[Iscool]

He was and is obedience to the fourth commandment: He honors His Blessed Mother. In imitation of the Lord -- in being like-minded, in being one in spirit and purpose -- we also should honor His Mother.

That's really stretching it...Jesus said to honor YOUR mother and Father...Not His...

[bdeaner]

.That's really stretching it...Jesus said to honor YOUR mother and Father...Not His...

To me the logic is very simple and elegant -- relatively much simpler than, say, the logic that gives us insight into the Trinity, which is likely to be a doctrine we agree upon (I hope!). The Lord, in Exodus, told us to honor our mother and father. And Christ told us to obey those commandments. In addition, St. Paul taught us to imitate Christ, to be "like-minded" and united with him in "spirit and purpose." The obvious implication is that, being like Christ, we honor His Mother as if she is our own Mother. Not worship, but honor. If there are people who worship the Blessed Mother as if she is a deity, they are in heresy and need to be corrected. If you don't believe in intercessory prayer, and asking Mary for intercession, you can still honor her as Christ's mother and remain completely consistent otherwise with Evangelical theology. You do it for example at Christmas when you put up a nativity set, which of course contains an icon of Mary. The icon is not about worshipping Mary; its's honoring her and her special role in giving birth to the savior. Most Protestants I know have a nativity set and strongly advocate putting one in the front yard to help remind people about the "reason for the season."

The major theological difference, it seems to me, is intercessory prayer. I won't get into that now, but I am sure we'll have an opportunity to discuss the topic again in the near future.