However, there is little evidence of critical thinking in the Church, even should there be many intelligent and committed and even beautiful people in it. It is threatening to the maintenance of an idolatrous fiction. It is about the Gospel, and the Gospel is a gift to the whole world and for everyone. I feel compelled to say this once and hopefully, like the raven, never more. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION IS NOT GOSPEL. 
         There is no way ANYONE knows anything about the conception of Jesus' mother except by an exercise of the imagination and a form of theological sorcery. Psychic legardemain (pardon my  French) if you will. Theological fiction. 
          And how many people recall what Scriptures were part of the liturgy on a given Sunday-and what Scriptures can they say they hold particularly close to their hearts? If St. Paul said we are not under law but under grace, what implications does that have for theories of natural law and obligatory obedience?