As you're very much aware, any configuration of religious beliefs you can possibly think of exists. The fact that some christians have poor reading comprehension, doesn't make The Bible any more palatable.

This wasn't "any configuration of religious beliefs", or lack of ability to read. It was, at least in my community, a common profile of Catholic views. I have evidence for this - read the novels of David Lodge on Catholicism, such as "How Far Can You Go?"(1980). They are a good documentation of the ranges of belief and views of the Vatican.

It may be convenient to insist in a pretty much universal belief in Hell amongst Christians, but we have to deal with the complexity of the real world.

I'm starting to think that we need another version of 'PC' - 'Politically Convenient' - views based on simplistic representations of reality that make coming up with slogans easy.