I thought the following reflected the way I felt about this rather tedious debate too - it is the Guardian's Giles Fraser's response to the pope's gay bashing Christmas message:

'Those who take the Bible as if it were a reference book cannot mentally accommodate the idea that the story being told is about the developing consciousness of the people of Israel, of how they got it wrong and how they are led to a new understanding by God. For Christians escpecially this new understanding is that God is there for all; that, as St Paul is very keen to insist, you don't even need to be a Jew for God to be there for you.'