Guy in your 40s,
Maybe it is time to grow up? When someone walks on or burns an American flag, it’s just a piece of cloth, right? Or maybe it represents everything that is great about America? Including those who died so we can be free.
A marble statue made in the image and likeness of the Christ child is a help to contemplation, it teaches the Gospel in a 3D manner, and it is also suitable for children who can’t read yet. Bringing up the childish “graven image” argument shows that you do not understand what is meant by the concept. Any time you see the phrase “graven image” in the Old Testament, just substitute the phrase “manmade religion”. Then fast-forward to today, and look around. Any manmade christian sect is a “graven image”, especially the ones which are iconoclast.
When the Incarnation occurred, that is, when God became man, His human form became something our senses could grasp. We know from tradition what Jesus and Mary looked like, and art has done its best down through the centuries to represent their features for the express purpose of drawing hearts and minds towards God.
But something tells me you don’t really believe in the graven image injunction at all, you’re just stirring the pot.
I most certainly do believe with all my heart that God does not want his people to fashion graven images. Furthermore, I believe with all my heart that fashioning a statue of Jesus is crystal clear example of what God ordered His people not to do in Exodus 20:4-6 and other passages.
It is inappropriate for you to attack me personally when I have thus far argued a position without attacking any individual.