Reflections: Praying to Mary is Idolatry. I’m just saying.
Well, more accurately worshiping Mary would be idolatry. What Catholics do is technically called intercessory prayer. Although, I do think intercessory prayer is unbiblical and the verses used to support it are interpreted loosely and creatively. It’s a slippery slope, though. Veneration of Saints and intercessory prayer could easily lead a weak-minded or naive Christian into an idolatrous state of mind. I’m of the mindset that even if intercessory prayer was actually biblically based, it’s still unnecessary. Jesus is our Intercessor, our High Priest. He is how we connect to God. Why pray to anyone but God? Ever?
When you ask your friend to pray for you, do you run the risk of idolatry? Also, it may be ‘unnecessary’ to ask Mary and the Saints to pray for you, just as it is unnecessary to ask your best friend to pray for you, but why wouldn’t you? I mean, the more people praying for you, the better, right? If not, then why do we ask people here on Earth to pray for us? Also, Mary isn’t God, but God did ask her to conceive, carry, birth, and raise his child to later see him die a brutal death on the cross for the salvation of man, and she is Jesus’s mom, and I’m sure the Holy Spirit has respect for her too. Her voice might be the kind of boost you would want your prayer to have.
Where we clearly differ is on our view of what happens after death. I more or less prescribe to the soul-sleep notion (which, I honestly don’t feel like getting into a huge debate about). So in my mind, a dead person cannot do anything, let alone pray for somebody.
Her voice might be the kind of boost you would want your prayer to have.
That seems to imply that God displays favoritism; that Mary’s prayer (which I think is a nonsensical idea anyway) carries more weight than, say, my friend Ben. My prayers are directed toward God, just as my friend’s prayers for me might be directed toward God. I don’t desire to get into a debate on my position of soul-sleep or your position of the validity/importance of intercessory prayer. My main goal was to expose a subtlety in that original post (really, if anything, defending Catholics although respectfully disagreeing with them).
