Well, the idea of "union" with God is Hindu. The Christian ideal, as I understand it, is COMMUNION with God. We retain our own nature and personality, even as we commune with God.
Considering how transcendent God is, the gap between Him and Mary is far vaster than the gap between Mary the mother of Jesus and my late sister Mary. Two human saints rejoicing before the throne in God's glory and one another's companionship. Any attempt to give one dead human some kind of heavenly status over another dead human, as far as us living humans are concerned, impresses me as idol-making.
It may be Hindu, but it is also Christian. St. Peter calls his readers "partakers of the Divine Nature," and it was St. Athanasius, I believe, who said "God became man so that man might become God." (Not "gods," mind you -- God, as in united to God.) Theosis is Christian. Don't blame me if it isn't Protestant Christian.
The Christian ideal, as I understand it, is COMMUNION with God. We retain our own nature and personality, even as we commune with God.
I don't know about that. The "retain our own nature and personality" part, I mean. Our identity, yes. And certainly we continue to have a nature that belongs to us. But it isn't "retained"; it's glorified and perfected.
Considering how transcendent God is, the gap between Him and Mary is far vaster than the gap between Mary the mother of Jesus and my late sister Mary.
That's clearly true.
Any attempt to give one dead human some kind of heavenly status over another dead human, as far as us living humans are concerned, impresses me as idol-making.
I can't accept your definition of "idol-making," especially when the Scriptures make it abundantly clear that every saint in heaven isn't equal in status or glory with every other saint in heaven.