100 most performed songs of the 20th century.” The song was re-released as a single in 1980 following Lennon’s murder, reaching number one on the UK charts. It was re-released in 1988 and again in 1999. For some listeners, myself included, that first verse was an opening to an atheist anthem to sing aloud:

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

But for many more, the most powerful line — and the most controversial — comes in the second verse where he sings “And no religion too.”

Imagine a world without religion. That line was uplifting for atheists, humanists, and secularists who feel religion has too much influence in worldly matters. But despite singing aloud what they have been saying for many years, it’s a lot harder than Lennon breezily suggested. In uber-religious nations like Iran, Afghanistan, and the USA, it is almost impossible to imagine them without religion. It’s easier to imagine Xitter without racists, Marjory Taylor Green without puerile conspiracies, megachurches without millionaire con artists preaching for more money from their congregations, or YouTube without ads.

But as we near the end of the contentious 2024 US election campaign, I still like to imagine how it might have progressed if religion was at least legislated out of political campaigns, and churches and pastors that involved themselves in politics (including preaching or online sermons) were taxed like businesses for doing so. Imagine future campaigns without religion.

Imagine a campaign where the far-right pseudo-Christian Talibangelists did not hold sway over candidates, did not push their repressive agendas banning abortions, women’s rights, and punishing doctors. Imagine not having pseudo-Christian pro-fascist posters pretending patriotism like that on the right. Imagine candidates not performing their charades in phony “prayer” meetings. Imagine a campaign where the racist, misogynist, serial liar and felon Trump didn’t pretend to be Christian, didn’t sell tacky made-in-China bibles with fake leather covers, didn’t pretend to read the bible and get exposed for not being able to name a single book or verse in it.*

Imagine a campaign where Christofascist preachers didn’t clutch their pearls and go into a frothing rampage of misogynist hate and angst over an ad that suggests women don’t have to vote the way their husbands order them to. Or the fragile male egos of MAGA commentators and Fox Newz talking heads (the American outlet for Russian State TV) didn’t claim acting independently was equivalent to them “having an affair” because thinking women is anathema to pseudo-Christian ideology:

Imagine a campaign without the repressive, xenophobic, and racist pseudo-Christian theocracy proposed by Trump’s Project 2025. Imagine a campaign where pseudo-Christians didn’t try to pretend Trump is their saviour, their new god. Imagine Trump’s followers not sharing his persecution complex. Imagine a campaign without the pseudo-religious celebrations at Trump hate rallies. Imagine a campaign where Trump didn’t compare himself to Jesus for his gullible followers. Imagine a campaign where the hypocritical pseudo-Christians didn’t publicly and loudly pray for Trump’s victory.**

A campaign without religion — especially without the pseudo-religion of the far right — would likely have been more civil, more focused on issues and policies, and much easier to see the stark contrast between candidates without the muddying effect of the Talibangelst ideology. Okay, maybe not: Trump being such an outspoken liar, hypocrite, racist, and misogynist it’s difficult to imagine how he could be any less obnoxious or toxic. Other candidates, like his inept running mate, might be more restrained without religion to stiffen their spines.

Imagine a campaign where atheists could run for office without having to pretend they shared someone’s religious fervour. Imagine a campaign without threats of hell or damnation over differences in views and policies.

Without his pseudo-Christian backers, Trump would not have the same extremist theocratic platform to stand on. He would not have had to lie about being a Christian and then to promise a rally of Christians in July if they voted for him, he would fix things so they wouldn’t have to vote ever again: “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians..” He would not be able to lie like he did this past weekend to a gathering of his religious faithful, calling Christians “the most important people,” and accusing the political left of “trying to hurt you.” Assuming he could ever be restrained from lying.

Without Trump’s promise to impose a Christian-like theocracy on the USA (really a pseudo-Christian totalitarian rule patterned on a blend of the bureaucracy under Stalin and Hitler), he wouldn’t be able to gull the Talibangelists into supporting him. As USNews reported:

Trump and his top campaign surrogates have repeatedly touted their commitment to protecting religious freedom. But don’t be fooled by this rhetoric. Trump isn’t committed to protecting all religious groups. He’s committed to protecting and empowering far-right Christian communities. His agenda sets the stage for a society infused with extreme conservative Christianity at every level, including in our public schools.
The far-right Project 2025 blueprint for his administration that’s backed by more than 100 conservative groups seeks to convert America into an overtly Christian nation, infusing conservative Christianity into government and restricting the rights and liberties of all Americans.
That agenda would undermine the rights of all other communities – including members of other faith groups, nonreligious people and even moderate Christians who haven’t bought into the Christian nationalism that Trump espouses. It would also open the door to discrimination, based not just on religion, but on race and ethnicity.

Imagine a campaign without having to choose between the threat of a far-right theocracy and an inclusive democracy.***

Notes:

* Talibangelists and Christofascists are not about faith: they are simply engaged in opportunistic struggles for power, money, and to control the lives of others. They never quote the Beatitudes, or Jesus’s own words about humility, charity, and loving one’s enemies. Instead, they cherry-pick the most repressive, intolerant, and misogynist, and violent verses repeat, often from the OT. They want to impose on democracy their theocratic rule; a westernized version of Sharia law. The term Christian Nationalism is merely a euphemism for fascism.

** An often ignored section of the NT tells people to be private in their worship. From Matthew 6: 6 (NIV) “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” Verses 5 and 6 add: “5: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6: But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” But that admonition would not play well in the fervour to show their worship of the felon Trump.

*** Canada’s leader of the CPC, Pierre PoiLIEvre, is called Skinny Trump for his obsessive mimicking of Trump’s tactics, lies, and behaviour. You can be assured if Trump wins, and PoiLIEvre wins the Canadian federal election, he will engage the far-right pseudo-Christians here to set his own repressive policies.

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