Could they have not said it was only respect as bowing down before a superior was often done as Lot did to the two angels that came to him at Sodom?
Paul explained that how onlookers, especially our brothers, viewed our actions had to be taken into account.
To the Corinthian Christians Paul wrote about eating meat that been used for sacrifice to idols but then either eaten in a temple or sold later in a meat market. (1 Cor,. Chapters 8, 10)
Could our actions, EVEN IF PERMITTED, be a cause of spiritual damage to others? The question was the eating of meat but there is a principle involved beyond that question.
And it's not one I've seen mentioned overmuch.
That's a very interesting question. Maybe, in public, say on the street, during some parade or something like that, some discretion may be called for, for the reason you question. Maybe.
In a Catholic church (building) though, such behavior should not be discouraged in the name of "tolerance" (which is essentially what you are suggesting). In such buildings, it should be understood and indeed respected, that people will behave as Catholics. One such behavior is to kneel/bow before statues of saints and/or light candles in front of such creations. So if anyone is scandalized by seeing that in a Catholic church building, it's their own fault. It's their own fault for being there in the first place, as well as if course, completely missing the reason why Cafholics do these things. Perhaps a personal account will help illustrate this.
I went to Confession a few months ago, and afterwards I went before a statue of Mary, knelt before it and lit a candle. Now, this is all you, or anyone observing me at the time would have seen, if you had seen me that day. But I can assure you I was not worshipping the statue; I used the statue as a way to focus my thoughts on Mary (much as anyone would use a photo of a dead relative to focus their thoughts on them) to ask her for intercessory prayer.
Now you or others can debate as much as you like the concept of the Comminion of Saints, another "gift" of the "Reformation", that such a concept was tossed aside no matter all the living tradition behind it. I don't care. The point I'm making here is, I simply was not committing idolatry no matter how much it may have appeared I was to the uneducated or misinformed eye.
In my heart, which is what truly counts here, no matter how much you or anymother critic of Catholicism may say otherwise, I wasn't "worshipping Mary" insomuch as I was thinking she was equal to God. I was asking her, through my prayer to her, to pray for me to God to help me resist temptation. You, nor anyone else can debate that, unless you are going to claim you can read my mind.
And I don't think you want to do that on FR, do you?
Well put.
Thx.