In the first segment, I discussed a friend of mine named Dan. I will now speak of another great friend of mine from childhood named Chuck.

Chuck and I met when we were 5 years old. We went to Catholic school together and formed an immediate friendship. Chuck is one the most caring people you’ll meet. He is not quick to anger, he is quite funny and has a deadpan humor which would send me into a giggling mode. He is a great father to his children and a great spouse to his wife. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed. Many times after I graduated college being broke, Chuck would give me $20 loans here and there to get me to my next paycheck without a condition. He is very loyal to all his friends and never judges anyone. Chuck ran into a bit of trouble with alcohol in his younger days, and paid his debt to society while repenting of his alcoholism. He did this all on his own without blaming others. A great and humble man.

Chuck is a lapsed Catholic. He like most Catholic youth stopped being a steady church goer upon around his 18th birthday. He never judged me because I still attended church. But I believe he became attune to the hypocrisy of it all much earlier than I and I respect him for this. In every respect, Chuck has done all those things Roman Catholics appeal to in Matthew 25, he has fed the poor, clothed the naked, visited those in prison, etc. but he would be condemned by the world religion of Catholicism because he does not attend Mass.

Chuck didn’t need a RCC to guilt him from right from wrong, he already instinctively knew this and unlike most church going Catholics, he was always honest and truthful and most of all forgiving.

Roman Catholics would most likely judge Chuck as lesser because of his past alcohol problem of which he overcame by the grace of God and thumb their noses at him because he stopped regularly attending church many years ago. But what Chuck possesses of which most Catholics do not are the qualities I described above. And above all he realizes he will never be perfect nor did he ever compare himself this way to others. He loves his neighbors as himself.

Chuck didn’t need a world religion to be an upstanding great man and friend! When I left the RCC 9 years ago and wrote some books, I sent Chuck a couple of them and also apologized to him for all my misgivings in our friendship.

Please pray for Chuck that he has placed his faith alone in Jesus Christ and that he sees eternal life with Him and the redeemed!