Catholics praying to idols... Why does every non Catholic Christian religion believe we pray to idols??.?

Question

Id jsut like to clear things up. When a Catholic Prays to God he/she is lifting up his mind and heart to God. When a Catholic "prays" to Mary or a saint it is a completely differant sence of the word. We simply ask them to pray with us. To pray also for what we are praying. It makes sence. IF we are praying for our grandfathers surgery we might pray to Mary asking her to pray for him also. It is not much differant than asking your nieghbor to pray for his surgery. The differance is mary is already in heaven with God. AS close to God as is possible. Who better to ask? IT is not idolatry. Sometimes a catholic might pray before a statue of Mary, but not becuase he or she believes the statue to BE mary..merely to help them concentrate on the prayer. Why do so many people mix this up????

Answer 1

Because they believe what others say rather than just asking us...

The meaning of the word 'idolatry' means to place divinity on something. We do not believe that a Rosary, or an icon is divine, we only believe that Jesus is divine.

You'll find that many are ignorant in the true Church of Jesus, which is unfortunate because they will never know the fullness of Christ through the Eucharist that we have been so Blessed with. I understand your frustration, but remember, through calm discussion and sharing they will learn the truth. By learning the truth, they will come to know Jesus, by coming to know Jesus and His word, they will come to the Church. Remember, great protestant scholars when they try to find and break the church, more often than not find out that they are the ones in the wrong and convert to Catholicism - just look at Dr. Scott Hahn.

From Catholic.com:

It is right to warn people against the sin of idolatry when they are committing it. But calling Catholics idolaters because they have images of Christ and the saints is based on misunderstanding or ignorance of what the Bible says about the purpose and uses (both good and bad) of statues.

Anti-Catholic writer Loraine Boettner, in his book Roman Catholicism, makes the blanket statement, "God has forbidden the use of images in worship" (281). Yet if people were to "search the scriptures" (cf. John 5:39), they would find the opposite is true. God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid the religious use of statues. Instead, he actually commanded their use in religious contexts!



God Said To Make Them


People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18–20).

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We do not worship statues, we worship the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We do not pray to Mary, we ask her to pray for us "Holy Mary, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" (Hail Mary). Asking Mary, or a Saint to pray for us, is no different than asking a friend or family member to pray for you when you're going through a difficult time.

I feel very bad for those who feel they cannot ask another to pray for them, it must be a very lonely existence on earth. God put us here to love and care for one another, what greater expression of love is there for another person than prayer? What greater act of kindness is there beyond prayer?

One must always remember, that only through the Son can one reach the Father.

Thank you for bringing up this topic, we've seen it before, we will again I'm sure, but everytime, we can hopefully bring others to understand our faith a little bit more.

God Bless you!

Answer 2

Please understand that I'm giving an absolutely objective opinion, and I do not think anything negative of your religion. I am just comparing your thoughts to a couple of definitions. Don't say I don't know enough or don't know the difference, because I study many religions. I just want you to know why people percieve thiings this way. I know you don't mean to worship any of these statues. But fact is fact. Here is what I see.

I'm not saying you are worshipping idols, but you are talking to a person who has died. What is prayer if not talking to a spirit? You are not putting them before God, so there is no commandment broken. But when you walk into a bedroom, and look and the statue on your dresser and ask her to protect you while you sleep, or you walk into a church and kneel under the statue of Mary and ask her to pray for your sins, you are in effect and by definition, praying to an idol.

Paul told the Romans, who had converted to Christianity and continued to pray to their idols, that their idols are deaf and mute. They can't hear what they ask for, they can't lift a finger to help them, and they can't vouch for them. When Roman Catholics cary pendants of saints, or statues of saints, or put crosses on their walls, or spread Holy Water on a room, they are sticking to iconoclastism. Based on my observation, when someonewalks into a Church and walks over to the statue of Mary, and asks her to pray for her sins, then places a rose in front of her, they are commiting idolatry. Plain and simple. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father, except through me."

Why do you need to ask Mary to pray for you, when you should be asking Jesus instead. Mary can't hear you. She is asleep in her grave until judgement day. You said, "Who better to ask?", I say Jesus.

A while back, I saw a scene on the TV news that could only be described as being incredible. The scene occurred in a Latin American country on one of the many Catholic “feast days” honoring Mary. A statue of Mary had been placed on a platform, and the platform was being carried through the streets on the backs of several men. People were dancing around the platform, while many more lined the streets. As the statue passed by, the people on the sides of the streets were prostrating themselves, face down on the ground before this statue. The Catholic Church can call this hyperdulia, veneration, or whatever it wants, but what I saw was Mary, or more correctly, a stature of Mary, being worshipped.

