Catholics and whoever wants to answer this one....?

Question

Can someone explain to me why catholic churches have statues of Mary outside their churches, schools ect.?? when there is this in the bible...

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Or am I taking this out of context? Please explain.

yourmomisaviolationn…- I did not say statute I said statue.

A statue is a sculpture depicting a specific entity, usually a person, event, animal or object. Its primary concern is representational.

A small statue is called statuette. A statue of just a head and shoulders is a bust.

Dont correct something that is correct.

Thank you to all who has answered so far. I was very interested to see everyones opinions on this. It is a learning experience for me :)

Stephen L-no I find the music I listen to very beautiful in its own special way.

Answer 1

Mary is the mother of the Church. Jesus gave us her as our mother when He gave her to John's care (John 19:26-27).

Mary reminds us to always "Do whatever He tells you to do." (John 2:5).

A statue of Mary is not a "god" -- we don't believe the statue has any power or value other than artistic value. Therefore, the statues are not idols or graven images. They're art. Catholics like art because it's a form of creativity. Making art is acting "in the image of God" which is what we were created to be.

We don't bow to the statue, we bow to God. The statue reminds us to bow to God, so it's there when we're bowing to God, but we aren't bowing to the statue or worshiping it. It's just art.

That being said, there are a handful of Catholics who go way overboard on Mary. I think it's safe to say that there really are some Catholics who actually worship Mary. But we're not supposed to worship Mary. We are taught it would be a sin to worship anyone other than God, same as you are. So these folks who do worship Mary are mistaken, befuddled, in error. They need merciful correction.

You see, there are sinners in the Catholic Church. We're not all perfect. We all have something wrong that we can correct/improve. So if you really want to judge Catholicism, you can't go by what people do, because nobody's perfect. You have to judge the Catechism, and in the Catechism, we're taught not to worship anyone other than God.

Answer 2

Can't explain it, but I agree with you. I've always thought the icons of Mary, the saints, Jesus...etc., were pretty much the same as graven images. Catholics I know kneel before the statues and pray before them, but say they are not praying TO them. What's the difference? One Catholic friend I had was a real estate agent; she used to take little statues of a specific saint (can't remember which one - might have been Joseph) and bury them a certain way on the property to ensure the place would sell quickly. I always thought that was pretty odd, almost like a spell or something.

This question is going to have some VERY interesting answers!!

Answer 3

Catholic do not worship statues of saints or of our Blessed Mother. We do pray to Our Lady and the saints to intercede for us to God.. Statues, pictures etc. are visual aids that help us remember the person represented and ask for his or her intercession. If you truly want to condemn idol worship, condemn the pagans who truly believe that a rock or statue or a tree is a god.

Catholics believe that the saints and Our Blessed Mother are alive and sinless in heaven before the throne of God and thus their prayers to God are more powerful, than us sinful people.

This does not mean we do not go to God directly. We have a lot of prayers that invoke God directly. We also have a lot of prayers to Mother Mary and the saints to pray for us. It is like asking a relative or friend for their prayers on our behalf..

"You shall have no other gods before me"
Catholics do not consider Mother Mary or the saints as gods, neither do they worship their images.

If you have further questions about Catholic beliefs and practices do go to the foll link. Interesting articles.
http://www.olrl.org/apologetics/statueworship.shtml

Answer 4

Catholics will argue that they are not worshipping the statues or the saints, even if they were originally to appease new (formerly pagan) converts who liked pictures of multiple gods.

Personally, I'm a big fan of statues, though it's a shame all but the most religious statues were destroyed in ancient Rome (with a brilliant one of Marcus Aurelius only surviving because the Christians thought it was of Constantine).

Answer 5

When I'm driving out in the countryside, sometimes I'll pass statues of Mary that have been placed in bathtubs. Has anyone else seen this? Some country people use old bathtubs to frame and surround their Mary statues as grottos. That makes me laugh when I see it.

Oh, as for catholics, I'm not sure why they put the statues outside their churches.

Answer 6

That passage in the Bible is meant to not make images to worship. You can make images but not worship them. It's like just when you paint a picture of a dog you made a graven image but you're not going to worship it. Mary is simply being represented outside the churches but in no way to be worshipped as a statue.

Answer 7

rapid solutions under. For extra intensity, I propose asking each question one after the different. a million:Why do Catholics have self assurance that is had to celebrate Christmas claiming that that is Jesus' birthday while it is not reported in the bible? Christmas celebrates God coming to be born between us as a individual. it somewhat is in the Bible--see John a million. 2:Why do alot of Catholic clergymen and better united statespractice celibacy that's to stay single and not in any respect marry? with the aid of fact Jesus recommended it (see Matt 19:12). it somewhat is a rule of self-discipline that ought to alter. 3:What are the reasonings of having statues and pictures in the church? To remind us of the historic activities and human beings who replaced the international, particularly Jesus dying on the circulate. 4:Why are Catholics forbidden to consume meat aside from fish on Friday? it somewhat is a shared sacrifice, a small one, that we make to enhance more desirable and extra disciplined for the duration of the season of Lent. maximum human beings address different disciplines for the duration of Lent. 5:Catholics, do you or do no longer declare to worship the pope? we don't. 6:Why do maximum non-Catholics declare which you moved the Sabbath to Sunday? This became right into a decision of the early church to celebrate on the day of the Resurrection. As Jesus taught, the Sabbath is made for guy, no longer vice versa. 7:what's the declare which you worship Mary, you somewhat declare to venerate Mary. We venerate her as our appropriate saint. we don't worship Mary. 8:what's the assumption of toddler baptism? it somewhat is in baptism that we are born returned by using water and the Spirit and alter into little ones of God. we desire our little ones to be born returned in infancy. 9:What are the conclusions that St Peter became into the 1st Pope? Jesus appointed Peter with the aid of fact the 1st chief of the Church (see Matt sixteen:18), a place we now call pope. Cheers, Bruce

Answer 8

If you will read about the ark of the covenant and the temple, you will find that God instructed his people to decorate both of these objects with statues and Base-reliefs of heavenly creatures such as seraphum. This is clear evidence that statues in houses of worship are not necessarily idols.

Mary was in the words of the Angel "Full of Grace". A great woman who said yes to God. She is held in very high esteem by Catholics and other Christians. Catholics honor her with statues in front of our churches so that we can be reminded of how we should live, that is we should always be willing to say yes to God no matter what.

Answer 9

I would like to encourage you to experience the comprehensive answer to your question at [www.GodsNews.com] regarding the Catholic Church and Mary. The following messages at the bottom of this website should be viewed: Airdates 07-3,10,17-07: IPC 2007 - Dr. Joe VanKoevering parts 1,2 & 3. Here's an official website regarding the next Marian dogma being petitioned to the current Pope at [www.VoxPopuli.org] by many Catholics and others. Review the evidence and decide for yourselves whether Mary is being honored or worshipped (or deified even). Enjoy! [(\o/)(XP)]

Answer 10

People get so upset about Mary, but what about St. Peter. The church hardley ever gets attacked about statues of Peter outside the Church.
Let me break this down for you.
Mary has statues because she deserves them. She gave the world God incarnate. God came in asked her and she agreed. So the church teaches she deserves hyperdulia, which is praise above all others except God. Mary is obviously not God, but everything that she is and does brings people to him.
We know, despite what our protestant brothers and sisters say, that it was by Mary's yes that Jesus was able to come to earth as a human. This is because if God just used Mary as a tool in which he just gave her his son to bring into the world, and she was nothing more than that. Then God would no longer be a loving God, he would be a God who uses his children, without their consent. God doesn't do this... he is a loving God.