"Train Up A Child In the Way...."
"A Training Moment""The worship of images in the Catholic Church is an acquired practice and one which doesn't come naturally to people. Therefore the Catholic family will expose their offspring to statues, icons etc at an early age to ingrain the practice. This picture illustrates the natural repugnance that a human has to the veneration of objects." (note the tentative way in which she places her hand on the idol's head) (Taken from a segment of Stealing The Mind Conference, a 'pro-gospel' ministry)
A family needs to beware of what this kind of behavior can lead to. The grown up shown in the photo below had extensive idol worship training as a child. Look how he turned out! Like Scripture says, "Train up a child in the way in which he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it..."
H/t to Recon for the photoposted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 7:58 AM
17 Comments:
Excellent TJ!!! Brilliant! As I said earlier somewhere...
"Icons, and prayer cards, a statues, Oh My!"
and I love my Papa, JPII the GREAT! Pray for us Papa...pray more back Home to Rome like you did us!
PAX,
susie
Your blog continues to impress. Keep up the good (and witty) work!
Adding you to my ALLIES list on my site as we speak...
Peace!
I also worship images of my dead relatives, like my grandmother and Great Grandfather and even my great great grandmother. They hang on my wall, and frequently when I pass them, I will smile, even though I never knew some of them.
I think of what wonderful people they were, and how I should make them proud with my life choices, and how I have to take seriously the responsibility of being their descendant.
Oh, that's not worship??
Never mind.
;)
tj:
What better way to teach than with the use of visual imagery. Art, can anyone imagine what the world would be without art? It's a gift for our senses.
One of my Mormon co-workers, who loves to throw "digs" at the Catholic Church whenever she has the opportunity, was making fun of Juan Diego high school, "Why do they have to put a statue of the Pieta on the football field?" (Juan Diego kicked her team's butt in football.)
You could almost see the saliva dripping from her mouth she was salivating so as she delighted in her slur.
My guess is they do not really have a problem with statues, and artwork, they just enjoy harrassing people who are different from them.
Wow. Unbelievable.
Jeff is right. I never know what clever or funny blog entry I will find,and also I find some very, very impressive apologetics here. Also you address many concerns we Catholics have regarding mistruths and also those subtle attacks we have to put up with frequently. I wish there were nice informative Catholic tracts to counter the ugly Jack Chick ones. Can you imagine if the Catholic Church started handing out hate tracts against other churches? I would be appalled and disgusted. Can you believe people say we worship statues and images? How nutty is that? For crying out loud.
Julie:
Julie said:
"Can you imagine if the Catholic Church started handing out hate tracts against other churches?"
Good point Julie, there aren't a whole lot of anti-protestant blogs, sites and tracts on the internet or elsewhere. The Catholic Church has the most amazing and charitable view towards non-catholic christians and pagans as well.
Doesn't mean we don't get a wee bit testy now and then on our blogs, Lord forgive us!
tara: good point, some times it seems like its harrassment just for the "h@#$" of it. Of all statues to criticize, La Pieta wouldn't have been my first choice.
Hey Ma:
At Christmas all those who think we are worshiping statues sure have not problems putting out manger scenes with statues of the Holy Family.
Like I once said on a December blog post, "the difference between protestants and Catholics is that protestants take in their idols after the holidays." Catholics leave'm up all year!
Thanks julie, jeff, HO, susie, ma and tara for the nice comments. God bless your weekend.
Tiber,
Ha!
I once saw a little statue of Our Lady of Fatima, with the children of Fatima on their knees in prayer at her feet.
The caption: "Even our statues worship statues!"
:)
I have seen that too Ma !! too funny
"This picture illustrates the natural repugnance that a human has to the veneration of objects."
It's idiotic. What fool would read the Bible and think that people are naturally repulsed by the idea of venerating objects? If anything, we are naturally inclined to them. People have always felt a kinship with objects. Things that loved ones long gone had once owned, jewelry, photographs, books, all bring back memories and serve to help people feel closer to their loved ones. Where it becomes problematic is when we begin to think of the objects as in essence no different than the person to which they point. That is the slippery slope.
"Where it becomes problematic is when we begin to think of the objects as in essence no different than the person to which they point. That is the slippery slope."
Amen PA. That would be idolatry, and Catholicism has always, from the beginning, condemned that! including the worship of saints, Mary, etc etc etc.
I've never come across anyone who muddled a photo or other visual representation as a person-and I worked in psychiatry for 16yrs!
OTOH I see a lot of treating people as though they were objects for the use of the great god Me.
And the person of pro-gospel ministry would be more pro-gospel if he told the truth and remembered that baring false witness is a sin.
We never worship statues or pictures anyway..they act as reminders to us of a particular Saint or devotion..
Just as I suspected: Two more Catholics (WSNS and MJPMJ ) who deny that they worship statues!
I knew this post would flush out those who are trying to keep idol worship alive and well by insisting they don't practice statue worship!
Seriously, thanks for the comments.
I have been Catholic for over three years now and haven't seen any idol worship, but continue to meet christians who insist this to be so.
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