Answer 3

We are not mixed up that your Gospel will not hold up against the Bible. You are insinuating that Mary is some kind os mediator and even call her the meditrix. The Bible tells us there is only on mediator between God and man it is the man Jesus Christ. The qualifications of a priest written in timothy Tells us he must be married and be the husband of one wife having his Childrn in subjection, one that ruleth well his one house, for if his own house is not in order , how then shall he rule the house of God, The Bible tells us not to bow to angels or pray to saints.


It tells us in Matthew , In Jesus own words , to call no man your Father upon the Earth , that it is reserved for our Father in Heaven. You say that Mary ascended, Where is it written , Believe me this is just the tip of the iceberg,

To Catholics , The BIble is secondary to the men in Rome and not even a christian religion. You have become something else.

The babylonian religion of the Romans still lives in you .

You make the sign of the T , in worship of their God, not the Christ. When we use the Bible as guide and use the process of elimination, you guys go first.

Think , is it more important to be a catholic or a bible believing Christian..... I thought so.

I am ready for you to test my faith agaisnt the Bible are you? The chosen saints of your group have come out


Ask me what a saint is, If you ever read your Bible you'll find that Paul wrote to the saints of Rome, The Saints of Corinth etc. He was speaking to live people. They are not elected by any man. Stop bending the knee to Baal.

Put your belief to the test..

Answer 4

I guess it's because of all those stories about people who have fits of rapture because some image that may or may not look like Jesus or Mary shows up in someones yucca plant. Or something red starts dripping off some statue of Jesus and, suddenly, the place becomes a Holy Shrine. If you don't want to be accused of worshiping statues (and I don't believe that Catholics are taught to worship anyone but God) then something should be done to control these excessive and emotional displays. It reflects poorly on all Catholics. And I don't believe God needs dripping statues to prove that He is God or to convince anyone of anything.

Answer 5

You said, "Who better to ask?" in your statement. Why not ask Jesus? He said the only way to the Father is through Him. Or why not simply ask God? Prayer is like a direct hotline to the Lord. I think a lot of people question the way the Catholics pray because it doesn't make sense to them. Why pray "through" or to Mary or saints? Why not pray directly to God? Mary was chosen for her role just as Matthew and Judas were (not that I'm comparing Mary to Judas). The 12 disciples were trusted by Jesus and are surely by His side. Why not pray through them?

Answer 6

You're right. The statues represent the saints and Jesus and Mother Mary. They're like pictures - a reminder of God.

In the Catholic religion, Mother mary is considered "holy" because SHE is the Mother of God - Jesus.

See, other religion don't recognize this, that's why it's better to leave this topic alone. It's useless to discuss this because people have different beliefs.

TO EACH HIS OWN, so to speak.

Answer 7

O.K.Let's clear things up! The first 4 commandments were About God. You shall not have any God above Him. When you pray to Mary isn't that what you do? Why pray to her or the Saints that your Church has, and not to God himself??? No false Idols. I know the Catholics Bible is different from the King James. But you need to get the King James Bible and read it.

Answer 8

Because they don't understand the difference... And because all too often, they just take someone else's word for it instead of finding out for themselves. "Those Catholics are pagans! They pray to them there graven images and stuff!" Wrong! People who don't understand what Catholics do and why ought to ask a Catholic. (What a novel idea!) The same goes for any religion.

I used to live in a city where the various denominations of churches didn't have a problem with each other's beliefs; the Catholics got along with the Baptists, the Methodists didn't get into fights with the Presbyterians... Sometimes I miss that place.

Answer 9

I was a Catholic at one time. Grew up in the Catholic church in fact. So if you don't really pray to Mary and the saints and you use this image to represent Mary and the saints, then why do you have a problem with my religion? We believe in the one God and the Many. We ask the Names to help bring our prayers to Netjer. So my Sekhmet statue really isn't Sekhmet but I would like Her to bring my prayers to Netjer. So my religion is just like yours then. So why do you have a problem with it? You don't tell the truth. If you aren't praying to Mary then why do you have to say so many Hail Mary's after confession? Wouldn't one do? I would think you might do one Hail Mary and then an Our Father. Why ask Her repeatedly to help you bring a message to God? Why ask God over and over again for forgiveness for the sins? Isn't it supposed to be that you should only need to ask one time and you should be forgiven? I know that Sekhmet will get annoyed with me if I keep asking the same thing over and over again. It is just like a three year old asking mommy for a cookie every 5 seconds until he gets one. It annoys the cr@p right out of you. When you see a bear do you call it a tiger? No. So call it what it really is. You pray to Mary and the saints just like I pray to Sekhmet and the other Names of Netjer.

Senebty

Answer 10

Thank you for clearing that up. People misunderstand religious practices all the time.
Myself, I make it real simple, I pray directly to God. Straight to the top, no "middle man". I'm not trying to say you are wrong, and I do believe God looks first at the sincerity in the heart rather than religious rituals or practices. Good luck to you, patience is sometimes hard when people say ignorant things about something so important to you.