Catholics, 10 commandments violator??

Question

Is it hard to follow 10 commandments? why are you praising, praying and idolized images made up of wood, marble, cement etc , etc. I just can't get it????????

definitely!!!!!!!!! IDOLATRY is a big no no to God, Is'nt it????

Of course you are worshipping images, in fact you even lit a candles or wipe to their images while whispering prayers

Answer 1

CUZ WE'RE CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

Do you have pictures of your loved ones? Have you ever looked at the picture of someone while talking on the phone to them?

Statues and pictures of people we love are not idols.

Statues and paintings of Jesus and the saints are just like pictures of the people we love and respect.

The King James Version of the Bible states in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"

Why were the Jews commanded not to make graven images? Graven images were the standard method of pagan worship. They were representations of false gods.

This is a very clear command.

However God commanded the Jews in Exodus 25:18 and 1 Chronicles 28:18–19, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them"

And in 1 Kings chapter 7 Solomon made bulls and other images out of precious metals.

It seems obvious that the Jews did not worship the cherubims and Solomon did not worship the bulls he had made. These images did not violate the command of God. Therefore, an image not made for worship is acceptable.

In Numbers 21:8-9, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered."

And in John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation, "And just as Moses lifted up the [image of a] serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

How can a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ dead on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? A crucifix is the message of the Gospel without words held up for all to see, a visual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, no different from a painting, a play, or a movie.

Catholics do not worship statues but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Oh, my goodness dear, do you really think you're the first one to ever bring this up? Do a search on "catholic" questions for more answers to this than you'll be able to read in one sitting.

Let me try to bring this back to your specific question instead of tangenting off into the other things people love to hate about the Catholic church.

"Is it hard to follow the 10 Commandments?". Yes. Isn't it for you? Oh, but you were speaking of the first and second commandments here, particularly the second. Yes, again. But not because of the little statues in my home, or the larger ones in my church, or the small crucifix I wear. These are not graven images. "Graven image" is an idol, a fetish.

Here's the difference: I also have a few non-religious-oriented figurines in my home. Cute things my kids have given me, one or two that belonged to my mother. Cats, birds, that sort of thing. Are they images? Yes. Graven images? No, unless I start worshipping either the figures themselves or the things they represent.

Want to talk about figures of Jesus? Have you visited a "Family Christian Bookstore" lately -- the national chain that has a predominantly evangelical Protestant emphasis? I did this week. Among others, there's a large figure of Jesus seated on a bench with a child in his lap and another leaning against him. Not Him, but him.

Do the folks who buy these worship the image? Or do they keep it in their homes as a reminder of Jesus and His love for them? Let's go one step further; what if the image is so endearing that they are moved to pray, and even get down on their knees at that moment to do so? Is it the statue they're praying to? Of course not.

Praying to images? Please. We pray to our Father in Heaven, through his Son. Period. The images we have in our churches and homes, even those of saints, point in one direction: to Him. We don't imagine that the people represented are go-betweens. We are fond of them, but do not worship them. They are our examples, not our idols. Do please get a grip on this; it's an important distinction.

Disobedience to the first two commandments involves worshipping the created instead of the Creator. I will leave it to you to discern the many other ways this can happen, and whether non-Catholics are or are not blissfully immune simply because of the absence of religious imagery in their places of worship or homes.

Answer 4

Okay, this question is hard to answer because no one will ever listen, but I'll answer anyway. The images are to help us try to visualize the invisible. I think it is comforting to many people to be able to do this. These objects also remind us of God and saints and what they have done for us. I like images because I'm a very visual person, although I don't need any object to pray. But to me, an ornately decorated church gives me a sense of awe, which is necessary in worship, as can be seen in almost every religion since the dawn of time. I know (and I hope other Catholics do too) that these images are not God, nor can they even really depict Him. He can't truly be depicted. Even images of Jesus aren't probably too accurate. I realize that these images are just to help us deal with frustrating things like the fact that we can't see God. Also saints are not idols to us. The definition of saint in our book can be generalized to someone who is in heaven - that's all. They aren't magical demigods - they're just good people who we think we should try to be more like. A common Catholic practice is praying for the intercession of saints, which I don't see as wrong but rather pointless. Why do you have to put in a middle man to have them pray to God for you, when you can do it yourself?

