You could've made that point and probably gotten a decent enough discussion out of it, no harm done. The problem with the parable is that it didn't read like a

You could've made that point and probably gotten a decent enough discussion out of it, no harm done. The problem with the parable is that it didn't read like a parable, and instead read like a layman's explanation of history--were it more clear or disclaimed, I doubt any of us would've taken offense.