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I was raised RC, and my whole family is RC, and to many RC's they can't tell the difference between reverence and worship of Mary.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve, to thee do we send
up our sighs, mourning and weeping
in this valley, of tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us; and
after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus;
O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God

That we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.

The word 'advocate' appears there. The idea being, that Mary has to intervene on our behalf to get God's attention.
That's not the way it works.

Jesus is the only path to God for a Christian. Mary as an 'advocate' is that attempt to make her a part of the trinity that the good doctor refers to here. When a Christian prays, we pray in Jesus' name, for what we ask in His name is taken to God.

I'm now Lutheran, and the whole Mary thing is a big deal. The more evangelical the church, the more significant this issue is to people, so don't throw out the baby with the bath. I haven't said a 'Hail Mary' in four years, probably. You'd never see it in a protestant church. My wife thinks the Hail Mary is creepy.

I think the doctor is pretty well up on what he's talking about. Again, don't take his word for it. Look this stuff up yourself. It's well footnoted.

"Jesus is the only path to God for a Christian. Mary as an 'advocate' is that attempt to make her a part of the trinity that the good doctor refers to here."

That's just silly. In Catholic doctrine, the Saints are just as capable of being an advocate as Mary. Does that mean that Catholics think -every- saint is "part of the Godhead"? The Trinity doesn't have 3 points, it has 144,000?

"The idea being, that Mary has to intervene on our behalf to get God's attention."

No one has ever said that Mary -has to- inteverne. Cathlics most certainly can, and constantly do, pray directly to Jesus and to God for intercession. Catholics believe she -can- intervene, that God permits this, that God is willing to listen to her entreaties on someone's behalf. Same for the saints. I don't see anything wrong with that. You may still disagree with that from a theological basis, and that's your right, but stop putting words in their mouth. YOU know and -I- know that if you actually walk up to ANY Catholic and say "Do you -worship- Mary as the 4th part of the Trinity rather than simply revere her as Gabriel commanded?", virtually any Catholic will say "No, she is revered, not worshipped". I don't know what you and this professor are doing, accusing them of lying or accusing them of being too stupid to tell the difference, but either way, it's condescending, it's insulting, and I think it's exceedingly rude to continue to put words into their mouths that they would never agree with if you ever -asked- them.

Qwinn