Answer 5

Uh-oh! your opening yourself to some possibly irate people. You are right though. They say they don't, but what do you call pray to a statue of Mary, Christ, or the Cross. These are physical idols, and no matter how they rationalize it they worship them. It's not just the Catholics either, any religion that uses a cross is guilty of these. A cross (among other things) is a physical idol no matter how you look at it. Kissing a rosary isn't going to do anything, in fact I don't remember the Bible even talking about rosaries, hail Mary's (idol worship), holy water, and more

It's interesting to note that my church doesn't have any, period. we don't have cross, or statues. Every time we pray it's from our own heart, and not pre-written. There may be some images that are associated with my church. But, it's usually outside people that use these images to represent us. I don't pray to, in front of, around, near, or even close to a cross, statue or some other idol (except for maybe my TV ;)

Answer 6

I am not Catholic anymore, but I understand the difference between an idol and a representation.

When you look at a photo of your spouse or your children, you are likely reminded how much you love them. You might even kiss it. But it is the people you love, not the image in the picture.

The pictures and statues of God, Jesus, and the saints mean the same thing to Catholics. The do not confuse the representation with what the believe too be the real thing.

Answer 7

If Catholics do not pray to statues then why do they need them? God is not closer through rock, cement or wood.
You don't need objects to focus the mind, as God says worship Him in spirit.
When someone kneels to a statue to pray then that statue becomes a focus and it gives it physiological "powers" to the person's mind.
Pagans uses idols when worshiping their deities so why would a true christian look like they are doing the same.

Catholics use the reasoning's of men to justify what they do rather than the teachings of the Bible to abstain from doing such things. But to be fair also the protestants are just as bad when they pray to effigies of Christ or the cross.

Answer 8

The seventh council settled all of this over a thousand years before you were born, when the iconoclasts made the same accusation.

"Icons.... are to be kept in churches and honored with the same relative veneration as is shown to other material symbols, such as the 'precious and life-giving Cross' and the Book of the Gospels."

We do not believe idols are deities, and we do not worship them. A statue of Jesus is a representation of the previously unknowable God, now made flesh and blood in the real, tangible, physical and human presence of Jesus. We do not mistake it for Jesus, we instead as St. John of Damascus said, "do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation."

Any veneration shown to the sacred heart of Jesus altar in a church is not worship of a graven image. It is respect shown to the figure portrayed in the image.

The iconoclasm heresy suggests a form of idol paranoia of the kind known in Wahabi Islam. All the beautiful art on the ceiling of the Cistine chapel, the glorious and poignant portrayal of the last supper by Da Vinci, all of the artistic traditions that permitted Mel Gibson's "The Passion" to be as vivid as it was... none of these tactile and tangible ways of meditating on Jesus would be available to us if the Iconoclasts had won.

And yet I note that their own iconoclasm has not prevented evangelicals from making cheesy Kirk Cameronesque B-movies that badly and irreverently portray Jesus in a cheesy modern American accented way. Or horrid and irreverent pictures of grinning, blank staring, freshly shampooed "hair model" Jesuses on their potluck posters.

So in fact, the modern iconoclasts - really - themselves have no problem with "idols." Their real aim is to throw out the good art of two millenia.... and replace it with cheese!

Answer 9

I will answer this with my answer from another question that was similar:

Yes, very much so. This is proven especially when people begin to worship them, Some people worship an idol that represents who/what they are worshipping. They are making two mistakes here:

1.) They are worshipping a human
2.) They are worshipping an object (the statue itself)

How could one (assuming he is monotheistic) worship anything but God anyway? How could Christians consider themselves monotheistic when some of them worship Mary, her statue, Jesus, etc.?

Answer 10

For those who are serious about finding out answers about Catholicism such as is asked above, please do go to the Yahoo Message Board section, look for the Catholicism section, and ask all the questions you want (click on the url below).

There are quite a few Catholics who are patient and know their stuff about Catholicism to be able to give you the answers to the questions you have.

Please don't be abusive, though.

Answer 11

No, it's not that hard. They're pretty simple. I mean, for example, "I am the LORD your God, you shall have no other gods before me." <
another example:"You shall not commit adultery"<
So no, they're easy to follow.

And for your info, CATHOLICS DO NOT WORSHIP THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!
we FOLLOW them. We worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

-.-