It was a beautiful wedding in a very Washington, DC, suburb. Everything was obviously and meticulously planned. The color of the flowers matched the bridesmaid’s shoes, which matched the color of the program. The processional, the welcome, the music, the introduction, the readings, the vows, the ring exchange, the kiss, the closing remarks, the prayer, the recessional—all went off with precision, as if computer-driven.
Near the end of the wedding, the bride, flowing in white, carried a bouquet in her arms. A woman in the church’s balcony bathed attendees below in an a cappella rendition of “Ave Maria” as the bride approached a life-size statue of Mary. Setting the bouquet at the base of the statue, she got on her knees and prayed before a woman carved out of white stone.
Having never attended a Roman Catholic wedding, and not familiar with much about the faith at all, a guest pinched himself. Was he seeing what he thought he was seeing? The bride wasn’t some pagan peasant living in the hills of Mesopotamia at the time of Abraham. She was a college-educated business professional in the twenty-first century. But here, in a modern suburb of Washington, DC, she offered a bouquet to a statue, bowed, and prayed before it?
He was stunned. Praying to a statue?
they’re everywhere
Did this man live under a rock? Roman Catholicism, with about 1.4 billion adherents worldwide, is the largest Christian denomination in the world, with more believers than all the hundreds of Protestant and Orthodox faiths combined. There are thousands and thousands of Catholic churches, cathedrals, and basilicas on every continent, and one can only guess as to how many statues decorate them (Saint Peter’s Basilica alone, in Rome, has statues of Saint Peter of Alcántara, Saint John of God, Saint William, Saint Dominic, Saint Paul of the Cross, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Teresa of Jesus, Saint John Eudes, and dozens more). Outside of these formal worship settings, millions of personal statues of Saint This and Saint That reside in private gardens and front lawns. Not to mention the millions more that adorn car dashboards.
For example, $476.95 will get you a 36-inch Saint Joseph-with-child statue from the Catholic Company, which says: “This is a statue that will inspire prayer and recollection in any sacred space and encourage devotion to St. Joseph.”1 Or $59.00 will make you the proud owner of a six-pack Saint Christopher adhesive car statuette from CatholicShop.com. A six-pack!2
Statues are one thing. But to pray to them? Well, what did the man think that the faithful did with those statues? They were doing what people had been doing to statues since pre-antiquity, and that is bow before them, worship (venerate or adore) them, pray to them (or to what they represent), and present offerings to them.
It’s one thing, though, for Buddhists, or Hindus (you can buy “YODOOLTLY Gold Lord Ganesha Statues- Hindu Elephant God Statue Resin Sculpture Indian Ganesh Buddha Figurine Handmade Gift Decoration Ornaments for Home, Garden, Car” for just $9.993), or Jains, or of course many pagan faiths, especially in antiquity, to pray before, or to worship, or to venerate, or to adore, or to give offerings to statues of various kinds.
But for professed Christians to do the same?
Many believe that what Roman Catholics do with their statues is flat-out idol worship, a practice that the Roman Church picked up from the pagans in antiquity and never let go. In fact, the church even folded the second commandment into the first one, cleverly masking the one commandment that explicitly forbids idolatry. Such a move could only bolster their case for statues. However, the Roman Catholic Church fervently denies that what they do is idolatry—a practice that they openly and unabashedly condemn.
What is the truth?
idolatry in biblical antiquity
One doesn’t have to read very far in the Bible to realize just how despicable idolatry, the worship of idols, is to the Lord. The prohibition of idols was central to ancient Israel’s covenant with Yahweh (Exodus 19:5). From the Exodus to the Babylonian captivity, about 900 years (it would be like today going back to the twelfth century AD), Yahweh’s prophets, speaking for Him, railed against idolatry. Though common among the pagans, this practice was what the Lord, at Mount Sinai itself, expressly forbade as part of the covenant relationship between Him and Israel. In fact, in the second of the Ten Commandments, idolatry is forbidden: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them” (Exodus 20:4, 5, NKJV).
Later on, Psalm 115 explains, at least in part, why it was forbidden, contrasting the omnipotent Yahweh, who exists in heaven, with the idols here on earth:
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them (Psalm 115:4–8, ESV4).
