Modern preaching, according to the book of this heretic, lacks power because so many churches cling to the tradition that the Bible is infallible.

It is the golden calf of their worship; the palpable lie that gives the ring of insincerity to all their moral exhortations.
So the talk flowed on until the good men agreed that a peculiarity of the time lay in this: that large numbers of ministers within the church were publishing the most revolutionary heresies while still clinging to some shred of their tattered orthodoxy.
Also they decided that it would not be without interest to know what belief is held by the man of common education and intelligence--the man who behaves correctly but will not go to church.
Here Father Riley sweetly reminded them--"No questions are asked in the Mother Church, gentlemen, that may not be answered with authority.

In your churches, without an authority superior to mere reason, destructive questions will be asked more and more frequently." Gravely they agreed that the church was losing its hold on the people.
That but for its social and charitable activities, its state would be alarming.
"Your churches!" Father Riley corrected with suave persistence.

"No church can endure without an infallible head." Again and again during the meal Bernal had been tempted to speak.

But each time he had been restrained by a sense of his aloofness.