The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

SIGNS OF HIS COMING 27
Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 24 million people swallow
Prozac daily. The article asks, “What accounts for this apparent
depression epidemic as we enter the 21 st century?” Some believe that
the explanation is in modern life itself; the fraying of the social fabric.
Respondents to a Daniel Yankelovitch poll conducted in the U.S. at
the end of 1996 isolated five factors accounting for our general
malaise: weakened family values, the erosion of respect, the
impersonality of day to day life, individualism at the expense of
personal responsibility, and a lack of community. 1
“Society has a psyche and ours is unhappy at the moment,” says
Margaret Sommerville, of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics
and Law in Montreal. “I think depression is an infectious disease.
There is truth to the old saying ‘misery loves company’ and there’s
a huge sense of sadness out there now. 2
The main reason, however for this epidemic is that people are
increasingly estranged from the Grace of God. “Medicine has become
our substitute religion,” says McGill’s Sommerville and then she adds,
“If you’re treating your spiritual yearnings with Prozac, you have a
problem, haven’t you?”
A recent CBC radio news item tells us the results of a survey done
by some researchers in Georgia. People who go to church are healthier
than those who do not, especially when it comes to mental health. This
is especially true in the case of depression. Depression is a state of
utter hopelessness, and hope is one of the three major Christian virtues:
Faith, Hope and Love.
There is no doubt that there are cases of genuine depression that
need drug treatment even among church goers, but depression we are
speaking about is a demonic manifestation permitted by God. We are
told that those demons that sting like scorpions, only sting those who
have not the seal of God, because to those who have accepted the seal
of God and have become His own, He has said, “Behold I give unto you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)
1 En Route, Air Canada’s in flight magazine: October 1997
2 En Route, Air Canada’s in flight magazine: October 1997