I can't believe how many people who call themselves Baptists find no problem with people of today "praying" to Mary in ANY fashion and for ANY reason.
You cannot talk to people who are IN HEAVEN and not call it prayer. It is NOT the same as asking someone here on earth to pray for/with you. I do not go into my closet alone and close my eyes and bow my head, and then address my pastor and ask him to pray for me in this situation. He cannot hear me. He is a godly man, who if I CALLED him on the phone, would be more than happy to pray for me. But I would have to be speaking with him in order for him to hear me. This seems like basic physics to me.
When a person is in Heaven, they cannot hear you.........
If you assume/believe that they CAN hear you, you are imparting to them an attribute of deity....omniscience. There are thousands, nay millions, of people praying/talking to Mary all over the world every day of every year. Who does she hear? How can she hear everyone all at once? And as BAPTISTS do not tell me that God "allows" her to hear all these people. God does not give HIS attributes to mere mortals. God does not share what is HIS alone. Omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence.
And to say that for Catholics praying to Mary is optional is hogwash. Part of their penance ALWAYS includes "Hail Marys". Who do you think THAT'S addressed to? True, if they don't want to be "forgiven" than they can ignore their "Hail Mary" prayers. But forgiveness for sins is partially through penitent prayers and the rosary. The rosary is all about "Hail Mary"s and "Our Fathers". That takes the whole "optional" idea and just chucks it right out the window.
This idea that Catholics just have a little bit of a different idea on how to decorate their churches, but otherwise they are Biblically sound churches, is a lie from the pit, my BAPTIST friends. We need to not sit back and just accept the differences and think it will be alright. We must realize the heresies here, and see what they are doing to these dear people! If we minimize the dangers in catholicism we are guilty of ignoring falsehoods and allowing lies of the devil to reign.