[BluffTHIS!]

What the bishops meant, and which is clear if you read their document (which does not even teach for the entire church by the way), is that the bible is not primarily a book whose purpose is to teach history or science. Thus God sometimes chose to teach by way of allegory or through a "story" which has a religious point. Great care must be taken to differentiate that which is in fact historically accurate though, and the church is the authentic interpreter of same. Many fundamentalists, while lacking an authentic teaching authority by virtue of the basis of protestantism, i.e. competence of individual interpretation, maintain it to be literally true in all respects despite the contradictions this causes and also despite the fact that they really are in fact selective about their literalness (ask the Baptists where their bishops are).