Nora Lozano
Posted on 08/01/2009 1:51:11 PM PDT by NYer
EDE, Netherlands (ABP) -- A Latina theologian says overreaction to Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary has caused Baptists to miss important biblical teaching associated with the mother of Jesus.
Nora Lozano
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Lozano, a participant in theological conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Vatican, made the remarks in a presentation to the BWA Commission on Doctrine and Interchurch Cooperation at a meeting of global Baptists in the Netherlands.
She noted the Mexican story of the Virgin of Guadalupe -- a purported apparition of Mary to an indigenous peasant in Mexico City in the 16th century -- and how closely it ties the identity of the nation's Catholicism with Mary, who serves as a sort of "demi-goddess."
There are analogous Virgin Mary cults of devotion in other Latin American countries.
Lozano said Mexican Baptists and other Protestants, meanwhile, actively ignore Mary, to the extent of giving the biblical character short shrift.
"It seems that there is a consensus among these Baptists to disregard, neglect or reject the Virgin Mary," Lozano said, speaking of an informal survey she had done of some of her global Baptist colleagues.
And, in countries where Catholics are a majority, she added, "Baptists tend to move back and forth between actively rejecting and simply ignoring Mary."
In those countries, Lozano noted, "This becomes one of the major barriers to relations between Catholics and Baptists."
Because Mary is so perfect in popular Catholic theology in Latin America -- perpetually a virgin, although a mother; blameless, even sinless -- Lozano said she becomes an impossible standard of womanhood. Nonetheless, many men look for this standard in the mother of their children.
On the other hand, Lozano noted, Mary's opposite -- the wanton harlot -- is what many men tend to look for in sex partners. Being forced to choose between the two stereotypes can be deadly for women.
"When these [images of Mary and her opposite] are misused, they become oppressive and a source of suffering for women," she said. "Neither one of these models is a good one for women, because they do not present women as complete human beings."
Lozano said that embracing the "life-giving" aspects of Marian veneration can be both healthy for all women and a bridge between Latin American Protestants and Catholics, she contended.
Lozano pointed to two passages dealing with Mary in the Christmas story as recorded in Luke's Gospel: The angel's announcement to Mary that she would bear Christ (Luke 1:26-38), and Mary's song of praise to God, often called the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).
Mary is not a passive presence in those stories, Lozano pointed out, but an active and willing participant in God's work who was "well aware of social injustices," she said.
"She is subject with a strong will and a social consciousness," Lozano noted.
Lozano delivered her remarks on the second day of the BWA's Annual Gathering in Ede, Netherlands. Hundreds of Baptists from around the world came to conduct BWA General Council business as well as observe the 400th anniversary of the Baptist movement, which began in the summer of 1609 in nearby Amsterdam.
Glad you see the truth now.
And you made it personal.
Yet you seem to be involved in seemingly every skirmish. Perhaps you're anti-human. How's that basement workin' out for ya Jigsaw? lol.
Nice try, but that is not an official site of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a site run by well intentioned, but often wrong Catholics. Why nibble around the edges? Just go to www.vatican.va if you are interested in learning the truth or simply avoiding further embarrassing posts.
Is this the part where I’m supposed to retaliate with personal attacks on you?
I’m laughing at your evaporating pretense of innocence.
Your anti-Catholic slip is showing.
Yes. And if the B'nai B'rith wrote something about the Holocaust and another group quoted Der Sturmer, I suppose you have to make the choice of whom to believe...
I have my own dogma about those who claim to be innocently posting patently-absurd slurs against the Catholic Church: their behavior is malicious.
I do not believe an honest research would fail to turn up this old-school fraud/smear.
I mentioned the Holocaust, you made the Holocaust personal.
Try to keep up.
So, any website run by “well intentioned but wrong Catholics” aren’t worth the while reading. So, no Catholic reads those sites and gets their wrong information from them? I have to go to the ‘real’ site, the Vatican for correct revisionist history on the Church.
By bringing it up in the first place you made it personal!
Mere mention of a topic does not make it personal. Sorry.
Use of it in a metaphor to illustrate that not all opposing sources are morally equivalent, that’s not personal.
Claiming I have Holocaust skeletons in my closet, that is personal.
There, fixed it for you.
God the Holy Spirit never acts through the members which are not cleansed. If a believer seeks action from God theo Holy Spirit, all that believer must do is to return facing God through faith in Christ, confess their sins, known and unknown to Him, and He is sure and just to forgive those sins. A fellowship is returned between God and the believer at that instant. No manmade construct, institution, or religion takes part in that relationship. It is purely between God and the believer through faith in Christ.
God bless those Catholic believers who dwell through faith alone in Christ alone in Him in all things.
So clever!
I guess no one was supposed to notice that.
Revisionist history, by the way, is claiming the Church forbade access to Scripture to the masses at a Church Council that never took place in a city which was controlled by Muslims at the time.
I think you seem to know exactly where to go to get "revisionist history on the Church."
Whoops, it was a simile, not a metaphor....technically speaking.
If Catholic believers are unable to encourage a fellow believer who seeks fellowship with God through faith in Christ alone by insisting they place Mary prior to Christ, just imagine how they mislead other members of the Roman Catholic faith into idolatries and false worship.
It isn’t the case that believers don’t exist in the Roman Catholic Church, it is their insistence upon placing anything other than Christ first before their fellow man, when their fellow men seek fellowship with God, which casts a strong doubt upon anything within the Roman Catholic Church as having any Divine value other than poneros.
Uh...insisting?
Claiming I am anti-Catholic is personal. There, fixed that.
***God the Holy Spirit never acts through the members which are not cleansed.***
Scripture, please. Where does it say this in the Bible?
Jesus chose sinful men to lead His Church. Peter (violence, denying Christ), Judas (betrayal of Christ), Thomas (denying testimony of Christ), for example. Peter, after Pentecost, after receiving the Holy Spirit, still persisted in Judaizing ways.
***A fellowship is returned between God and the believer at that instant. No manmade construct, institution, or religion takes part in that relationship.***
Relationship? Fellowship? This is the Supreme and Almighty Glorious God. He is who we worship. He’s not some buddy that you have a beer with at the White House.
I know you by your fruits.
***If Catholic believers are unable to encourage a fellow believer who seeks fellowship with God through faith in Christ alone by insisting they place Mary prior to Christ, just imagine how they mislead other members of the Roman Catholic faith into idolatries and false worship.***
That’s a big ‘if’. I don’t have any examples at hand.
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