[klossg]

"while you worship the vessel through which God chose to bring Jesus Christ to earth."

Your last word is to state a false accusation? I guess that is as good a house of cards as any. Was/is Christ true God and true man? Was He the same when He was born? Was He the same before He was born? So, did Mary give birth to Christ or did He change somehow, sometime? When? How? Do you worship the true Christ or some Nestorian or Arian super man/guy/spirit-with-a-shell-of-a-body/being-better-than-man-but-less-than-God who is the Christ you want him to be depending upon your understanding of Mary, his mother?

You may falsely say that we worship "the vessel". But this same denial of the difference (through Christ's grace only) of said "vessel" from all the rest of us humans, puts your faith in Christ in jeopardy because you misunderstand His plan and His very being.

And beyond this peril the simple fact remains that we do not worship Mary or any other Saint. (There are ignorant people who search for images of Mary or Christ in cheese but they are simply ignorant. The Church clearly teaches and if they would listen ... they would stop. This just proves the weakness of humanity and the saying "that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." I am sure you have fellow protestants who have things slightly or extremely mixed up, even though they may have been taught the same things as you.)

[annalex]

There are ignorant people who search for images of Mary or Christ in cheese but they are simply ignorant

Ignorant, maybe, but not "simply ignorant". Thanks to iconoclast Protestantism our culture is severely impoverished. A healthy culture would have crucifixions and marian shrines at every bus stop. We don't -- but Christian heart still longs for them and find them in the strangest of places.

Roadside shrine in Mierzyn, Poland