I write in response to William LaRochelle’s rebuttal (“Thomas doesn’t speak for everyone,” March 9) against Cal Thomas’ column (“Beckel and me: An odd couple,” March 3).

His expressions of opinion against Thomas, Jesus Christ and the Christian faith only draws the same conclusion about himself, that neither does LaRochelle speak for everyone. Billions of born again believers over the past 2,000 years wholeheartedly disagree with what he had to say.

Refuting Thomas’ statement that everyone needs Jesus, LaRochelle said, “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 find these words to be telling. In Mark 4, Jesus gave His parable of the sower. Likening the seed to the word of God and the ground to the various conditions of the spiritual heart, He said, “These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”

So the problem lies not with the giver of salvation, but with the receiver.

Pastor David Theriault, Rumford