Whenever there is a craze about something or other, it is not long before that craze is referenced in the public life of a society. If it is a big deal, then at some point it will blow up on television, news sites, or youtube, and then late night comedians start talking about it, and then some congressman introduce resolutions to have this be national hula hoop week.
The craze may be of the pet rock variety, or it might be something far more important — like people wanting lower taxes. But once the movement sets in, and it is okay for a lot of people to attach themselves to it publicly, then there is no mechanism in place to keep that “thing,” whatever it is, out of public life. People don’t work that way. People don’t live like dualists, however much they may have been taught to talk like dualists.
Except with the Christian faith. There has been an attempt, remarkably successful so far, to build a huge epistemological dike that will keep the ocean of evangelical faith out of our dry little secular lowlands. Now people naturally function the same way with the gospel of Christ as they do with the other things they believe, but the hatred that our lords and princelings have for the Lord complicates things. Since it is Christ we are talking about, and because there are many of our eyes-like-grease elites who “will not have this man rule over us,” they have labored to create a construct that will keep Christ far away from anything that matters.
This project of theirs, impossible to achieve when the ocean levels are normal, has been accomplished by dint of ceaseless labor. The secularists have done their part with their unremitting efforts to keep the church/state dike in good repair, and evangelical preachers have done their part by preaching in such a muffled way as to keep the ocean at levels low enough to make this possible.
But if God grants us a reformation in preaching, and if we start planting churches of Word and sacrament in the power of the Holy Spirit, then the dike need not be repealed — it will just give way. If the river starts to rise, like it is supposed to, then we may reapply these prescient words from Dylan.
If it keep on rainin’, the levee gonna break,
If it keep on rainin’, the levee gonna break,
Everybody’s saying this is a day only the Lord could make