Demanding to be lied to

As a former journalist for the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, the decline of print journalism intrigues me, particularly the unwillingness of some of the executives at the biggest papers to adapt and accept changes brought on by the Internet. Clay Shirky posts some excellent insights along these lines, including one post called "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable."

Shirky says:

When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.

I'm struck by how the above quote could also apply, with just a few swapped words, to one of the debates going on within the American Church today.