I was a born Christian, namely Roman catholic by sect. However, with time I find myself not-so-attached to this sect and the traditions/practices of Christianity, so I decided to follow some ministries and remain as a Christian. I am a very devoted christian, and I read bible and use it on a daily basis. Here, I would like to welcome my fellow Christian friends to clarify me as to how it ended up normal to worship idols, pictures and saints in Roman Catholicism when it is strongly restricted by the 10 commandments and several chapters of the holy bible. I know, whether knowingly or unknowingly some people do touch the status, keep flowers, and dress the status as part of their religious duty. Does that accepted? Any ideas?
Hi SGBV.. Im also a born christian but not a catholic.. I dont believe in these kinda groups.. but I only believe bible and will follow it blindly.. As u say we are given 10 commandments by the father and the 1st most was saying not to do idol worship..whatever type of idol it may b..I think we should not worship it...it may b a jesus statue or mother mary's statue...we shouldn't worship.. We can pray for bible.. we have to imagine god in our mind and then can worship with whole heart.
I am sharing the same opinion as yours. But, some of my RC friends say they do not worship the statue but keep them as a matter of remembrance. For example, we keep photos of our family members. We treat the photos as special as the persons. But it does not mean we give any priorities to the photos of the person. Photos are used just to link to the person. Since it is helpful to imagine God, and relate to God through pictures, these RCs are using them. But they don't intend to worship the statues or pictures or idols like the way it is worshiped in other religions. Such as believing the God in the statue, or treat the statute as God. But it is very tricky as not everyone knows this tiny line between respecting an idol and worshiping it. Specially when it comes to illiterate people, I've seen RCs normally give so much weight to the statues than the actual God (father). More so, there are so much to debate about the saint worshiping, as they technically say they would ask the saints to pray for them. Pray and intervene with the God for them. But how many of RCs, specially those are illiterate know the difference between praying and asking for interventions. I personally know of someone who prays a lot to Mother Mary than the God. I mean illiterate to those who are yet to learn the religion and bible. I may fall very well to this illiterate category, so please enlighten me if I am not right.
responding to a very old post, am I ? Hello SGBV, how have you been doing? I hope these links help : Do Catholics Worship Statues? | Catholic Answers Saint Worship? | Catholic Answers
