golf claps do not often accompany great feats

reformation and violence

“No reformation worth having was ever accomplished to the sound of polite applause in the background. There will be smoke, and thunder, and yelling, and all the rest of it.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

Reformation is not revolution, but it is not painless. Revolutions are more spasmodic and eruptive, but they are not more violent than reformations. The violence of reformation is more controlled and less ejaculatory, but it is violent nevertheless. You cannot change long standing problems without causing a few problems.

Hebrews 12:26-27
He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

God sometimes take the rug out back to beat the crud out of it. What looks like violence toward the rug, is actually love of the rug. For the love of the rug, it is beaten, seemingly without mercy. It is for the removal of the dust that it is whacked to severely. That which isn't rug falls to the ground, but the rug remains. That which can be shaken falls apart when God gives the whole things a good shake. 

Reformation is God shaking the rug out. 
Revolution is man setting the rug on fire. 

Reformation wants to return to the cleaner rug. 
Revolution wants to see what might rise from its ashes. 

Reformation is a return to the first form of God. 
Revolution is a hope in the next evolution of man. 

Reformation is being formed into the image of Christ. 
Revolution is being deformed into chaos.