Editorial: Jesus story the greatest ever told

For Christians, Easter is the celebration of a risen savior.

Despite all our differences — from our positions on abortion and gay rights to our feelings about alcohol consumption or the legalization of marijuana — most Christians can at least agree on what Easter represents:

Hope.

You don’t even have to be a Christian to be a fan of hope.

The greatest story ever told begins with a humble birth in a barn and ends with a man being executed for exercising what Americans would call today his First Amendment rights.

In between, we saw a child of God who didn’t judge much, forgave even the worst of atrocities and preached a lot about faith, love and keeping priorities in order.

Jesus’ examples of how to live this life, at least in our view, are examples for people of all faiths — or no faith at all — to try and follow.

That doesn’t mean he lived without controversy.

The Rutherford Institute, which defines itself as a champion for civil liberties and human rights, had this to say about the Christ child in a news release last week:

“(He was) an itinerant preacher and revolutionary activist, who not only died challenging the police state of his day — namely, the Roman Empire — but provided a blueprint for standing up to tyranny that would be followed by those, religious and otherwise, who came after him.

“Jesus may have died at the hands of a police state, but he spent his life speaking truth to power.”

He also found time to feed the hungry.

His actions have inspired millions over the last 2,000 years.

We should be careful in claiming our political viewpoints represent those of Jesus, or that Jesus would do what we want to do about the controversial issues of the day.

But there’s nothing wrong with standing up to tyranny, striving to live a life without judgment, taking care of those around us, and forgiving those who harm us.

And it’s always good to have hope.

Happy Easter, everyone.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Clovis Media Inc. editorial board, which includes Editor David Stevens and Publisher Rob Langrell.