[ealgeone]

Did Moses ever bow down to the image of the serpant?

Did anyone ever bow down to the Ark of the Covenant?

Were they ever commanded to pray to these things?

Did God ever command Christians to make an image of Mary?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

You clearly missed the thrust of my argument entirely. You do not bow to statues of Mary, the Ark, Bronze Serpents. You bow to God. The "things" put you in mind of God. In and of themselves they are powerless, except when God works through them, which He sometimes does.

"For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all."

But yet, the "thing" remains. Do you understand?