But Bro. Ed's question is a good one: "...supposed...?" In other words, do the powers that be in the Church hierarchy actually expect the sheep to be taking the mythology and metaphoric tales literally? An awful lot of sermons seem to be predicated on just that assumption, and those condescending and patronizing efforts come off very badly. The non-literalness of scripture is rarely a topic in church. Rather, grand conclusions are often drawn in sermons specifically assuming it is all literal.