Why? because these are all natural, good things which Christians took back from paganism to return to their highest and most legitimate use: to adorn the worship and show forth the truths of the Christian faith.,
Seriously,do you think we are all forbidden to use (quoting from these quotes):
just because pagans once used them, too?
CB, then go ahead and do a thorough research of every kind of pre-Christian religion, and make a comprehensive catalog of all the things they used, so that we will know ALL the things that are forbidden us.
You will find yourself not allowed to plant a garden, weave a tapestry, educate a daughter, name the days of the week or the months of the year with non-Biblical names, use a non-Hebrew calendar, compete in an athletic contest, write a love letter, put a statue in a cemetery or flowers on a grave.
We'll have to sandblast all the Scriptural references off of the public buildings in DC too, since nothing in the Bible justifies mixing Scripture quotes with graven images of people like Washington and Lincoln.
You'll have a lot of new friends, though, over at the ACLU and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
But no, really. I don't think you'd want that. Not at all.
Why do Catholics use those attempts at obfuscation? Which one of those did you propose we use in our worship of God?