So you think that calling THE SAME KIND OF ACTION and ATTITUDES expressed to God by another name (veneration) when expressed toward Mary changes it to something other than what those actions are called when directed to God (worship)??????
I'm not saying that it changes it to something else. Venerating or worshipping Mary is wrong. I'm just advocating using the correct terminology. But if you are debating or dialoguing with a Roman Catholic and accuse them of "worshipping Mary" they will give you the stock standard response "we don't
worship Mary, we just venerate her". This will take you off on a tangent and proves in their eyes that you don't understand
latria and
hyperdulia and by extension, that you are ignorant of true Catholic doctrine. I'm an ex-Roman Catholic so I'm speaking from experience here. If you are in a dialogue and trying to get them saved and make them understand that Roman Catholicism is wrong, then it's best to say something like "The Bible nowhere tells us to venerate Mary".
So if I call something "righteous" that the Bible defines as "sin" then it is no more sin? When you bow down and pray and give praise to God it is called "worship" but when you do the very same thing to Mary it is "veneration"?????? So all we have to do to escape idolatry is simply call our attitude and actions "veneration" and we no longer guilty of being idolaters????? Pleeeeease!!
It is sin, and you and I both know that. I'm just saying that for Roman Catholics you should use their terminology. Recall what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:
"And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:20-22 KJV)
