Twenty years ago, columnist Cal Thomas told an unhappy alcoholic colleague (his dearest friend, recently deceased) that he needed Jesus to change his life (“Beckel and me: An odd couple,” March 3).

His colleague accepted his advice, and Thomas gave him a Bible. They started attending church together, and the man came to believe “what Scripture says about our need for redemption and a Redeemer.”

Thomas ended his column by praising his friend for having “finished the race and kept the faith. We will meet again.” (Finishing the race and keeping the faith are words taken from 2 Timothy 4:7. Its pseudonymous author is referring to his readiness to die and meet his God.)

Be it emphasized that Thomas is saying everyone, alcoholic or not, needs Jesus. But I myself deny any such need. Been there, done it.

What’s more, if he can declare his Christianity, I can declare my rejection of it. I’ll do so by quoting A. J. Mattill Jr., author of “The Seven Mighty Blows to Traditional Beliefs.”

“As Bishop Augustine (354-430) so well said, the whole Christian religion may be summed up in the intervention of two men, the one to ruin us, the other to save us … But now we know that the biological blow dissolves the historical Adam and the apocalyptic blow discredits the historical Jesus … Hence the entire Christian system collapses, for there is none to ruin us, none to save us.”

William LaRochelle, Lewiston