Remonstrans began four years ago tomorrow, and much has changed in that time.

In 2005 I had very little knowledge of blogging and I certainly had no inkling that this exchange would go on for 208 weeks, provoke 528 posts—and I have no idea how many comments. (That's not counting the contributions of my colleagues.)

Things progressed better than expected; our influence spread to parts of the world I didn't even know satellites flew over, and world leaders called incessantly to grill me for my secrets on winning friends and strengthening old political alliances. And the bags of money piled up to the barrel vaults. I was able to acquire a modest retirement fastness pictured below [photo snapped this year before the Christmas decorations were taken down], and many was the night I paced the western parapets trying to decide which fresh religious indecency illustrated most eloquently the faithlessness of this century.

(My wife had no idea she would have to dust so many balustrades and iron so many pajamas.)

On the other hand, much has stayed exactly the same.

It seems that the church has become quite accomplished at drifting through the Seven Seas, its scurvied shipmates brandishing nerf cutlasses and bragging about what effective seamen they'd become. The ship always comes to life when a new poll is released and everyone meets on the quarterdeck to decide who should wear the albatross.

High seas; good times.

And of course the completely indigestible devotional life of the believer continues: the booklets, the tapes, the vibes, the CDs, the soul patches, the skits, the ditties, the couches, the speculations about the eschaton, the conferences, the resolutions....

And the institutions keep grinding out new justifications for their existence and we, like devoted worshippers of Moloch, keep giving them our children.

Evangelicalism, I read recently, is more of a "religious mood". Can you believe that? A mood. It's a pessimism, a longing, some mystical moments, a conviction that things are redeemed through suffering and a passion to make a difference.

It is a spiritual sensibility that includes pessimism about human nature, a longing to be converted from the worst of our selves, mystical moments when Jesus Christ is experienced, a conviction that nothing can be redeemed without suffering and that resurrection is ultimate reality, and a passion to make a difference in the world.

So this is the faith of St. Paul, is it?

Anyway, I can't promise that Remontrans will be around four more years, but for however long it lasts I hope it will continue to reject the spirit of the age and oppose the philistines.