The separation idea is an invention of modernity. The word secular used to mean temporal, not theology-free. Only in the 20th century does secular mean a space that is free from theology: God or the gods have nothing to do with this space. Christians need to understand that as long as we accept the conventional distinction of religious and standard, the deck will always be stacked against us. The marginalization and privatizing of Christian conviction will become more and more severe.

Ken Myers, author of All God’s Children & Blue Suede Shoes, is the longtime host and producer of the Mars Hill Audio Journal, a bimonthly audio magazine that examines issues in contemporary culture from a framework shaped by Christian conviction.

Four years ago you suffered a heart attack that, doctors say, only 4 percent of sufferers survive. Since the Patrick Henry College students here, like all 20-year-olds, see themselves as immortal, could you talk a bit about that close encounter with mortality? I was 58, in pretty good health, never had high cholesterol. I’d been doing some exercising, was moderately overweight but not horribly so, and I would not have known I was having a heart attack had it not been for the Mayo Clinic website that I happened on, and thought, “Gee, I’m having a heart attack.”

It’s good to do research. I called 911. EMTs put me in the ambulance, called for a helicopter right away, and before the helicopter could arrive, my heart stopped—once in the ambulance, twice in the hospital. I woke up about 11 or 12 hours later in the hospital. My first thought was, “That was a strange dream.” Doctors were concerned about the possibility of significant brain damage and were talking about a four- to six-month recovery time, but the short story is, within 72 hours I was at Whole Foods buying some iced tea on my way home from the hospital.

At least semi-miraculous. It really affected my theology in that I believe prayers are answered before they’re prayed because I’ve met hundreds of people who were praying for me on that day. They were praying after the things that actually saved my life. It was the most dramatic event of my life, and I slept through it. My wife and daughter did not sleep through it. Every now and then we talk about what they were going through, because I have all the benefits of this great miracle in my life and they had all the suffering leading up to it.

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