How do you view the Bible?

[ebia]

I almost totally agree with you. In fact, I don't see my atheism as a religion at all: atheism does not supply me with answers (spiritual or otherwise), it only labels me as someone who either lacks belief or actively disbelieves in God. My use of the label can tell you what I don't believe, but it doesn't tell you much about how I live my life. If I label myself as a skeptic and/or a scientist, then you'll have a clearer idea about how I view the world, how I "know" things.

Labels are, at best, imperfect things. Trying to sum up anybody's world view in 1 word or less is doomed to failure.

 

[ebia]

OK, but please let me emphasize: I really don't want to debate the significance of these passages. What I want to do is acknowledge that these can be seen as controversial and/or confusing,

Acknowledged.

and I want to understand whether Christians have a consistent method for managing the controversy among themselves, particularly among the newer members of their flock.

Approaches vary between different flavours of Christianity. Some hand down an interpretation from on high (eg the RCC) with varying scope for disageeing with that interpretation. Others tend to assume that the interpretation held by their minister, founder, synod, whatever is the only one any sane person could arrive at and that anyone with a different understanding isn't a true Christian.
Some denominations just ignore the tricky bits and hope no-one notices.
Other denominations are happy to acknowledge that there are difficult passages and that understanding is something we can constantly improve but never conclude.
Many are a mix and balance between those options.

So, to attempt to answer your question, there is generally a fairly consistant approach within any one church, but that approach is not consistant across different church denominations.