Jeff, if I can find a reference on the one character at a time issue, I'll come back and post it. I've heard it for years but have never researched it in depth.
As for the tendency to classify "important" and "unimportant" parts of the Bible, that is biblically refuted with crystal clarity.
Psalms 12:6: "...the words of the LORD are flawless"
Psalms 119:89: "Your word, O LORD, is eternal, it stands firm."
Proverbs 30:5-6: "Every word of God is flawless."
When you open up one area of the Bible for revision, you open up ALL the Bible. The tearing down of Genesis by evolution is IMHO exactly how we've wound up with gender-neutral translations, claims that Jesus was a metaphor instead of a real man, etc. And there's no doubt in my mind that this is exactly how Satan planned it. Destroy the foundation--GENESIS--and tearing down the rest becomes far easier.
MM
And there, in a nutshell, is the core basis of the creationist "objection" to evolution. I just wish would be more honest about it, instead of claiming to reject it on scientific grounds (especially since I have yet to see a "scientific rejection" that actually holds water when examined -- what the average creationist doesn't know about science or biology boggles the mind).