[Gamecock]

***Sorry. But I have many RC friends who tell me forthrightly that they do worship Mary in a way with their prayers because they see her as being worthy of worship due to her supposedly sinless nature.***

Sorry dangus, whatever you want to call the role of Mary in the RC church, it certainly looks like worship to Proddies and to many people inside the RC church.

If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck....

[Lee N. Field]

Sorry dangus, whatever you want to call the role of Mary in the RC church, it certainly looks like worship to Proddies and to many people inside the RC church.

Ditto. What would Moses say?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

I understand that RCs want to believe they are not "worshiping" anyone other than the Trinitarian God of all creation.

I even believe they are motivated by what they see as good reasons.

But as Gamecock said, it looks very different to outsiders and even to some insiders.

If the RC church is sincere about not worshiping Mary, then it seems like a good idea to...

***Stop praying to her because God was clear in His instruction that "thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14);

***Stop erecting statues of her at the front of your church which look a lot like the idols of silver and gold we are cautioned against in nearly every book of the Bible, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21);

***Stop saying Mary was sinless because only one man was sinless who was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15);

***Stop asking her to be a mediator between yourselves and God "for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5);

***And start directing ALL your veneration, admiration, worship, reverence and attention to the Holy Trinity because only then will it be clear that "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8).

To the outside world, the veneration of Mary appears to be a compromise the church of Rome made with pagans. A real no-no and completely unnecessary.

"Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." -- Isaiah 48:17

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." -- 1 John 4:10