(As usual, over time thoughts crytalize or change or there are new ways of looking at something.  Below is an update to this question that aso reflects my ministry which is both LCMS and ELCA.  To be clear, I am ordained in the ELCA but see the beauty in both churches and desire to be faithful to both.  Of course, this will probably fall short, but understand, as always, I provide an answer to these questions, not necessarily a right answer.  Understand that we all never fully know God but can inly glimpse the revealed God through Christ.)

The key word in your statement is “infallible.” As it is defined in theological circles, infallible means that we believe every word is true with no error in theology or historical detail.  I would take a more philosophical approach to the word "infallible" and it's more literal meaning, that is "not false" or more basically and stated in the positive, "true."  To call something true means more than  factual detail.  For instance, Jesus speaks in parables that speak to "truth".  THis does not mean that there had to be a prodigal son or a sower of seeds.  The "Truth" is not in facts, but in how the story points to God.  In this way, I would say that the bible is "Infallible", that is that it is true.  It will not lead you astray, it will not point you away from God.  It is good for teaching and reproof, for edifying the faithful.  All parts are helpful to this goal.

Now, to address the "factual" side of scripture, there are those who would say that ALL scripture must be factually correct in order to be true, that is there must really be a Jonah in a whale, 7-day creation, Job, whether David wrote EVERY Psalm or Moses write the Pentateuch, and a few other "disputed" issues.  But as for scripture, most orthodox theologians would agree that a vasty majority with very few exceptions are historically accurate. The pieces I would say are infallible, but probably not necessarily historical are pieces like Jonah and the whale.  I believe Jonah to be a TRUE parable about God's mercy for the whole world, his desire and love for the foreigner, a teaching about providence and the inability to run from God's will, and an admonition to people not to judge the stranger for God is "merciful" and full of compassion for the outsider.  Does the story need to be historical to be true?  I think not. I get it.  It teaches me about God.  It does not need to have happened in history to teach.

Or another instance, I think the point of the story of Genesis is not necessarily to give us a historically accurate account of the creation (as if any one was there to report it) but a parable reminding us that this world is NOT an accident or fluke but a planned beautiful garden of creation made by God.  Did it happen in 7 days?  Maybe!  6 years?  Could be.  4 billion years?  That may be as well.  You see, we get our "w's" confused:  we turn the argument into HOW the world was made instead of WHO made the world.  The point is not history but intentionally pointing to a creator.  If we can remember the point is not HOW but WHO I think we can move away from alot of the bickering and get back to more important issues, for it seems more important to remember the latter than cling to the former.

There are many very threatened by this.  They are afraid that if you begin to pick apart scripture calling some factual and other parable-like, then it is a slippery slope and soon you are believing there is no ressurrection, or no virgin birth, or no miracles, or the like.  I agree with this.  It IS a very slippery slope, but I am comfortable walking it- I know what is basic to my faith, what is taught in the creeds of our church.  I am very careful that anything I would think would not contradict these tenets of faith.  It is what has held together our church. Besides, I am VERY willing to be wrong.  I am VERY willing to believe there was a Jonah, a 7-day creation, or whatever.  I certainly would NEVER doubt the life, death, and ressurrection of Jesus.  All may be EXACTLY as it is written.  It would certainly make it easier if this is so.  But until I meet God and ask, "So how exactly did all that go?" I am willing to use my small faith and smaller intellect to try and divine WHO is at work on this planet, focusing on the TRUTH in the good news of Christ not the historicity of a few stories in scripture.  Besides, if you base faith on making sure everything is accurate, you may beging to "paralyze" the dynamic beauty we call the walk of faith, the life of scripture, and the way it continues to teach and guide us.  If you have to base your faith on facts, is it faith?  I instead rest on hope and not what I know.  I rest in Jesus and not my poor sinful self, I rest in what GOD does and not my interpretation.