IN reply to Mr Foster's letter of June 19. I can partly agree with him about some Christians feeling sanctimonious. It is perfectly true that most people do live as Mr Foster says without the need of God etc and it can be difficult for Christrians to justify themselves.

We really are in a no-win situation. Christians are as human as everyone else, we are not infallible, we make mistakes and when a Christian slips there is always someone there to point the finger and say 'Eeh and them a Christian.'

For the ones who manage to lead somewhat blameless lives, they get labelled sanctimonious or worse.

So are Christians better than any one else? Of course not, but Christians are different.

So what's the difference? The difference to me is that I know that if all the world turned against me; if I lost all my family and friends; if the worst disasters imaginable befell me I have a friend.

A friend who will never let me down, who is always there to listen. A friend who I can go to with troubles and problems too big to share with anyone else. The best friend in the world, who knows me and all my faults and failings - and still loves me.

The words of the hymn some of us learned in Sunday School - 'What a friend we have in Jesus' - ring so true in my life.

While Mr Foster and many people like him can live without God, please don't knock the sinners like me who can't.

LENA TALBOT (Mrs), Duxbury Street, Darwen.

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