[D-fendr]

Your answer is deficient. I'm not trying to be facetious here, but only to illustrate where the error lies. According to your definition, if you personally bow before this:

... or say a prayer while standing before it, does this statue thereby become your idol (in the theological sense)?

Could you, for example, kneel at its base and say a prayer before it an not be idolatrous? According to your definition, no.

So there is something lacking or inaccurate in your definition. What might that be?

[caww]

Can't believe you went there...especially since I wrote in my last post to not do that and why, but then I decided you surely wouldn't do that so I deleted that part from my post! I should have let it stand...just didn't think you'd take it to that worn out comparison.

But meanwhile..here's some scripture I base my belief on which God says not to do this.

Eze 6:8-9 (NIV) “...How I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their IDOLS. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.”

2 Ki 17:15 (NIV) They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed WORTHLESS IDOLS and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do,” and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.

1 Cor 12:1-2 (NIV) ...I do not wish you to be ignorant... somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to DUMB IDOLS.

Ps 97:7 (NIV) All who worship IMAGES are put to shame, those who boast in IDOLS.

2 Cor 6:16 (NIV) What agreement is there between the temple of God and IDOLS?.... For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Jonah 2:8 (NIV) “Those who cling to worthless IDOLS forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”

1 Jn 5:21 (NIV) Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. Ps 24:4 (NIV)..... He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an IDOL.

[caww]

No I am not in error D-Fender...that is not an accurate comparison. Catholics don’t bow down or worship Lincoln’s statue...nor do they place biblical religious meanings to honoring Him,or pray to him via proxy.... though many believe he was a Christian....And they don’t other statues of our nations leaders.