Happy Easter -- From The Mormons!

The Mormons have begun putting out Easter messages on YouTube every year, and while I think this year's is pretty good, I think last year's was the best so far.  This is not to say become Mormon or any other established religion -- as long as they still have vestiges of racism and sexism -- but the Mormons crafted an excellent Easter message, more eloquently than I could manage.  Those of you who know me know that I love this sentimental stuff on the holidays.  So I share it here.  I have transcribed the video for 2014, but I think the images on the video make the message more powerful.  Both videos are embedded below the orange Easter squiggle bouquet.  But if you don't want to take the time, the transcription for the 2014 video is here.  For those of you who are not religious, read it like a mythic novel.  Read as a reflection of some of the best of our ideals.  There are, of course, many paths to contentment and purpose.  This is ours.  So we invite you to share.  For this one highest of Christian holy days, relax and enjoy.

It was unthinkable, impossible, unfathomable, unprecedented.  A single act that changed history, possibility, destiny.  He was a carpenter, a teacher, an outcast, a leader.  Yet He did what no carpenter, teacher, outcast, leader had ever done.  Like all who preceded Him, He lived and He died.  But unlike all who preceded Him, He rose from the dead.  He lived again.

He lives.  And because He lives, you, you, and you, and she and he and they and we all will live again.  Because of Him, death has no sting, the grave no victory.  We can start again and again and again.

Because of Him:

* Guilt becomes peace
* Regret becomes relief
* Despair becomes hope

Because of Him, we have:

* Second chances
* Clean slates
* New beginnings

There is no such thing as the end.  Because of Him.

Please consider this an open thread for sharing your thoughts on religion, Christianity, the intersection with politics and civil rights, etc.