I agree and it's a good point. But you know what?? Practically anything and everything in life can be allowed to hinder your relationship with God. NOTHING is harmless when viewed that way.
Did you throw out your intellect, or your pastors or group affiliations when you realized that you were putting them ahead of God? Probably not. Hopefully you put them into the correct perspective.
And so it is with Mary. We cannot say that Jesus being born of a virgin was a mistake. For God approved of it. We cannot say that recognizing Mary's contribution is a mistake, for Gabriel announced that Mary would be honored. To be sure, that honor must be kept in the proper perspective. Likewise, our discernment and judging the motives and beliefs our our brothers, must be in the proper perspective as well.
It may be that our Catholic brothers go to far in honoring Mary. It's also possible that we don't honor her enough, because God did say that she would be honored.
>>It may be that our Catholic brothers go to far in honoring Mary. It’s also possible that we don’t honor her enough, because God did say that she would be honored.<<
I am admiring you more and more! How wonderful you are.
Good points . . . though I don’t equate
blessed with honored . . . certainly not 100%
And I believe that honoring Mary to the Godly max would be considerably less than the RC edifice encourages and institutionalizes.