Cont.....
In the 1960-70s, seminarians had to be in the top of their classes academically in order to even be considered for admittance.  
Those standards have been gone for years.....for the first time in history, clergy are not as educated as us, pew sitters.
c)"... parishes do not usually entertain the kind of fundamentalist harangue you would get at some evangelical churches..."
Beg to say otherwise - as you say, *do not usually* .......but, in reality, too many newly ordained have the same rigid and ideological evangelical approach that you condemn here.  For us, pew sitters, it often comes down to luck of the draw and who the bishop decides to appoint.
d) "...laypeople are more likely to bring secular considerations to bear on their decisions and, just so, introduce concerns and considerations not proper to a spiritual decision...."
What nonsense - again, with the false secular/sacred division.  Guess what - clericalism is the Achilles Heel of the US Church....why assume....TBC