MD,
Excellent point.  I think when coupled with the many revelations that have been emerging from the Sciences during our lifetimes, I think the church faces something much bigger than it wishes to admit.

The simple truth is that the old approach to religion itself is under scrutiny.  Most of us have some deep longing for spirituality, a call to the numinous, that "quiet voice..."   The question that all of this raises becomes whether religion is the proper vehicle to address that yearning?   

We may well be on the cusp of one of those "every 500 years or so"  complete restructuring that Phyllis Tickel talks about.   

For my money, it's more than time for that.