Just a quick point for the record. In partisan politics, spin doctors will seize on any event and work it to fit with the agenda, the talking points, and the memo that they got just before going on the air. In a presidential debate, a candidate could perform at about the level of Miss South Carolina, and there would be talking heads on air after the debate declaring how this “shows that the senator is fit, breathing, and ready to take the helm.”
The same tendency is apparent in ecclesiastical partisanship. And before developing this point further, let me just say that partisanship of this nature is listed by the apostle Paul in his list of works of the flesh, alongside other worthies like witchcraft and adultery. Those who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God. Factious men, party men, and flag-wavers are to the kingdom what any other fleshmongers are — a distraction, a nuisance, and a reminder of the need for discipline.
But to the point. The FV guys have been maintaining that the FV is a conversation, a shared set of questions, not a movement, and so on. Some of the critics have insisted on the opposite — that we are a well-oiled, deeply-funded machine, set to infiltrate and take over the federated Reformed witness in North America. The FV is the Death Star.
Okay, then. One comment on a blog somewhere made me realize what may be coming next. Once it becomes obvious that the FV is not the movement that it was claimed to be, the spin doctors will immediately claim that it used to be a movement, but that it blew up. The opposition was victorious! Good thing we acted vigorously!