The prophet Isaiah, quoting the Lord, writes, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God’ ” (Isaiah 44:6, NKJV). Isaiah then talks about a man who cuts down a tree and uses some of the wood to warm himself, some to bake bread, and some to cook his food. “And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’ ” (Isaiah 44:17, NKJV).
No wonder the Hebrews, worshipers of the true God, the Creator, were forbidden to worship anything other than the one true God, the Creator, because anything else would be part of the creation itself and not the Creator Himself. Unfortunately, from the Exodus to the Babylonian captivity, the Hebrew nation got swept away by the very pagan practices that they were to help the pagans shed in favor of worshiping the Creator.
Over and over in the Old Testament, in one way or another, are texts like this: “And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them” (2 Kings 17:15, NKJV).
the response
By the time of Jesus and the New Testament, it seems that the problem of ancient Israel—the worship of idols—was not one that prevailed in first-century Judaism (the Babylonian captivity cured them of that). The practice, however, remained among the pagans, whom the early church sought to reach with the gospel, which is why the apostle John would end one letter with these words “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21, NKJV). But they didn’t. Over the centuries, the Christian church—in an uncanny mirroring of Old Testament Israel’s failures—incorporated numerous pagan practices into the faith itself, including idolatry. Over the centuries, the practice evolved and remains in Roman Catholicism, as revealed by the many statues and images that permeate its worship.
Rome, of course, strenuously rejects the charge, arguing that what they do is not idolatry at all. According to Catholic Answers, “Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them.”5 Besides, who doesn’t have photographs of loved ones as reminders of them? And, some have argued, what about other statues or monuments, such as the Lincoln Memorial?
They also seek to make a crucial distinction between “venerating,” as opposed t “worshiping,” statues and images. Veneration, they claim, is simply to regard something with great respect and honor and devotion, as opposed to worship, which the Merriam- Webster dictionary defines as “to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion.”6 Catholics claim to do the former but not the latter. Meanwhile, they assert that they are not venerating the statues themselves as statues but as symbols or representations of whatever saint or personage they are venerating.
As far as the charge that they removed from their catechisms the second commandment in order to justify this practice, they claim that Jews and Christians have numbered and divided the Ten Commandments differently over the centuries, which is simply what they have done as well. And besides, the first commandment itself, “You shall have no other gods before me,” (Exodus 20:3) includes the prohibition against idolatry.
if it quacks like a duck
With all due respect, and in no way disparaging any individual’s faith, love for God, or sincerity, these answers leave much to be desired, to say the least. The contention that the keeping of a photo of one’s mother is similar to the devout praying before the statue of “saint” can hardly be taken seriously. And, however much most Americans might honor, even revere, Abraham Lincoln and perhaps pay their respects by visiting the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC—when was the last time anyone kneeled before the Lincoln statue and asked for his intercession on their behalf, the way that the devout do to their statues of Mary or the “saints”? Or who buries a statue of Lincoln in their backyard in hopes of getting help in selling their property, or attaches a statue of Lincoln to the dashboard of their car, hoping for safe travels?
And the distinction betwee “veneration” and “worship” is mere wordplay. At what point does bowing before a statue, and praying to it (or “through” it), asking for favors or grace, transition from veneration to worship? Does the one venerating (worshiping) even know?
Someone closing their eyes and kneeling before a statue and asking for mercy, grace, intercession, or protection sure looks like worship. After all, people who pray to God close their eyes, kneel, and ask for mercy, grace, intercession, and protection. Also, scholars have said that in many, if not most cases, idolaters in antiquity didn’t necessarily see their statues and idols as the gods themselves but as symbols or representatives of the gods whom they were worshiping.
And, finally, though a small number of faiths have different numbering and divisions for the Ten Commandments, the issue isn’t numbering or dividing; it’s the concealment of one of the divine commandments—written by “the finger of God” Himself (Exodus 31:18), and not by a mere human organization. Apparently, people are supposed to believe that it’s a mere coincidence that Rome blatantly obfuscates and disregards the second commandment—the prohibition against graven images.
In short, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. And so the man at the DC marriage ceremony was seeing what he thought he was seeing: idolatry being practiced, not in ancient Mesopotamia, but, yes, even in twenty-first-century America.
Clifford Goldstein writes from Tennessee and is a frequent contributor to Signs of the Times®.
