There are few subjects more vital than those aired by Greg Warner (Depression series, Oct. 24).

One weeps at the tragedy of the Hickory minister who committed suicide. A certain amount of  “depression,” or “the blues,” is normal. Healthy people can work through “blue” days, to a day with more sunshine. It is only when depression becomes chronic that it is dangerous.

Part of the reason for depression, aside from possible genetic reasons, is connected with our society, its lifestyles etc. Many things accepted by today’s society were “No-Nos” in an earlier age. I hesitate to say, “a simpler” time, for no age in man’s history has been simple. Although many aspects of the Victorian Society were phony, we need desperately to get back to its ideals.  The Victorians were not really all that “Victorian.”

Everything is possible in the message of our faith and the Christ.  Church attendance is at a low. I was told by a Catholic friend that for every convert they get four people leave the church. Our faith needs the same intensity and fervor as exhibited by August Bush as he stands in his fine-paneled office touting the great joy in drinking Budweiser. This is not to say that alcohol is the only problem in our society — there are many. We are awash in materialism; and we worship at the Temple of Sports.

We over-eat, we over-sex and we take long cruises to, somehow, satisfy our deepest longings. They fail to satisfy us. When I think of these fine cruise ships, and places unseen, and Dubai, that mecca in the desert dedicated to Bacchus, I think of the Christ who never got far from the sands of His youth, yet who changed the course of history.

C. Philip Gamble
Charlotte, N.C.