For Christians, Easter marks the triumph of Jesus overcoming death. He had been foretold in ancient prophecies to be the Messiah, was rejected by the crowd 2,000 years ago, but our western democracies are built on his teachings.

Tolerance and caring for others is fundamental. Our democratic acceptance of other peoples' culture and religion is based on the Christian origins of our society, including rejection of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

For those familiar with the "Old Testament", there was a long history of the Jewish people being sent into exile, then being reconciled as "God's chosen people". Hollywood illustrates and exaggerates this with various blockbuster movies, including Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments". For authenticity read the book.

How that will play out now between God and the Jewish people is for us to watch and wait. The "religious right" extremists in Israeli politics, pushing to exterminate Hamas regardless of casualties, will have to answer to their God. Jesus Christ brought "New Testament" peace for all men worldwide, rejecting anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Modern Israel, where Jerusalem is the holy city for Christians as well as Jews and Moslems, desperately needs the Easter message. Peace depends on people being prepared to live with others despite different priorities and beliefs. All we can do here is to treat everyone we meet with care and kindness, while despairing about world news!

The book and film "Chocolat" make for good light hearted entertainment as an alternate to the depressing news. The story tells of a French town forced into fasting and penitence during Lent under the control of an autocratic mayor, when a magical lady arrives to set up a chocolate shop. This develops as a conflict between maintaining the penitential Lenten fast in contrast to enjoying chocolate! The crunch comes in the Easter sermon when the young priest pushes for a more balanced approach.

He chooses not to preach about the divinity of Christ's transformation at Easter, but talks about his humanity. "Remembering how Jesus lived his life here on earth, showing kindness and tolerance". Pere Henri continued "we should not go around measuring goodness by what we deny ourselves, what we don't do, what we resist and whom we exclude; Christ's message is that goodness comes from what we embrace, what we create, and whom we include".

For good family entertainment this Easter Holiday, the film Chocolat is almost two hours long, rated "12" in the cinema, though lacking the exciting violence of modern films.

For an Easter uplift, Pere Henri's sermon is less than two minutes of the film, but the message is clear, simple, brief and relevant to our times. World chaos is spinning into every locality with arguments over anti-Semitism and Islamophobia spreading from the conflict in Palestine. We should not be judging people by their ethnic background.

Meanwhile, we have our local issues which make the message relevant. Goodness comes from "what we embrace, what we create and whom we include". This means "we, the people" putting our own shoulders to the wheel. If government or councils are not doing enough on our behalf in Social Care and other areas, which they probably are not, goodness depends on whom we embrace and what we create.

Money should not be the issue. It is our money anyway, whether taxes or donations! The affluent contribute more, of course, or does that only happen when enforced by taxation?